Clinical Research Shows Sport Beans Work
Sport beans performed as well as gels and sport drinks in a simulated 10K cycle race following an endurance ride, and significantly better than water alone.
Summary of the study:
16 healthy non-smoking, male and female cyclists and triathletes participated in the study and varied between the ages of 23 and 45.
The participants completed a series of four 10-kilometer time trials while ingesting one of three different kinds of carbohydrate supplements (including Sport Beans) or water alone.
The athletes achieved 32-38 second faster times in the trial with Sport Beans rather than water alone.
In addition, the athletes completed the time trials with the highest average "power outputs" with Sport Beans Energizing Jelly Beans.
So, I'm wondering..........."is it time to get my bean on?"
To know for sure, I asked my personal nutritional expert Erica Goldstein-Thomas MS, CSCS, CISSN and soon to be RD (also my Sister).
Here were my questions:
1) Did Jelly Belly sponsor, conduct or fund the study?
2) Is there really a difference among beans, gels and CHO drinks?
3) What's the magic ingredient?
Erica's response:
Hey dude! good questions! The study actually came out of a lab at Univ California Davis, so has potential to be legit. And, yes, there's a 70% chance that Jelly Belly paid for the study, so that of course IS always suspect. That said there is a lot of research out there examining the different combination of sugars and how they are absorbed and used in the body - i.e. is there really a difference..? Now, remember carbohydrate sport drinks became so popular because of the way the scientists learned to bind sugars together - by doing this your body can absorb more sugar (i.e. glucose, fructose and sucrose etc.) efficiently - it's called a polymer. it's like when you're in kindergarten and you learn to enter the lunch room in a single file line. What works better? A bunch of 25 kindergartners bum-rushing the lunch room all at one time. Or, forcing ALL the kids into the lunch room as one long line? Same with sugar - it's all about gastric emptying the - way contents leave your stomach - there is an optimal volume - and absorption into the small intestine -this is about the concentration of the contents.
I just reviewed an article for a sports nutrition journal yesterday and this study had subjects exercise in the heat to force dehydration to occur. This was followed by a recovery period, with subjects then consuming three different types of drinks: flavored water, carbohydrate + electrolytes, or a new solution that combines some amino acids with sugar and electrolytes. The subjects then had to perform another exercise test. The results showed that the subjects came closer to returning to baseline (i.e. state of the body before becoming dehydrated) with the amino acids + sugar + electrolytes product. The authors of the study suggested it's the fact that the supplement contained glutamine and arginine + sugars + electrolytes and that's what makes it advantageous over a striaght carbohydrate solution drink. BUT the type of sugars in a drink such as Gatorade and the one with amino acids + sugar + electrolytes are different and this is also a potential reason why one product may work more effectively.
This is the difference in the products used in the jelly belly study:
Supplement forms included (a) sports drink (per 8-oz serving), 50 kcal, 14 g of carbohydrate (sucrose and glucose-fructose mix), 110 mg of sodium, and 30 mg of potassium; (b) gel (1 gel packet, 32 g), 100 kcal, 25 g of carbohydrate (maltodextrin and fructose), 40 mg of sodium, and 25 mg of potassium; (c) sport beans (14 pieces, 28 g), 100 kcal, 25 g of carbohydrate (sucrose and glucose), 80 mg of sodium, and 20 mg potassium.
So, there you have it - there is no magic bean or ingredient - it's just you out on the bike, but scientists are having fun doing science to see if any bean can add some type of magic :-)
