The Psychological Effects of Sports Drinks

Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness | (0) Comments

This is a really interesting study that suggests that high carb sports drinks improve performance almost immediately. The fascinating part is that the benefits are not primarily from any nutritional boost, but rather from an effect that the carbs have on the brain.  I would guess that this would work with other sweet drinks like fruit juices and sweet tea or coffee. I have long held that sports drinks like Gatorade had more of a psychological effect that a nutritional effect. I just never realized that it could be real. I always thought that it was a placebo effect. So this is good info to know if you are an athelete or a coach! The really amazing part is that you don’t even need to drink the product for it to work. Back in my High School swimming days, the coach used to give us orange slices to suck on before our events. I suspect he knew something that the scientists have just now figured out. Very cool.

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The researchers had endurance athletes rinse their mouths with either of two carb-containing drinks, the athletes’ exercise performance improved. The same was not true when the athletes were given water flavored with an artificial sweetener.

What’s more, brain scans showed that simply swishing the carbohydrate drinks around the mouth activated particular areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward. Again, the artificially sweetened water did not have the same effects.