#61. Sports Drinks Work (and You Don't Even Need to Drink Them) There were two other articles that backed up their claim and it has to do with how our brain receptors react to the sugary taste when it hits our tongue and our brain thinks that we have consumed the product (Carter, Jeukendrup & Jones, 2004). This post clearly follows inline with the below researched articles. They have a great article linked in their description of how and why it works and these two back up what they have to say.

Carter, J. M., Jeukendrup, A. E., & Jones, D. A. (2004). The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on 1-h cycle time trial performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36, 2107-2111.

Cycling performance of mouth rinse only using water and CHO

Burke, L. M., Wood, C., Pyne, D. B., Telford, R. D., & Saunders, P. U. (2005). Effect of carbohydrate intake on half-marathon performance of well-trained runners. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 15(6), 573.

Controlled study of half-marathon runners using water, a flavored placebo and commercial gel