Glycemic index of pre-exercise meal and glucose metabolism in aerobic physical activity

The glycemic index (GI) is a functional indicator that can be used to classify carbohydrates according to their glycemic and insulin response in relation to a known food, white bread or glucose. In the field of sports nutrition,it is mainly considered to constitute the meal prior to exercise, as it directly affects the postprandial glycemic response, and depending on certain factors, such as time prior to intake, there is the risk of rebound hypoglycemia during exercise. To elucidade, through a systematic review, which nutritional strategy is the most appropriate, employing pre-exercise meals of different glycemic indexes. The PubMed database was consulted using the combined keywords: aerobic exercise, glycemic index and glycemia. The inclusion criteria were original articles published in English in the last five years and performed with humans. Exclusion criteria were unhealthy subjects and non aerobic exercises. Eleven articles were selected, varying by gender of the sample and its conditioning, the type of exercise selected, as well as its duration and intensity, the IG value adopted, and the time prior to food intake from 15 minutes to three hours. Based on the recurrence of some results, low glycemic index foods cause fewer postprandial glycemic alterations which may entail a more stable behavior throughout the exercise, making it a more conservative nutritional strategy for the general population.

exercise; nutrition; fluid therapy; blood glucose