Feeling guilty about your sweet tooth? Don't : it could help you getting better at sports.
If sugar means energy, sweet drinks should not boost your performance if you exercise for less than an hour. The organism simply cannot process carbohydrates that fast... However, studies did shown that drinking the sugary sport drinks enhance performance... but only if they are drank; not if they are injected (even if publicists would love the picture of an athlete with a Gatorade I.V.).
Recent experiments involving brain fMRIs of cyclists were able to reconcile the mysterious power of sports drink with the basic principles of
biochemistry. Athletes drinking saccharin – a sugar substitute - show activity in their operculum and DLPFC. If they drink glucose-laden water tough, regions in their striatum and cingular cortex light up as well. At the same time, the performance of these cyclists drinking one of the two last solutions was improved by 2 to 3 %.
It is already known that the striatum and cingular cortez are involved in reward mechanism, affecting the dopaminergic pathways. On the other hand, the power output of athletes during exercise can be lowered by the pain and aches developing through their body. A model now advanced by the research group is that activation of certain regions of the brain by carbohydrates might help bypass this effect.
Sport drinks work: doesn’t she look energized?A remarkable observation is that the same effect is observed for a non-sweetening carbohydrate – maltodextrin, as well as for glucose. Protein receptors of the sweet-tooth, T1R2 and T1R3, thus seem involve3d and that process. Another, “secret” type of receptor might be hiding in our mouth, ready to detect the presence of energy at the tip of your tongue...
For further reading
Chambers et al., J. Physiol. 2009, 1779-94
If sugar means energy, sweet drinks should not boost your performance if you exercise for less than an hour. The organism simply cannot process carbohydrates that fast... However, studies did shown that drinking the sugary sport drinks enhance performance... but only if they are drank; not if they are injected (even if publicists would love the picture of an athlete with a Gatorade I.V.).
Recent experiments involving brain fMRIs of cyclists were able to reconcile the mysterious power of sports drink with the basic principles of
biochemistry. Athletes drinking saccharin – a sugar substitute - show activity in their operculum and DLPFC. If they drink glucose-laden water tough, regions in their striatum and cingular cortex light up as well. At the same time, the performance of these cyclists drinking one of the two last solutions was improved by 2 to 3 %.It is already known that the striatum and cingular cortez are involved in reward mechanism, affecting the dopaminergic pathways. On the other hand, the power output of athletes during exercise can be lowered by the pain and aches developing through their body. A model now advanced by the research group is that activation of certain regions of the brain by carbohydrates might help bypass this effect.
Sport drinks work: doesn’t she look energized?A remarkable observation is that the same effect is observed for a non-sweetening carbohydrate – maltodextrin, as well as for glucose. Protein receptors of the sweet-tooth, T1R2 and T1R3, thus seem involve3d and that process. Another, “secret” type of receptor might be hiding in our mouth, ready to detect the presence of energy at the tip of your tongue...
For further reading
Chambers et al., J. Physiol. 2009, 1779-94
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