Energy drinks boost athletic performances
Sugary drinks can significantly boost performance in an endurance event without ingestion, but so can a tasteless carbohydrate in unexpected ways
Sugary drinks can significantly boost performance in an endurance event without ingestion, but so can a tasteless carbohydrate in unexpected ways.
Studies in the past have suggested that the presence of carbohydrate in the human mouth activates regions of the brain that can enhance
exercise performance but direct evidence of such a mechanism is limited.
To observe how rinsing the mouth with solutions containing glucose and maltodextrin, disguised with artificial sweetener, would affect exercise performance, researchers from America prepared drinks that contained either glucose (a sugar), maltodextrin (tasteless carbohydrate) or neither, then carefully laced them with artificial sweeteners until they tasted identical.
The researchers asked sixteen endurance-trained cyclists to complete a challenging time-trial, during which they rinsed their mouths with one of the three mixtures. A neuro-imaging technique known as fMRI was then used to monitor the athletes' brain activity shortly after giving them one of the three compounds.
It was found that both glucose and maltodextrin triggered specific areas of the brain associated with reward or pleasure, while the artificial sweetener did not. Moreover, athletes given the glucose or maltodextrin drinks outperformed those on disguised water by two to three percent. They also sustained a higher average power output and pulse rate, even though they didn't feel they were working any harder.
The above findings indicate that the improvement in exercise performance that is observed when carbohydrate is present in the mouth may be due to the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in reward and motor control. The results also suggest that there may be a class of so far unidentified oral receptors that respond to carbohydrate independently of those for sweetness.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
April 2009
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