• Question: how do energy drinks effect you when using them in sport?

    Asked by charlieallen to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 22 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by mennie13, alif002, lesterjwh, danielg, limey5298.
    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Depends if it’s caffine based or sugar based, or is simply water ‘fortified’ with electrolytes (charged atoms). Caffine and sugar give you some extra energy but when it wears of you feel more drained than before.

      Electrolytes like potasium and sodium play an imortant role in muscle and nurve function but at sweated out during sport. I think the theory is that by replacing them you’ll feel less tired and be less likely to get cramps. But it’s not really my area…. :/

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Interesting question. It depends what is in the drink as Jenni says. There has been loads of research done on this because drinks companies make lots of money from energy drinks. Gatorade, for example, have their own sports science institute to do research for them. And Gatorade is really just human sweat in a bottle, favoured to make it drinkable!

      Many drinks contain carbohydrates (sugars), which can delay exhaustion by maintaining your blood sugar level. The electrolytes in the drinks are more often there to make the drinks taste better, as you’d need to exercise for many hours to lose enough salt to require an increase in the diet. Caffeine and other “stimulants” can also be added to increase alertness, but if you drink coffee already they won’t have a big effect.

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      There are three main types of sports drinks; isotonic, hypertonic and hypotonic – and each type does a different thing, depending on what type of training you are doing.

      This is a good page showing how you can make your own drinks pretty easily from kitchen ingredients: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/health_and_fitness/4289704.stm

      ISOTONIC – help quickly replace fluids which are lost by sweating and give a boost of carbohydrates
      HYPERTONIC – are an addition to your daily carbohydrate intake from food, and contain higher levels of carbs than isotonic drinks
      HYPOTONIC – quickly replace fluids lost through sweating – they are low in carbohydrates and are more for the fluid replacement than anything else

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