Researchers successfully test the
swapping traditional supplements for sugarcane juice

Athletes ingest
bottle to replenish energy


ANTONIO ROBERTO FAVA

A Sugarcane is the subject of unprecedented research in Brazil, developed in the laboratories of Labex (Exercise Biochemistry Laboratory), the Institute of Biology at Unicamp (IB), and the Department of Food and Nutrition, Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA). Coordinated by professor Denise Vaz de Macedo, from the IB Department of Biochemistry, the main purpose of scientific investigations with sugar cane is to prove its effectiveness not only in terms of physical performance, but also for the significant recovery of muscle mass in athletes, especially football players.

The next step is to produce garapa powder

Professor Denise, who has been researching the topic for approximately three years, is proposing to replace the unrestrained consumption of traditional products on the market – relatively high-cost and not always very well accepted by athletes – with garapa, "a natural food, therefore very healthier and much more effective", he observes. Athletes consume a lot of energy during training and games. "At this moment, we urgently need to have enough energy to supply the athletes' muscle mass and, therefore, make them perform at their maximum", explains Denise.

Normally, an athlete or any other physically active person has a reserve present in their muscles, known as glycogen. It is stored in the muscles after consuming carbohydrates. As a result, the athlete uses up this reserve during exercise and, when it runs out, has the need to replace it, through the consumption of products containing sugar or starch, which can be easily found on the market.

"When this is not done, it is observed that the athlete feels fatigued at the end of matches or competitions. This occurs because he is not using the correct energy source", explains Denise. It was with the intention of seeking effective alternative sources of glycogen replacement that she began investigating sugar cane, "undoubtedly one of the most important sources of sucrose". And there's more: sugar cane is a genuinely national product, it is abundant in Brazil and its cost is low. Denise says that she began researching garapa, as the juice extracted from sugar cane is known, three years ago, together with Mirtes Stancanelli, a nutritionist at Labex.

He began this work with players from the youth teams of Associação Atlética Ponte Preta, throughout the 2001 competitive season, and also with professional players, during the Brazilian Championship, which ran from June to December 2001.

Satisfactory results - "After training or games, athletes quenched their thirst by drinking a defined amount of garapa. It is good to remember that sugar cane juice has high concentrations of sucrose, in addition to glucose and fructose, which gives it a high level glycemic, providing a single food with enough quantity and quality of energy to be used immediately at the end of the exercises", emphasizes Denise. The fact is that in the 2001 Brazilian Championship, Ponte Preta ended up coming in 6th place. A very satisfactory result, which can be attributed, at least in part, to the garapa diet, as suggested by the researcher from the Institute of Biology.

During the entire period, 60 athletes from Ponte Preta, 30 professionals and 30 from the junior category, were fed sugarcane juice, always after the end of training or an official match. The same process occurred with the Associação Atlética Caldense, from Minas Gerais, which in 2002 became Minas Gerais champion. In both cases, the athletes showed significant physical performance, as well as the maintenance of muscle mass.

"It is important to highlight the need for athletes to take the garapa in the correct doses up to two hours after training or after the match, to obtain an efficient replacement", emphasizes the FEF researcher.

The results obtained so far have been quite positive. The idea, from now on, is to improve the use of garapa with the purpose of further improving the athlete's performance. "Even because, here in Brazil, you can find a garapeiro on any corner. Let's imagine that a certain athlete is used to this type of replacement and goes to a competition abroad. He certainly won't find this food", concludes Denise. What Unicamp researchers are planning now is to transform sugarcane juice into powder, which could be diluted in water. This work is being developed in partnership with professor Flávia Maria Netto, from the Department of Food and Nutrition at the Faculty of Food Engineering.

Broth preserves nutrients The nutritional value of sugarcane is directly linked to its high sugar content (40% to 50% sugar in dry matter), since its protein content is extremely low, "which gives it the characteristic of being a very unbalanced in relation to its nutrients", as Mirtes explains. Sugarcane is a plant composed, on average, of 65 to 75% water, but its main component is sucrose, which corresponds to 70% to 91% of soluble solid substances. The juice preserves all the nutrients from sugar cane, including minerals (3 to 5%) such as iron, calcium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium and chlorine, as well as vitamins of complex B and C. The plant contains also glucose (from 2% to 4%), fructose (from 2% to 4%), proteins (0,5% to 0,6%), starch (0,001% to 0,05%), waxes and fatty acids (0,05. 0,015% to 3%) and dyes, between 5% to XNUMX%.