Believe it or not, gummy bears are one of the best foods to have with your protein shake during or after your workout. It's possible to get strange looks when someone eats candy at the gym, but bodybuilders have an explanation.
Just because something is typically classified as "sweet," doesn't mean it's bad for us. It's no secret that eating healthy is important for athletes. Although Michael Phelps' 10.000-calorie-a-day diet may have been exaggerated, it's understood that swimmers and other endurance athletes require large amounts of nutrients to endure grueling workouts.
dextrose recovery
After a hard workout, our bodies begin to clamor for protein and carbohydrates to replenish our exhausted muscles. For protein, whey is the easy choice. It is fast digesting, which means it will hit your muscles without needing to break it down first.
But when it comes to carbohydrates, many people mistakenly opt for food options like fruit. And while it's an essential food, it's not the optimal choice immediately after a workout. That's because around 50% of the sugar found in fruit is fructose. Before it can be used, the fructose it must be broken down, which slows down the feeding process of those hungry muscles that are still shaking from leg training.
Instead, we'll opt for sugar in the form of dextrose (also known as glucose). Like whey, dextrose doesn't need to be broken down before you can use it, making it an even faster way to work out your muscles with some quick carbs. Gummy bears are ideal for this, since the main form of sugar used is dextrose.
Maximum 17 gummy bears
Research clearly shows that we can still eat our favorite treats on the road to building a great body. In fact, doing so usually leads to much higher success rates than trying to "eat completely clean."
The recommended dose is 17 gummy bears, which is equivalent to 30 grams of carbohydrates. This is enough to satiate your sweet tooth and feel like you've rewarded yourself for training hard, without making too much of a dent in your overall daily caloric goals.
Also, if future research comes back on itself and suggests that we should increase insulin via carbohydrate in the post-workout window, 30 grams of carbohydrate is sufficient to do so. In fact, it provides an insulin spike of up to 90 grams.
So we're winning ourselves a prize, curbing the sweet tooth and covering the bases to support muscle growth and fat loss. It's true that we could get 30 grams of carbs in the form of a carb powder, like maltodextrin, and that's fine. But you see possible that the protein shake ends up with a disgusting taste.