Nutrition and Cycling: The Science of High Carb Diets, Blood Sugar, and Insulin Revealed with Dr. Javier Gonzalez - Episode 30

Imperfect Progress with Anne Guzman

Welcome! Today's episode is about all things carbohydrates, insulin and blood sugar, at rest or during cycling and other endurance exercise.

My guest Dr. Javier Gonzalez is deeply invested in research in the area of Nutrition and Metabolism and has over 159 papers published in the field. He's deepling interested in understanding human fuel use, specifically how we obtain fuel from our diet, how we burn fuel during exercise, and how we store fuel when we have more than we need.

As a Professor at Bath University Dr. Gonzalex also consults with sports teams and industry and he himself participates in cycling, putting his science into motion!

If you eat carbohydrates during an intense bike ride do you think you will 'spike;' your blood sugar? If so, press play and start listening.

I loved this conversation! Here's some of what you'll learn during this episode:

• · The basics of sugar, carbohydrates, and the roles hormones such as insulin, glucagon, and catecholamines in regulating blood sugar during exercise.
• · How carbohydrate intake during exercise impacts blood sugar and insulin, which may surprise you!
• · Insulin sensitivity and resistance, and how they play into our overall health and can change in response to different factors, including endurance exercise.
• · Differences in glycogen storage and use (carbs stored in muscle and liver) between untrained vs trained endurance athletes.
• · The different types of sugars (glucose, sucrose, fructose) and how the body is able to absorb these, and in what amounts.
• · Carbohydrate intake on the bike during and after training and why the TYPE of sugars you ingest can matter depending on your context.
• · Why competitive and elite cyclists perform best on a high carbohydrate diet.
• · The limitations of relying on body fat as fuel for competitive cyclists.
• How Dr. Gonzalez navigates imperfect progress and adversity in his own life (great answer!).

There's a lot more to this conversation but those are some of the key areas we touch on. You'll also learn about what types of carbohydrates help you recover the quickest and examples of carbohydrates to eat on the bike/run and why multiple types of carbs is important for training that lasts more than 90 minutes.

This is a good one! I’ve been waiting to find the right person for this topic for some time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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And with that, let’s jump inside the podcast!