A young Connecticut family faced overwhelming emotion when doctors diagnosed their son, Jonah, with a metabolic disorder. This rare condition prevented Jonah’s body from converting stored carbohydrates (glycogen) into energy (glucose).
To maintain adequate blood-sugar levels, Jonah needed to be fed with a feeding tube every two hours. These feedings included the nighttime hours, preventing Jonah (and his parents) from ever getting a full night’s sleep.
Determined to improve Jonah’s quality of life, his parents led research that resulted in the scientific breakthrough of SuperStarch, a complex carbohydrate that steadily releases glucose. This slow release enables a body to maintain steady blood-sugar levels for hours.
While this scientific discovery had, most importantly, a positive life-changing impact for Jonah, the family found SuperStarch could also play other significant roles in health and wellness. Most notable is how this breakthrough can effectively fuel triathletes during their long hours of training or racing.
Traditionally, triathletes have used high glycemic sugars (such as sports drink and gels) as an energy source. UCAN SuperStarch is non-GMO (genetically modified organism) corn starch that goes through a patented, natural cooking process and stabilizes the body’s blood sugar, eliminating the “sugar crash” which can often be the outcome of traditional fueling sources.
This advantage and application gave birth to Generation UCAN, a sports nutrition company founded upon the discovery of SuperStarch and a mission of inspiring a new generation of healthy athletes. Its science that is revolutionary.
As most triathletes know, it’s advantageous to burn fat versus carbohydrates for fuel. UCAN enables this to occur by keeping blood sugar stable and causing a minimal rise in the fat-storage hormone insulin. Since the body can use its fat stores, athletes require less calorie consumption during competition. Less calorie consumption reduces the risk for gastrointestinal (GI) distress.
Generation UCAN’s vision is to “provide a healthy energy source for athletes of all levels so they can achieve their very best.” Among the athletes who use the product is the original Generation UCAN athlete himself, Jonah.
Now an active teenager, Jonah still uses SuperStarch to sleep through the night and fuel his active interests. Not only is he thankful for the benefits of this nutritional breakthrough, he also encourages others to use the product to fuel their own goals.
In the next blog, I’ll discuss how you can achieve nutrition success in your triathlon training and racing with UCAN.
TriDot Takeaway: UCAN is a new nutritional breakthrough that better stabilizes the athlete’s blood sugar level while allowing more efficient fat to carbohydrate burning ratios. It’s a product with an inspiring background and a potential life and performance-changing future.
Elizabeth James is an Ironman, a USAT Level 1 Certified Coach, and a TriDot coach. She made the transition from running marathons to triathlons in 2012 and has completed sprint, Olympic, 70.3, and full Ironman distances. She and her husband, Charles, live in Garland, Texas. Her TriDot Score is 33-35-45.
