After 20 years of Fuel superiority, we've have taken it up a notch !
“Here today, gone tomorrow”? Not Perpetuem.
Not even close. In its 20-year history, Perpetuem has proven time and time again to be the true state-of-the-art, all-in- one calorie source needed for anything lasting several hours to several days.
Twenty years ago, prior to it officially being named Perpetuem, we already knew this prototype fuel was something special... our workouts,even some pretty extreme ones,had never been better. Never.
Still, though we had been testing Perpetuem all summer long with incredible success, we weren’t quite ready to offer this extraordinary fuel to the public... not quite yet. One last test had to be performed, an oh, what a brutal test it was.
Into and through the furnace... and back
Aided by my veteran support crew and armed with this new prototype fuel, I mounted my bike and began a never-before- attempted back-to-back crossing of the brutal Furnace Creek 508 route, which totaled 1,016 miles and 70,000 feet of climbing.
I used Perpetuem as my primary fuel for 55+ hours of the 75.5 hours I rode the bike.
Thanks in large part to this amazing fuel, I completed history’s first and only Double Furnace Creek 508 in October 2002. Although I, of course, experienced fatigue during the record attempt (which is to be expected when you’re on the bike that long), I never had any energy issues from my fuel. None. With Perpetuem as my main fuel, augmented by Sustained Energy and Hammer Gel (no HEED back then), my energy levels stayed rock solid.
Since that successful record attempt (which still stands), thousands of athletes competing in endurance contests of every kind imaginable (perhaps even a few unimaginable ones!) have relied on Perpetuem to thoroughly and successfully fuel their bodies. No hype. Just results.
20 years later, it’s time for 2.0!
Now, we could have left the time-proven Perpetuem formula alone, and no one would have noticed or cared. But that’s just how we roll; if there’s ever an opportunity to improve upon any of our products, we’re on board and we are on it. In the case of Perpetuem, the change was going from an excellent corn- derived maltodextrin (complex carb) to an even better one in tapioca (cassava root).
The advantages of tapioca over corn
Tapioca requires far less processing than corn.
Unlike corn, there is no GMO content in tapioca to begin with, so even though all the corn- derived maltodextrin we used in our products tested at 0pp's for GMOs, going with tapioca saves us that hassle.
Tapioca maltodextrin has naturally lower amounts of sodium and higher amounts of naturally occurring potassium.
Tapioca maltodextrin has more- alkaline pH than corn-derived maltodextrin, which is a highly desirable during-exercise feature/benefit.
Tapioca maltodextrin has a lower Dextrose Equivalent (DE), which means lower mono- and disaccharide (short-chain sugar) content, and a much higher percentage of polysaccharide (complex carb) content,in essence, a more “complex” complex carbohydrate--for even longer-lasting energy and endurance.
Tapioca maltodextrin has same Glycemic Index (GI) as other forms of maltodextrin, so you get the fast-acting energy that you’re looking for.
And with that change to tapioca, an outstanding fuel became even better.
Summary
Fuels that tout themselves as all-day fuels, but contain not much, if anything, more than simple sugars (glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc.) and a lot of salt are simply not going to be up to the task. When you’re going long, you need a substantially more-complete fuel to get the job done, a high-quality, meal- in-a-bottle fuel. You need complex carbohydrates - not simple sugars - as the primary component in your endurance fuel, and you also want a sufficient amount of protein, a bit of healthy fat, and other beneficial endurance-enhancing nutrients.