Sports Drinks, Energy Drinks, Recovery Drinks - What's the difference?
4/3/2008
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Sports drinks jargon buster
With so many sports drinks on the market, it’s easy to become confused about which type is best suited to your needs. Isotonic, energy and recovery drinks can all be used to promote hydration, but tend to have slightly differing effects. It’s important to understand, though, that these categories can overlap – eg energy drinks containing relatively small amounts of carbohydrate can be almost isotonic – so the distinctions here should serve as a guide only.
Isotonic drinks provide the body with water, energy and electrolytes in a form enabling the water to be absorbed as rapidly as possible. Studies have shown that fluid is rapidly emptied from the stomach when it contains roughly the same concentration of dissolved substances as that of blood serum – a value of 280 milli-osmoles/kg for you technophiles out there! At this concentration, a drink is said to be ‘isotonic’ or at the same concentration as your body fluids. During exercise, energ... read more
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hydration, sports drinks, energy drinks, recovery drinks
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