Carbohydrate Supplementation Using Energy Drinks
Carbohydrate (CHO) supplementation and in particular energy drinks is one of the most frequently researched sports science topics to date.
However, the vast majority of this research uses prolonged cycling despite evidence to suggest that CHO supplementation is most effective within intermittent exercise.
Of course though, with all health topics, from how to lose weight to how to lower cholesterol, you will often find conflicting information. Every body differs, as will reactions to sport, diet, or medicine. One must experiment in order to find out what works best for each individual.
Consequently, this article will consider the effectiveness of energy drinks in relation to high-intensity intermittent exercise.
Diet & Supplementation – Do athletes need both sources of carbohydrates?
Some argue that CHO should be obtained from a balanced diet and indeed CHO from an appropriate diet is an integral factor in an athlete’s (re)fueling. However, energy drinks generally require less digestion than food minimizing disruption of blood flow to active muscles.
They are also able to deliver fuel quicker to the active muscles and are less likely to cause stomach problems before/during exercise. In addition consuming an energy drink limits the use of muscle glycogen stores by gradually delivering ‘top-up’ energy which is important as muscle & liver glycogen stores are limited and thus supplementary CHO is one way of obtaining extra fuel.
Carbohydrate Supplementation and Intermittent Exercise – Is it as good as the manufacturers say it is?
Pivotal research evaluating a energy drinks and intermittent running capacity was completed in 1995. 9 males completed the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Protocol (LIST), a pattern of intermittent running similar to that of soccer, basketball or field hockey. Participants who drank a 6.9% CHO drink ran for 33% longer during part 2 of the LIST as opposed to the placebo.
However, when you examine the evidence carefully, you will notice that, in reality people will not consume the energy drink in the same pattern to those in the experiment. Therefore, although the drink does work in certain circumstances, it is unlikely to work to the level that is widely promoted by the manufacturers.
Supplementation and Optimal Performance
In summary, there is evidence that highlights the effectiveness of ingesting CHO for high-intensity intermittent exercise, both pre and during exercise. However, it should be pointed out that consuming energy drinks does not guarantee enhanced performance. In reality performance is a complex mix of factors of which nutritional intervention, and hence increasing exercise capacity is just one part.
Indeed, whilst the marketing pressure by the sports nutrition industry promotes the widely held belief that intake of dietary supplements is an essential part of optimal performance, research highlights that supplementary CHO only provided performance benefits in 2 out of 3 cases. Therefore, both athletes and coaches need to examine the appropriate literature and construct a nutritional strategy that is most likely to help optimize performance, which may or may not include utilizing CHO-based energy drinks.
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RECENTLY ADDED CAFFEINE
- Sunkist Ten68mg
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how do you conduct an experiment on .9 of a person?
you use someone that’s missing an arm of course……….
energy drinks are good and bad they taste good to
You idiot thats a period after 1995,jesus christ go drink 400 cans of coke please
haha, an arm counts as 18% of a person.. so only lose the forearm
uh nancy, how do you know that, is it easily googled or do you work in a burns ward or sumfin
y’all shatup.. monsters the shit
degan: The sentence is grammatically incorrect. No sentence should ever begin with a number in English. The publisher/author should have written the sentence as “Nine males completed the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Protocol (LIST…”
The period was for the previous sentence and not “. 9″
Comment to Nick – As the author, I would like to thank you for pointing this out to me. You are indeed correct, and that sentence was poorly worded and your correction should be the correct way. As for the other comments on here, well I think the less said about them the better!
I’m doing an experiment on the effects of energy drinks on the human heart rate in relation to an athletes performance! What else can you tell me about this topic? Anything would help.
Of course they work. Remember the very first energy drink. Gatorade? If it wasn’t for every major sport I can think of actually using the product I’m sure we wouldn’t see the hundreds of energy drink products we see today.
I would like to see more research done on the effects of energy drinks on teenagers. I feel energy drinks can have a significant effect on a teenagers body that could cause death or health problems later in life. The conbination of dehydration + exertion + Energy drinks can be harmful when the Energy drink’s “high” is gone you “bottom out” which in turn could be very dangerous especially if you are on medications.
My Niece almost lost her life, but luckily was found by her parents in time that CPR brought her back with no ill effects. Nothing has been found to have caused this episode medically. So the rationale would be combination of Energy drink + dehydration + exertion + bottoming out effect + mixing with her medications.
More research should be done on Energy drinks and medications to inform the public of the dangers of mixing the two. I also feel the public should be taught how Energy drinks should be consumed, what the intended purpose or gain of using these products, and the intended target group of users should be. Many are not eating and then drinking these drinks making metabolic changes in their bodies that may be causing heart arrthymias.
Kathy how do you verify your claims? You state that “Nothing has been found to have caused this episode medically. So the rationale would be combination of Energy drink + dehydration + exertion + bottoming out effect + mixing with her medications.” When this would show through medical testing, dehydration has a number of symptoms both short and long term on the human body, it would appear that your stand point comes not from a medical perspective but from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with medical protocols.