Sports 'Products' Do Not Work

Ron Stuart

brettjmcc wrote:

but it is up to people to make informed choices.

That is the whole point the information that the vast number of people are given is from the food and drinks industry which is purely based on business opportunity and marketing bullsh*t.
We need to be given much better independent and regulated information to have better informed choices and it's not just 'Sports' products it's what we consume in general.

brettjmcc

Ron,
I agree, but hopefully the generally educated person can work out that certain things just aren't good for us, a lot of us do get hooked ont he marketting though. I know choclate is bad, but it doesn't stop me eating it (and other stuff for that matter).

I can only go on what I do personally know and how I feel through trying to look at stuff and even trying it out.

If I need a boost during the day, I may go and buy a bottle of Lucozade (not Sport) because it has Glucose in it (but I am aware of this).

Similarly, yes, I admit, I do use sports drinks (well my own blend of Matodextrin/Fructose/Salt) when I am out on a long ride. I do this though, as I find it easier than to eat, I don't think even Graeme Obree disputed you need some form of Carbohydrate, he just did through jam sandwiches

Similarly, I do use protein. Not because I have read the blurb, but through years of trying it and either being on it or not. Whilst not scientific, when I used to spend a lot of time in the gym, I found that my muscle recovery and growth did work better when using it as a supplement - but this is just me and it worked for me.

I agree their needs to be better research, which is independent and objective. In the meantime stock up on those espressos and caffeine gels, as apparently they are a performance enhancer LOL

dw300

They also missed out on the fact that sports drinks are generally extremely tasty, loved by those who dont want an overcarbonated beverage, cheaper than pure fruit juices, comparable in price to those fizzy drinks and only marginally more expensive to most bottled waters which, as I said before, they taste better than.

What I'm trying to say is that a lot of people drink them completely ignoring the fact that they are supposedly performance enhancing .. this wasnt even hinted at by the BBC.

The one thing I was extremely surprised by was that orthotic inserts don't make any difference in avoiding injury when running according to the BBC .. surely some liberal interpretation of the stats there?!

Neil Holland

Watched this on iPlayer last night.

While some interesting observations some of it definitely needed to be taken with a pinch of electrolyte…

No differentiation between SIS and other grown up sports drinks and Lucozade sport.

On the running shoe thing the evidence of my own legs rather disagreed about the need for gait analysis etc.

Clearly sports marketeers are clever but on long rides you need to drink and sometimes getting a protein shake down your neck as soon as you can after a 100 mile ride is something your legs will thank you for…

Ho hum

N

vorsprung

It's kinda like saying that diet products don't work. Low calorie stuff only works as "part of a program of eating"

I haven't seen the tv show but I did read the journal article

http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4737

I disagree with the points in the article about electrolytes. I don't use hi carb sports drinks but water with electrolytes in works for me

The section "Marketing to athletes or ordinary people?" is echoing what people above have said though. If you drink lucazade sport and sit on the sofa you will get fat, it won't make you sporty. Kinda obvious really. And spending half an hour in the gym doesn't qualify you for a sugary treat either. So the vast majority of people who drink the stuff shouldn't be.