"I added Waxy Maize...."
Careful there. Here's why...
Up until just recently, carbohydrate powders have imparted modest improvements over whole foods. Such was the case with maltodextrin, usually derived from corn. You're no doubt familiar with it due to it's inclusion in various "weight gainers", "MRP's" etc..
After being isolated, its cut into a length somewhere between a simple sugar and a full starch. The shorter versions lend themselves better to drink mixes as they're more soluble and sweeter.
Prior to the early 1980's, maltodextrin really wasn't prevalent in our little world. The primary exposure you had to them was on the back of a postage stamp. They were used mostly as binders, fillers and glues. It was Mike Zumpano (of Underground Steroid Handbook fame) working first with the Weider group and later Unipro who came across a most interesting discovery; certain maltodextrins were a hybrid of both a starch and a sugar that lent themselves to the best qualities of both. This was a significant finding...
When Unipro rolled out its Carboplex product it didn't just gain instant popularity in bodybuilding, but mainstream food preparations as well. At your local supermarket today, you'll find it in all kinds of sports drinks, cocoa, baked goods and even baby food (maltodextrins of various sorts).
The chief problem with these products is twofold. First, you never know quite what length the starch has been cut to. They can be as short as 3 glucose molecules or as long as cornstarch.
In fact, much of the waxy maize being sold is just that - pure cornstarch.
Second (and related) these anomolies can result in anything from a very quick rise in blood sugar to a very prolonged curve seen when testing one's blood sugar via glucometer (more on that later). You'll see a pretty strong dropoff in blood sugar after consuming most maltodextrins in the amount of 50g at the 2 hour mark. This isn't ideal for our purposes as the window of opportunity we seek to exploit is far shorter.
The real solution was the creation of a new class of soluble starches called
amylopectins. These address the severe drop in blood sugar by selectively tailoring the lengths of said starches to optimize the time spent just prior to, during and immediately after the workout. For it is during this time that these genetically modified starches can have a drug like impact. Starting material is not just one type of starch, but two others. A mix of all 3 was found to best leverage its rapid and sustained mode of action.
These heavy molecular mass polysaccarides mix VERY easily in water, absorb much faster than sugars and don't bloat you. The end result is a largely complex carb, yet is made up of many polysaccharides joined together by bonds. Molecular weights have been carefully tailored to ensure absorption is much faster than any other maltodextrin, waxy maize or whole food/juice alternative.
By virtue of a lightening quick gastric emptying rate, the amylopectins hit the blood stream quicker and are absorbed as glycogen. Therafter, they work almost like an IV drip, supplying even more energy to the body.
Dan Duchaine himself was onto this as long ago as the early 1990's in his excellent tome, "BodyOpus", stating "The ideal is a highly refined amylopectin preparation, not yet commercially available".
Well, Dan may be gone but he's likely looking down (or is it up?) smiling, knowing that they're now available.
That's what a guy named "Mixelflick" who wrote a book called, "The Blueprint" told me anyway......
