Beverages that can enhance performance and boost energy

Energy drinks refer to beverages that contain, besides calories, caffeine in combination with other presumed energy-enhancing ingredients such as taurine, herbal extracts, and B vitamins. Energy drinks are beverages that are marketed to enhance performance and boost energy.

The main ingredient of importance in an energy drink is usually caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system and, at moderate intakes, can enhance endurance performance and concentration in adults.

Caffeine is a CNS (central nervous system) stimulant, and also has the ability to increase heart rate and blood pressure. While the caffeine concentration in an 8-­‐to 12-­‐oz. bottle is about 72 to 150 mg, the University of California Davis reports that larger-­‐size bottles may contain as much as 294 mg.

Energy drinks first appeared in Europe and Asia in the 1960s in response to consumer demand for a dietary supplement that would result in increased energy.

Today, majority of energy drinks are targeted at teenagers and young adults 18 to 34 year old due to this generation's on-the-go lifestyle and receptiveness to advertisements for these types of products.
Beverages that can enhance performance and boost energy 

Energy Drinks

Energy Drinks
Energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster and Rick Star are all the rage today, especially among younger consumers.

And when it comes to energy, any product that purports to provide it is inevitably going to be tried to endurance sports, whether substantiated or not.

If you consider or are currently using an energy drinks as a supplement to your training or racing consider these points:

Many energy drinks contain taurine or guarana, ingredients about which there is little existing reputable research. Most energy drinks contain some caffeine, so oftentimes the benefits of these so called energizing ingredients are overstated.

The scientific community has not thoroughly studied the effects of combining the ingredients in many energy drinks. Researchers don’t precisely know what effect an energy drink will have on your heart, blood pressure nervous and perception of fatigue and pain during training.

Energy drinks can turn off your body’s natural physical and metal warning flags. For example, if an energy drinks revs you up so much that you feel you can go farther faster or harder than you should, it will cause you to push your boundaries, making you more susceptible to injury and overtraining.

Many energy drinks are carbonated, which most endurance athletes find intolerable. During strenuous long term aerobic exercise, carbonated beverages often lead to nausea or other stomach problems.
Energy Drinks