You don’t have to be a runner to be a target of “energy drink” marketing. Truck drivers, office workers, and others who get tired, as well as runners, are easy marks. But a lot of that marketing is misleading, especially for athletes. Not all energy drinks actually give you energy.

One popular product, for example, is supposed to provide “5 hours” of energy in a tiny bottle not much larger than your big toe. To run for 5 hours, you might need to burn 4,000 calories, more or less (depending on the air temperature, terrain, and how fast you’re running, etc.). And how much does that big-toe-sized “5 hour” energy drink contain? Look on the label: 4 calories! If that drink were your only energy source, to run a marathon or 50k you’d have to drink a thousand of those little bottles, at a cost that could buy you a round-trip ticket from New York to Tokyo, or Antwerp to Tahiti!

Of course, the reality is that a lot of the energy you need for a long-distance run is stored in the muscles and liver, from the lunch and dinner you ate yesterday. But that may only be enough to take you 20 miles or so before you hit the wall, so if you’re running a marathon, triathlon, or ultra, you do need supplementary energy. And you still may need a hundred times what you’d get from that “5 hour” drink.

This doesn’t mean all energy drinks are useless. But for long-distance workouts or races, the supplement has to contain real energy, not just caffeine or other stimulants. Running magazines carry ads for legitimate sports drinks such as Succeed! and Heed. These legitimate products contain both plenty of calories (100-200 per 16-ounce drink) and enough electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium) to keep the muscles responding. Also note: the best drinks are available in powder form, and it’s important to make sure you have the right balance between the nutrient and the water you mix it with.

Meanwhile, how can the faux energy drinks have such booming sales? One reason is a widespread public confusion about nutrition. For years, people trying to lose weight and get fit have been taught to regard calories as bad. Low-calorie foods have been associated with lean bodies and good health. And it’s true that if you consume a lot more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. But calories are also energy, and if you’re running long distances and burning more energy than the average sedentary person, the only way to fuel your heart, lungs, and legs is to consume higher-than-average amounts of calories. And don’t worry about gaining weight! Long-distance runners burn enough energy, even when taking in extra calories along the way, to assure that that’s almost never a problem.

Ed Ayres
http://enduranceandsustainability.blogspot.com