I just don’t see this to be true. I realize fear of sugar is the current exercise soapbox, but is there any evidence at all that endurance athletes have poorer dental health than the general population?
much easier to get down in worm form.
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Figure out what your calorie burn is for an hour at and consume 35-40% of that.
I’ve seen various anecdotal evidence. There was the article posted recently in the dental health topic:
Nils Van der Poel, the speed skater (recent world recs, Gold medals) mentioned how many cavities he got from fueling workouts with sugar. He had to really up his dental health game because what worked under normal life didn’t work when training 20-30 hours per week while fueling.
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Thanks for sharing. I was glad the Bicycling article mentioned eating disorders because that was my first guess. Hopefully someone does a deeper study.
From the Bicycling article, I’m wondering if anyone doesn’t rinse as suggested. I’ve always rinsed. It never occurred to me to do otherwise. They claim that you should leave the fluoride toothpaste on your teeth too allow the fluoride to remineralize the teeth. I guess one could hold their mouth open for a few minutes and let it dry like they do at the dentist’s office when you get a fluoride treatment. Or, maybe it would be beneficial for an athlete to do monthly treatments instead of every six months? Fluoride is toxic so there is a downside to leaving it in your mouth.
The sour cancels out the sugar, I think.
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I always rinsed until about a month ago when I read something about it here. The comment said it was better to brush BEFORE consuming the sugar than after, which surprised me, but I’ve been doing it that way since. I just brush before I ride, spit, and a few minutes later have completely forgotten that I didn’t rinse.
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That‘d be everyone else in my biological family (= my siblings and my parents, our kids are too young). Cavities are a concern, but I think being afraid of carbs because of dental issues is a bit overblown for average people.
What is the difference between calories from carbs, why should we be afraid of them (provided, we take in enough protein and fat, of course)? That fear seems misplaced, the needs of endurance athletes are different from the general population. Also, you seem to equate carbs with carbs. Simple mono- and disaccharides that you take in on the bike are a different kettle of fish of the more complex carbs in e. g. rice, oatmeal, pasta and other sources of carbohydrates. And as long as these carbs go with enough vegetables, fruits, etc., I think you are good to go.
AFAIK many pro riders‘ diet (heard it multiple times, e. g. by Phil Gaimon and by Alex Wild on a recent TR podcast) is that they take in the fat and protein they need and then add carbs to match the calorie target they have. So it seems the carbs are very much needed.
I can‘t do sour stuff while on the bike, my gut doesn‘t like that at all, but I go through a lot of Haribo gummis. It is excellent, because I can dose by feel in addition to the carbs I have in my bottles. Unlike gels, I can consume only a few and not have to worry about waste. 100 g of most gummi bears have about 78 g of carbs, i. e. you are indeed correct, you are mostly eating sugar. They are also cheaper than most gels.
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Same here. It’s the reason I switched to making my own formula. My wife was amazed to hear I think Gatorade, Skratch, Lemonade, etc., are sour. It blows my mind that people LIKE pickle juice.
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I’ve used gummi coke bottles on the bike, love sour but you’re right can be hard at times working out. Haven’t done the coke bottles in years, had some melt in transition at Puerto Rico 70.3 and figured a better strategy was safer.
The worms are and off the bike addiction.
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Oh, I love the sour ones, too. I just can‘t handle them on the bike. I also love coke bottles, they are great. Do they contain caffeine?
Yeah, same here. That‘s probably my #1 why I will never do Unbound Gravel. 
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Maybe the calculator will help a bit in estimating the carb amount. Trainingsverpflegung-Rechner - Coach Dave
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Given it states pace, I guess its for runners right?
It can also be changed to cycling “Radfahren”.
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Did not see that. I speak German, so I should have seen that
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alles gut. auch deutsch
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Your dentist probably use a fluoride varnish that needs to dry. In general drying your mouth is not really recommended and could lead to all sorts of problems.
What is really bad for teeth is repeated exposure, after an exposure our teeth need time to remineralize but with repeated exposure the damage becomes cumulative and reaches a point where remineralisation is not possible anymore. That’s why I would recommend to train without carbs up until the specialisation phase if you value your teeth more than trying to squeeze out every last bit of performance
Cool story, an anecdote and sample size of 1 is NOT scientific evidence for general truth that applies to everyone.
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Well we have a pretty well established mechanism how caries forms and unlike many other discussions in nutrition science it’s not controversial carbs are at the basis of caries, no carbs no caries. We also know pretty well that increasing frequency of carb consumption greatly increases the chances of caries
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