Is Coke an energy drink?

2

Comments

  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,440
    mrc1 wrote:
    Asprilla wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done.

    A lot of triathletes drink coke because of the old wives tale that the acidity will kill anything like weil's disease that may be in the water you've swallowed (forgetting that your stomach acid is much stronger).

    That's a bit of a bizarre one! My triathlon experience is limited to the UK so I doubt that's the major driver behind drinking it. Probably more down to the fact that it is a cheap, easy to find source of fast energy and caffiene!

    Edit - just done a google of Weil's and i see it does seem to be a pretty common reason! Haha I drink it because it tastes nice!

    Yep that one goes around canoeists aswell, always used to have a can of coke after a race or an unplanned swim.
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  • DonDaddyD
    DonDaddyD Posts: 12,689
    vorsprung wrote:
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    It was Cadel Evans drinking it on yesterdays ride that made me think "wow, energy levels must be really low or being sapped at an alarming rate for him to be drinking that mid-ride".

    Remind me DDD...have you ever ridden 100 miles?

    Actually yes, yes, I have. It was over the course of a week... maybe a month but it was 100 miles nonetheless and I won't have any word said against it! :lol:

    But seriously, I'm just guessing. I know coke has large amounts of sugar and caffine and in the short term will give you a large energy boost but the trade off is that its largely unhealthy and the short sudden burst of energy preceeds a crash. So I figured that in an endurance race (such as the tour) it would be a last resort option/...

    I could be wrong enlighten me.

    I don't think my ability to ride long distances has anything to do with that knowledge though.... after all its just nutritional knowledge that once told always known...
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  • Aidy
    Aidy Posts: 2,015
    vorsprung wrote:
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    It was Cadel Evans drinking it on yesterdays ride that made me think "wow, energy levels must be really low or being sapped at an alarming rate for him to be drinking that mid-ride".

    Remind me DDD...have you ever ridden 100 miles?

    What's special about 100 miles?
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,411
    Asprilla wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done.

    A lot of triathletes drink coke because of the old wives tale that the acidity will kill anything like weil's disease that may be in the water you've swallowed (forgetting that your stomach acid is much stronger).

    And that bugs that set up shop in your stomach might possibly be adapted to an acidic environment.
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  • tjwood
    tjwood Posts: 328
    danowat wrote:
    thelawnet wrote:
    danowat wrote:
    While it is an "energy drink", personally, I don't think its a very good one.

    They use high fructose corn syrup, which is linked with obesity and type 2 diabetes.

    If you can find it, Coke "classic" which uses cane sugar is "better".

    Um, no.

    HFCS is only used in the US, where corn is massively subsidised by the government.

    Elsewhere, including the UK, SUGAR is used.

    Really?, hmmm........any links?

    Just look on the back of any UK Coke bottle/can: Ingredients are Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Flavourings (including Caffeine).

    Whereas in the US they look like this:
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/j ... dients.jpg
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    Alcohol, on the other hand, is an excellent disinfectant. Triathletes should drink more beer during competition.
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  • jrduquemin
    jrduquemin Posts: 791
    Jonny_Trousers wrote:
    In the same way as you will get a sudden burst of energy from drinking Coke, you will also then get a massive low.

    Before energy drinks were available competitive cyclists would drink flat coke towards the end of a race for that last energy hit.

    I suspect the riders seen drinking it on The Tour will either get sponsorship from
    Coca Cola or, they will require that sudden carb hit after expending so much energy. Caffeine has been found to aid muscle recovery also.

    I get a similar caffeine kick taking a caffeine gel 20k from the end of sportives i enter. That gives me a huge surge of energy to tide me over until i get some proper food in me :-)
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  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    I love coke [not the white stiuff, that is too much of a kick lol] for the price, taste and energy hit. Used right it is useful stuff.
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  • pastryboy
    pastryboy Posts: 1,385
    It must be because they like the taste. It's not like caffeine/carb powders are hard to come by.

    I like coke but flat and warm - yuck.
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done. I drink a fair bit of coke (i dont drink coffee) and often have it while out on a ride when i need an energy kick. It does have two major drawbacks though:

    1. The fizziness makes for an uncomfortable stomach.

    2. Warm coke is foul - it makes your mouth feel furry!!

    For sprint tris, I used two cans of Red Bull. Found them better than things like High 5 for those shorter distances.

    Sometimes, on longer rides, I just need an immediate sugar hit while the longer-absorbing stuff kicks in. At the bottom of Alpe D'Huez, I needed sugar and something which tasted a bit different to energy drinks. That was the first time during the ride I drank it. For longer tris, flat coke was great for similar periods during the run when I sensed the wheels were coming off.
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  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    I think some people are confusing Coke™ the drink and coke® the white powder. Saying that drinking a can of Coke™ will give you a massive high which will preceed a giant 'crash' is a little dramatic.

    Possibly drinking a few litres of Coke will give you that kind of high, but in general these riders are not going to get a huge boost from a can of Coke. Nor are they suddenly going to come down hard afterwards. The adrenaline in their system is much stronger and they are constantly fueling up as they ride.

    As many others have said - a can of Coke is more a treat and a change from the usual bottles of energy drink than some sort of magic energy source.
  • laughingboy
    laughingboy Posts: 248
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    edited July 2010
    laughingboy wrote:
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/


    If you drink too much coke while sitting around watching TV then you MIGHT experience a crash. If you're riding a 100 mile mountain stage in the Tour you will NOT experience a crash from the sugar.
  • laughingboy
    laughingboy Posts: 248
    True enough. Otherwise Cadel wouldn't be contesting the Yellow Jersey.

    Hang on, err, where's Cadel gone? :lol:
  • meanredspider
    meanredspider Posts: 12,337
    Interested to read this as a colleague has just done the Etape and he was telling me about his nutrition - which included 3 cans of Coke which astonished me as nearly everything else was far more natural. He hopelessly underestimated how much energy he'd need to take on and was very disappointed to only scrape into the top 1/3 for his age group (over 50).

    I use Red Bull when car racing but it actually contains a lot less sugar than I thought. I got a fantastic email a year or so ago which showed the equivalent cubes of sugar for many food types. IIRC Red Bull was only 3 or 4.
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  • mrc1
    mrc1 Posts: 852
    cjcp wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done. I drink a fair bit of coke (i dont drink coffee) and often have it while out on a ride when i need an energy kick. It does have two major drawbacks though:

    1. The fizziness makes for an uncomfortable stomach.

    2. Warm coke is foul - it makes your mouth feel furry!!

    For sprint tris, I used two cans of Red Bull. Found them better than things like High 5 for those shorter distances.

    Sometimes, on longer rides, I just need an immediate sugar hit while the longer-absorbing stuff kicks in. At the bottom of Alpe D'Huez, I needed sugar and something which tasted a bit different to energy drinks. That was the first time during the ride I drank it. For longer tris, flat coke was great for similar periods during the run when I sensed the wheels were coming off.

    I drank too many vodka redbullls at uni and now cant drink the stuff.... Even the smell turns my stomach!!
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  • vorsprung
    vorsprung Posts: 1,953
    Aidy wrote:
    vorsprung wrote:
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    It was Cadel Evans drinking it on yesterdays ride that made me think "wow, energy levels must be really low or being sapped at an alarming rate for him to be drinking that mid-ride".

    Remind me DDD...have you ever ridden 100 miles?

    What's special about 100 miles?

    Nothing super special
    Some people say that long distance training begins when the counter shows 3 digits
    Tour Stages are usually 100 mile-ish
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  • vorsprung
    vorsprung Posts: 1,953
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    Actually yes, yes, I have. It was over the course of a week... maybe a month but it was 100 miles nonetheless and I won't have any word said against it! :lol:

    But seriously, I'm just guessing. I know coke has large amounts of sugar and caffine and in the short term will give you a large energy boost but the trade off is that its largely unhealthy and the short sudden burst of energy preceeds a crash. So I figured that in an endurance race (such as the tour) it would be a last resort option/...

    I could be wrong enlighten me.

    The amount of sugar in a small can of Coke is a small contribution towards the energy that a rider would have to replace over the several hours that a typical TdF stage takes. And mountain stages would demand more energy. So it might generate a small spike followed by a small low, but in the scheme of things after hours of riding it's no big deal.

    Your body gets in a peculiar state when exercising this hard for so long

    The caffeine and sodium in the drink probably make up for slightly less than desirable simple sugars

    If a can of Coke as a stimulant was really a "last resort option" it would make for some great adverts
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  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    mrc1 wrote:
    cjcp wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done. I drink a fair bit of coke (i dont drink coffee) and often have it while out on a ride when i need an energy kick. It does have two major drawbacks though:

    1. The fizziness makes for an uncomfortable stomach.

    2. Warm coke is foul - it makes your mouth feel furry!!

    For sprint tris, I used two cans of Red Bull. Found them better than things like High 5 for those shorter distances.

    Sometimes, on longer rides, I just need an immediate sugar hit while the longer-absorbing stuff kicks in. At the bottom of Alpe D'Huez, I needed sugar and something which tasted a bit different to energy drinks. That was the first time during the ride I drank it. For longer tris, flat coke was great for similar periods during the run when I sensed the wheels were coming off.

    I drank too many vodka redbullls at uni and now cant drink the stuff.... Even the smell turns my stomach!!

    I dunno, the youth of today, eh? When I were a lad, we had to make do with Four-Ex, not these fancy new drinks. :)
    FCN 2-4.

    "What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
    "It stays down, Daddy."
    "Exactly."
  • mrc1
    mrc1 Posts: 852
    cjcp wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    cjcp wrote:
    mrc1 wrote:
    Coke is pretty common in the triathlons and similar events that I have done. I drink a fair bit of coke (i dont drink coffee) and often have it while out on a ride when i need an energy kick. It does have two major drawbacks though:

    1. The fizziness makes for an uncomfortable stomach.

    2. Warm coke is foul - it makes your mouth feel furry!!

    For sprint tris, I used two cans of Red Bull. Found them better than things like High 5 for those shorter distances.

    Sometimes, on longer rides, I just need an immediate sugar hit while the longer-absorbing stuff kicks in. At the bottom of Alpe D'Huez, I needed sugar and something which tasted a bit different to energy drinks. That was the first time during the ride I drank it. For longer tris, flat coke was great for similar periods during the run when I sensed the wheels were coming off.

    I drank too many vodka redbullls at uni and now cant drink the stuff.... Even the smell turns my stomach!!

    I dunno, the youth of today, eh? When I were a lad, we had to make do with Four-Ex, not these fancy new drinks. :)

    Funnily enough it would be vodka red bulls in wetherspoons and then a move onto Four X in the nightclub as that was the cheapest drink going!
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  • swagman
    swagman Posts: 115
    What be wrong more than a cup of tea with 2 sugars eh?
  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,440
    swagman wrote:
    What be wrong more than a cup of tea with 2 sugars eh?

    It's hard to balance the saucer when you're riding along though.
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  • lost_in_thought
    lost_in_thought Posts: 10,563
    Pokerface wrote:
    laughingboy wrote:
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/


    If you drink too much coke while sitting around watching TV then you MIGHT experience a crash. If you're riding a 100 mile mountain stage in the Tour you will NOT experience a crash from the sugar.

    Really? Explain!
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  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    This thread is full of more misinformation and assumption than I've ever seen!

    If you drink a very sugary drink and then do exercise *and don't eat or drink anything during* then you can bonk when the insulin triggered by the intake of sugar deals with all the sugar you've taken in, leaving you depleted. But the TdF riders are drinking coke as just one part of a near-constant effort to feed and water themselves over 200km of hard riding.
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  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    lost_in_thought wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    laughingboy wrote:
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/


    If you drink too much coke while sitting around watching TV then you MIGHT experience a crash. If you're riding a 100 mile mountain stage in the Tour you will NOT experience a crash from the sugar.

    Really? Explain!

    If you had ridden bike more than 5 miles back and forth to work I wouldn't have to. :roll:
  • lost_in_thought
    lost_in_thought Posts: 10,563
    Pokerface wrote:
    lost_in_thought wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    laughingboy wrote:
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/


    If you drink too much coke while sitting around watching TV then you MIGHT experience a crash. If you're riding a 100 mile mountain stage in the Tour you will NOT experience a crash from the sugar.

    Really? Explain!

    If you had ridden bike more than 5 miles back and forth to work I wouldn't have to. :roll:

    How about a 180-mile tour of Norfolk? Or a 250 mile tour around Normandy? Or a long weekend of cycling in Wales? Or more 60m+ rides than I can count? Do any of those convince you to deign me worthy of a response?

    Or you could just not be a patronising muppet and answer the question.

    :roll:
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  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    I guess that the argument would be something along the lines of - if you are working very hard, you don't get the sugar spike, because you are using it up at a high rate.

    Doesn't explain having a bright blue fuzzy head, red nose, and a man's arm up your bottom though.
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,356
    People on the internet will argue over anything

    FACT

    Also, I must confess I had a Cadburys Wholenut too.

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  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    TailWindHome wrote:
    People on the internet will argue over anything

    FACT

    Also, I must confess I had a Cadburys Wholenut too.

    Should Cadburys have an apostrophe?
    It depends how many of them there are. If the whole family is present, I'd say no.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    lost_in_thought wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    lost_in_thought wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    laughingboy wrote:
    Mmm. 10 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of caffeine in a little red can. Ni-ice.

    Your body will crash. Whether this is as bad a comedown after cocaine is, however, unlikely.

    http://blisstree.com/feel/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/


    If you drink too much coke while sitting around watching TV then you MIGHT experience a crash. If you're riding a 100 mile mountain stage in the Tour you will NOT experience a crash from the sugar.

    Really? Explain!

    If you had ridden bike more than 5 miles back and forth to work I wouldn't have to. :roll:

    How about a 180-mile tour of Norfolk? Or a 250 mile tour around Normandy? Or a long weekend of cycling in Wales? Or more 60m+ rides than I can count? Do any of those convince you to deign me worthy of a response?


    No.

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