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A study analysing the positive and negative effects of
energy drinks on athletes has seen that, although in principle their sports
performance was seen to improve by between 3% and 7%, there was also an
increase in the frequency of insomnia, nervousness and the level of stimulation
in the hours following competition.
The consumption of energy drinks has increased in recent
years. In the case of athletes, the use of them before practising sport has
also risen: more than 50% take them during training and even before
competitions.
A four-year study carried out by experts from Camilo José
Cela University (UCJC) has evaluated the positive and negative effects of
energy drinks on athletes.
In the study, top footballers, climbers, swimmers and
basketball, rugby, volleyball, tennis and hockey players took the equivalent of
three cans of energy drink or an energy drink placebo before a sports
competition. Sporting performance was measured with the use of GPS devices
which determined the distance and the speed at which it was covered in team
sports.
They also used dynamometers and potentiometers to measure
muscle performance in other sports. Published in the British Journal of
Nutrition, the results show that athletes increased their sporting
performance by between 3% and 7%.
"What is more," as Juan Del Coso Garrigós, one of
the authors of the study who is also in charge of the Exercise Physiology
Laboratory at the UCJC, explains to SINC, "they ran further in team
competitions, specially at higher intensities, which is related to sports
performance".
Del Coso adds that "energy drinks increase jump height
for basketball players, muscle force and power for climbers and trained
individuals, swimming speed for sprinter swimmers, hit force and accuracy for
volleyball players and the number of points scored in tennis".
Insomnia and nervousness
These studies not only measured objective parameters of
sporting performance, but also asked athletes about their sensations after
consuming the energy drink and measured the frequency of the side effects in
comparison with the placebo drink.
"Athletes felt they had more strength, power and
resistance with the energy drink than with the placebo drink," states the
expert. "However, the energy drinks increased the frequency of insomnia,
nervousness and the level of stimulation in the hours following the
competition".
Their consumption produces an increase in the side effects
typically found with other caffeinated drinks. They also found no significant
differences between male and female athletes in the perception of positive
sensations, nor in the apparition of side effects.
"Caffeinated energy drinks are a commercial product
that can significantly increase sporting performance in many sports
activities," argues Del Coso. "The increase in their consumption is
probably driven by the hard advertising campaigns of energy drink companies
related to sports sponsorships".
They do not provide more energy
Energy drinks mainly contain carbohydrates, caffeine,
taurine and B vitamins, with little difference in the quantities and
ingredients amongst the main energy drink brands.
On the contrary to that indicated by their trade name,
energy drinks do not provide more energy than other soft drinks (~40 kcal/100
ml of product), but they do have an 'energising' effect related to the
stimulation provided by caffeine.
In fact, none of the other ingredients present in energy
drinks and in the amounts in a can of energy drink actually produces a
significant effect on physical or cognitive performance.
The concentration of caffeine (32 mg/100 ml of product)
present in energy drinks provides a total of 80 mg of caffeine per 250 ml can,
although 500 ml cans are currently being sold.
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