Is Sports Nutrition Safe to Use Every Day?
Sports nutrition is designed to help you perform at your best, but when it's part of your daily routine, the ingredients matter more than ever. In this article, we explore whether your go-to gels, drinks and bars are truly safe to use every day
Sports nutrition can be a game-changer. A well-timed gel, a smartly mixed carb drink or a recovery shake can all help us train harder, race better, and recover faster.
But with many of us now training several days a week – sometimes twice a day – one important question is rarely asked:
Is it actually safe to use sports nutrition every day?
It sounds innocent enough. After all, if something supports performance, surely more of it must be better?
Well... not always.
Our sports nutrition is safe to use every day
The Double-Edged Sword of Sports Nutrition
Sports nutrition is designed to optimise energy, hydration and recovery when you're pushing hard. For a tough session, big race or heavy week, it can be incredibly effective.
But the vast majority of products on the market come with a catch. While they promise performance, many are packed with ultra-processed ingredients – think synthetic sugars, artificial additives, and chemically modified compounds. These might help shelf life or palatability, but they often come at the cost of your long-term health.
This makes sports nutrition something of a paradox:
- It's sold as health-supporting
- But it's built like junk food
The good news? Not all sports nutrition is created equal – and if you're relying on it regularly, the type you choose makes all the difference.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
Why Some Sports Nutrition Might Not Be Safe for Everyday Use
The concern isn’t with the concept of sports nutrition itself – it’s with the quality and composition of what’s in the pack.
If you're running hard and want the best from yourself, should you really fuel with junk?
Most mainstream options are:
- Ultra-processed – made from ingredients that have been stripped down and rebuilt in labs (like turning corn into glucose syrup, or rice into maltodextrin)
- Missing natural fibre and antioxidants – which support gut health and inflammation control
- Spiked with artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners – that can disrupt digestion and the microbiome
This can lead to:
- Gut distress and bloating
- Chronic low-level inflammation
- Energy spikes and crashes
- Long-term health issues when consumed consistently
In small doses, used very occasionally, you might get away with it. But if you’re training three to six times a week and using these products every session, your sports nutrition starts behaving more like your diet. And that’s when it really matters.
Which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle…
We're told this is great for performance...but how can that be true while also being catastrophic for your health?
The 120g Carb Craze: Fueling or Overloading?
Right now, many athletes are pushing 90–120g of carbs per hour during training. That’s a huge volume – and the current trend is to see just how much the body can tolerate.
While there’s an argument for high-carb fueling in the right circumstances, it can never be at the cost of your health. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening when the carb source is a revolving door of gels, chews and sugary drinks filled with synthetic ingredients.
- What are you actually putting in your body to hit those carb targets?
- Is your gut handling it?
- What’s it doing to your long-term health?
If your answer is “whatever’s on offer at the bike shop” – it’s time to rethink.
Because smashing down 120g of processed sugar per hour is not a long-term plan. It’s a shortcut with consequences.
Not All Carbs Are Created Equal
Hitting your grams-per-hour goal might tick a training box, but it’s only half the picture. The real magic - and the real risk - lies in the source of those carbs.
It's just only about what you consuming DURING exercise. When you've pushed your body, your post-exercise shake matters, so it should be full of real, powerful, healthy superfoods
Most mainstream products rely on ingredients that have been broken down and rebuilt in industrial food labs – corn turned into syrup, rice turned into white powder, fibre and antioxidants stripped away. Add a dose of flavouring and colouring, and hey presto: instant energy.
But the effects aren’t so pretty:
- Gut disruption from artificial sweeteners and emulsifiers
- Inflammation and metabolic stress from synthetic additives
- Energy crashes from fast sugars with no nutritional support
In short: these are not safe to use every day.
The UPF Problem in Sports Nutrition
Let’s call it what it is – ultra-processed food (UPF) has a stranglehold on sports nutrition. It’s a quiet scandal.
Nearly all energy gels, drinks and recovery products fall into this category. They’re marketed for performance but built more like food substitutes than real nutrition.
- Broken-apart ingredients
- Chemically modified compounds
- Artificial flavours to mask the taste of it all
And while the very occasional consumption of UPFs might not matter, relying on them session after session absolutely does.
So if sports nutrition in its current form isn’t the answer, what is?
What About Real Food?
Some of the best training fuel doesn’t come from a packet at all.
Many athletes are turning to whole-food alternatives that offer all the carbs and none of the compromise:
- Flapjacks made with oats, nut butter and dates
- Homemade rice cakes with banana and cinnamon
- Boiled salted potatoes (a classic for a reason)
- Fruit smoothies with a pinch of sea salt
These are rich in natural carbs, easy on the stomach, and genuinely nutritious. Best of all, your body knows exactly how to use them.
The only downside? They’re not always portable. They’re not shelf-stable in the bottom of your kit bag for two weeks. And when you're mid-session or mid-race, juggling tupperware isn't ideal.
Which is where the perfect solution comes in…
Homemade flapjacks is real, performance-enhancing sports nutrition
Real Food. Sports Format. Safe Every Day.
At 33Fuel, we rethought the way sports nutrition works.
We wanted the performance and convenience of traditional products, with the ingredients and integrity of real food.
The result?
- Our Chia Energy Gel with just four natural ingredients
- Rocekt Fuel Carb Drink, made with real fruit and zero junk
- Amore Energy Bar, handmade in Italy using real nuts and fruit
All safe to use every day (just like the rest of our sports nutrition range)
These are real-food products in a sport-friendly format. Stable energy, no stomach trouble, and no compromise on health.
Because if you're training often, your sports nutrition is part of your diet. And it needs to fuel more than just your next session – it needs to fuel your future too.
Our non-UPF Amore Energy Bars are the perfect fueling solution: natural, powerful, great for your health and portable
Final Thought
If you’re training regularly, your fuel is your food. Make it count.
Have you checked your sports nutrition label recently? What’s in it – and would you eat it if it wasn’t wrapped in a sporty packet?
More performance boosting content
From the 33Fuel YouTube Channel
From the 33Fuel Blog
Breathwork for performance - proven benefits and how to do it
Quality ingredients: the 33Fuel difference
Sugar: the sweetspot between health villain and performance hero
