Utveckling av en ny sportdryck för uthållighetsidrott

Sammanfattning: The aim of this examination project work was to develop one new sports drink for consumption during prolonged exercise. Most existing sports drinks contain carbohydrates and electrolytes but the drink developed during this project work aimed to contain protein/amino acids and other substances that potentially may help the athlete to perform better compared with sports dinks containing only carbohydrates and electrolytes. Since it is unclear if whole proteins, oligopeptides or free amino acids are preferred, three different sports drink where developed. All three sports drinks contain 25 mmol Na+/l, 5.5 mmol K+/l, 240 mg caffeine (per serving), high molecular weight glucose polymer (7%), aromas, beta-carotene and other substances supposed to improve the taste of the drinks. The three drinks contain different sources of amino acids: 0.47% branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) in the BCAA-sports drink, 2% whey protein in the Whey protein-sports drink and 0.8% hydrolyzed casein (oligopeptides) in the Peptopro®-sports drink. The serving size of each sports drink is 0.75 l. As the drinks should taste well and be easy to drink during exercise blinded tasting tests were performed. During these tests prototypes and the final versions of all three sports drinks were compared to a placebo drink containing no amino acids or caffeine. The results from the taste-tests show that none of the test drinks or the placebo drink exhibited significantly better taste (p>0.05). However, the BCAA-sports drink, the Whey protein-sports drink and the placebo drink was shown to taste better than the Peptopro®-sports drink. To investigate the effects of the sports drinks on performance, two elite trained cyclists were supplemented with the test drinks and the placebo drink during interval-trials on a cycle ergometer equipped to measure power output during blinded tests. The power output was compared to the heart rate of each test participant. The placebo drinks contained 8% carbohydrates but no caffeine or amino acids. The results indicate that all three sports drinks either were considered equal, or improved the performance, as compared to the placebo drink. All drinks were considered to taste well during exercise. These findings indicate that the three sports drinks developed during this project work, improved performance and tasted well. However, it is desired to improve the taste of both the Peptopro®-sports drink and the Whey protein-sports drink. Alternative drinks containing no caffeine should be developed in order for the athlete to intake large quantities of the developed sports drinks during prolonged exercise