Endurance athletes have always needed carbohydrates. The question is what form those carbs take.
For most of the modern sports nutrition industry, the answer has been maltodextrin. It's in nearly every gel, every endurance drink, every recovery shake. It's cheap, it's shelf-stable, it's high on the glycemic index, and it dissolves easily.
It's also a synthetic carbohydrate. And for serious endurance work, real raw honey may be a better option.
What Maltodextrin Actually Is
Maltodextrin is not a natural ingredient. It's a manufactured carbohydrate derived primarily from corn starch (sometimes wheat, rice, or potato starch in non-US markets). The starch is partially hydrolyzed using acids or enzymes, then dried into a flavorless white powder.
The result is a chain of glucose molecules — short enough to absorb quickly, long enough to avoid the labeling threshold for "sugar." On a nutrition facts panel, maltodextrin shows up as "carbohydrate" but not as "sugar," which gives it a marketing advantage.
Functionally, your body breaks maltodextrin down into pure glucose. The glycemic index of maltodextrin is around 110 — higher than table sugar (65), higher than glucose itself (100). It hits the bloodstream fast and hard.
For some endurance applications, that's exactly what you want. For others, it creates problems.
What Raw Honey Is
Raw honey is a complete carbohydrate package — not an isolated compound.
A typical raw honey delivers ~38% fructose, ~31% glucose, trace minerals (potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron), live enzymes (when unheated), amino acids, and antioxidants and bioactive flavonoids.
The glucose component hits fast — providing immediate energy similar to maltodextrin. The fructose component metabolizes more slowly through the liver, providing sustained energy over the next 60 to 120 minutes.
The dual-pathway absorption is what makes honey unique as an endurance fuel. You get a fast hit and a slow burn from a single source.
The GI Tolerance Difference
This is where many endurance athletes find the practical answer.
Maltodextrin's high glycemic index and rapid absorption come with a known cost: gastrointestinal distress during longer efforts. Pure-glucose products draw water into the gut, causing bloating, cramping, and the famous "gel stomach" that endurance athletes know well.
Raw honey's mixed sugar profile distributes the absorption load across two pathways — glucose through standard intestinal transporters, fructose through a separate transporter system. The result is less osmotic stress on the gut at equivalent caloric loads.
Studies on honey as an endurance fuel have repeatedly found similar performance outcomes to maltodextrin-based products with significantly less reported GI distress. For multi-hour events, this can be the difference between finishing strong and finishing in a bathroom.
The Mineral Difference
Maltodextrin contains no minerals. None. It's pure carbohydrate.
Raw honey contains trace minerals that your body loses through sweat — potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc. The absolute amounts per serving are small, but they're delivered in a bioavailable, food-recognized form. Your body absorbs and uses them more efficiently than synthetic mineral isolates.
For long endurance work, where electrolyte balance is a performance limiter, this matters. You're not just getting fuel — you're supporting the systems that use the fuel.
The Recovery Difference
Post-workout glycogen replenishment is a major focus in endurance training. Standard protocols recommend high-glycemic carbohydrates immediately post-exercise to maximize glycogen restoration.
Maltodextrin works for this. So does honey.
Research comparing the two for post-exercise recovery has generally found similar glycogen replenishment rates, with honey supporting slightly more sustained insulin response over the first 60 minutes post-exercise. The fructose component provides liver glycogen restoration that pure-glucose carbohydrates don't address as efficiently.
For athletes prioritizing complete recovery — muscle and liver glycogen both — honey's complete carbohydrate profile has functional advantages.
The Honesty Difference
Maltodextrin is also a carrier ingredient — meaning it's added to many "natural" products to dilute, extend, or stabilize the active compounds. Powders, gummies, gels, drink mixes. If you read enough labels, maltodextrin shows up everywhere.
For an athlete trying to optimize what goes into the body, this matters. Maltodextrin is industrially derived corn starch sold under a more pleasant-sounding name. It's calorically equivalent to glucose, with a higher glycemic index, and it's a marker for ultra-processed nutrition.
Raw honey is the opposite. It's a single-ingredient food that humans have used for thousands of years. The processing (when done properly) is just extraction from the comb.
What CODE Uses
Every CODE product uses raw honey as the primary carbohydrate. Energy Honey delivers 20 grams of honey-derived carbohydrate per sachet. Creatine Honey delivers 15 grams of raw honey alongside 5 grams of micronized creatine monohydrate.
There is no maltodextrin in any CODE formulation. There never will be.
For endurance athletes, that means a fuel source that delivers sustained energy, supports GI tolerance, and brings real minerals along for the ride.
For endurance work: Energy Honey — Beetroot Ginger is built for it. Beetroot for blood flow, ginger for digestion, and raw honey for the kind of fuel your body actually evolved to use.
Read next: How Raw Honey Drives Creatine Into Muscle