EATING lactate to Run Faster ?!

[00:00:00]For decades, endurance athletes have feared one molecule more than almost any other, lactate. You've probably heard it blamed for muscle burn. You've heard it blamed for fatigue. Some people still call it lactic acid. But what if I told you that scientists have now created a gel that lets athletes eat lactate during exercise? Yes, instead of trying to avoid lactate, they're putting it into energy gels. The product is called ExoLactate and it's already being tested by elite endurance athletes, including professional cyclists and ultra runners, although it has not yet been widely commercialized and the supporting scientific literature is still being developed, let's say. So, is this revolutionary or is it just another expensive sports nutrition fad? Let's dive into the science. First, why everyone got lactate wrong. So, to understand why edible lactate is such a big deal, we need to rewind about 50 years.

[00:01:09]So, for decades, biology textbooks taught something like this.

[00:01:14]When exercise becomes very intense, uh your muscles run out of oxygen. They produce lactic acid. Lactic acid builds up. Your muscles burn. You slow down.

[00:01:27]Okay, that's very simple, except all of that story is wrong. Today, we know that muscles almost never produce lactic acid. They produce lactate. Those aren't the same thing. Even [snorts] more importantly, lactate isn't metabolic waste. It's actually one of your body's preferred fuels. This understanding came largely from the work of exercise physiologist George Brooks, who developed the lactate shuttle theory. So, instead of being a dead end waste product, lactate is consistently transported between tissues where it can be used as fuel.

[00:02:07]So, here is what really happens.

[00:02:09]First, a fast-twitch muscle fiber produces lactate. Instead of throwing it away, another muscle fiber can burn it.

[00:02:18]For instance, your heart loves burning lactate. Your brain also can use lactate. Even your liver can convert lactate back into glucose. It's constantly recycled. So, think of lactate as a rechargeable battery moving energy around the body. That's a very different picture than the waste product story many of us learned at school.

[00:02:43]Okay, but then why do athletes care about lactate? If lactate is useful, why does it increase when exercise gets hard? Because hard exercise increases glycolysis.

[00:02:57]You make energy faster and as a result, you also produce more lactate. The rising lactate isn't necessarily causing fatigue. Instead, it's a sign that your body is producing energy at a tremendous rate. In fact, elite athletes often produce more lactate than recreational athletes. They're simply much better at recycling and reusing it.

[00:03:22]That's why coaches that test blood lactate during training, it's not measuring poison, it's measuring metabolism. This is why zone two training has become so popular because at moderate intensity, your body becomes extremely efficient at producing and clearing lactate simultaneously. That means you can sustain relatively high power while continuously recycling this fuel. All right, and now what is exolactate?

[00:03:52]This is where things become really interesting. So, scientists asked a simple question. If our bodies already use lactate as fuel, could we simply not eat it? That sounds obvious, right? But, for decades, nobody could make a practical product. Lactate has an unpleasant taste, and it is difficult to formulate into a stable gel sports gel.

[00:04:18]However, recently, researchers here in Spain, including exercise physiologist Aitor Viribay, uh chef Dani Lasa, and also biochemist Juan Carlos Alboleya, uh developed a product called Exolactate, combining lactate with carbohydrates into an ingestible and edible gel that actually is palatable enough, meaning it tastes rather good.

[00:04:47]Um their reported formulation contains roughly 40 g of carbohydrates and around 5 g of lactate. So, the idea isn't to replace carbohydrates, uh instead it's to add another usable fuel source. And according to the developers, lactate uses a different intestinal transport pathway than glucose and fructose. So, if that proves beneficial, then athletes may be able to increase total energy delivery without overloading the usual carbohydrate transporters.

[00:05:23]This is a promising hypothesis, uh but it still requires more peer-reviewed validation. That's potentially a huge deal, though, because uh modern endurance nutrition is already pushing carbohydrate intake to above 100 g per hour. So, adding another energy substrate could represent another big step forward.

[00:05:47]Sounds good, but how is it supposed to work?

[00:05:52]Well, researchers propose several possible benefits.

[00:05:57]First, lactate can be burned directly for energy.

[00:06:01]Second, it may spare muscle glycogen and saving glycogen means delaying fatigue.

[00:06:08]And third, lactate is also a signaling molecule. It tells cells about metabolic stress. So, some scientists think that providing lactate externally could activate pathways involved in energy production earlier during exercise.

[00:06:30]But, here's the important part. These mechanisms make total biological sense.

[00:06:37]However, that doesn't automatically mean that athletes become faster. Mechanisms are not the same as proven performance improvements. That's why we need controlled clinical trials. But, the Exo-Lactate team says clinical studies and and peer-reviewed papers are underway. But, at the time of this video, the evidence base remains limited.

[00:07:04]So, is it just hype at this point or is it proven?

[00:07:09]Here's where we should stay scientifically honest. The physiology behind lactate is extremely strong.

[00:07:17]Nobody seriously believes lactate is merely waste anymore. That debate is essentially over. What is still uncertain, however, is whether eating lactate provides a meaningful performance advantage compared with excellent carbohydrate fueling alone.

[00:07:38]Some elite athletes have reportedly been using Exo-Lactate major competitions including um the recent Tour de France, but those reports do not replace, of course, randomized controlled trials.

[00:07:53]So, right now, this should be viewed as an exciting experimental development, not as miracle supplement.

[00:08:01]Yet.

[00:08:04]You know, history teaches us that that many sports nutrition ideas look brilliant in theory, but produce only modest real-world gains. And others, on the other hand, end up changing endurance sports forever. It's simply too early right now to know which category edible lactate belongs in. But anyway, whether XO lactate becomes the next big thing or it quietly disappears, it has already accomplished something remarkable. It has forced athletes to rethink one of the biggest misconceptions in exercise science.

[00:08:42]Lactate isn't your enemy. It's one of the body's most valuable energy currencies. You know, the idea of eating lactate would have sounded ridiculous 20 years ago, wouldn't it? However, today professional athletes are experimenting with it. And over the next few years, we'll learn whether this becomes one of the biggest breakthroughs in endurance nutrition or simply another interesting chapter in sports science. Either way, it is a reminder that science keeps evolving. Sometimes, you know, the molecule that we fear the most turns out to be exactly what we've been looking for. But okay, while we wait for this product to be commercialized and for the proof that it actually works, we have to acknowledge that this is just another means to optimize performance, but it all starts with good nutrition. It particularly starts with good breakfast every day. So, I'll leave you with a video about excellent carb-rich breakfasts for race days and long run days and workout days. And two more videos about low carb breakfast for every other day. Not because they are low carb, but because they are very rich in proteins, healthy fat, and all the micronutrients you need for optimal health and performance. And yeah, see you next time.