Honey Is Good for Optimum Athletic Feats
A runner under training is ready to succumb to exhaustion after running for miles. Then suddenly, his trainer meets him at a corner and hands him a small elongated plastic bag with a golden yellow syrupy substance, which he drinks after biting through the plastic. Then he continues to run. Moments after, he looks rejuvenated and seems ready to trek through more miles.
Effects of Drinking Honey
What did he just drink? Natural raw honey. Because honey has glucose and fructose which are easily absorbed in the body, its energizing effect is almost instant. Some athletes are regularly given this in lieu of commercialized energy drinks in their course of training. Honey has been observed and proven to give an extra boost for physical stamina and endurance. And it’s safer, too.
Not just that, honey has also been known for its medicinal uses.
The yearly Experimental Biology conference, where six societies of about 14,000 scientists and guests from 50 societies meet, said in one of its meets that honey extends a considerable performance enhancement to sports practitioners and athletes, especially during peak performance or when performing strenuous training.
“Many studies have shown carbohydrates as a critical nutrient in physical performance,” said Richard Kreide. The principal investigator of the University of Memphis Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory.
Kreide added, “Most studies to date have shown supplementation with glucose providing the extra staying power. We were pleased to find that honey, a ‘cocktail’ of various natural sugars, performed just as well,”.
Honey Testing
The team of researchers asked aggressive male cyclists to keep cycling for 64 kilometers every week. They fed them different energy-boosting beverages—dextrose gel, a flavored placebo that was calorie-free, and honey. The participants were divided, each group gave particular energy supplements of 15 grams with 250 milliliters of water prior to the race. They were given their respective drinks every 16 kilometers they traveled on the bike.
Those given honey and dextrose gel performed better in terms of staying cycling power than those given the placebo supplement. Although cyclists who took the dextrose gel did slightly better than the honey group, the researchers decided the difference was insignificant. They still established the fact that honey is an effective natural carbohydrate or energy-giving supplement for athletes.
The same effect can be enjoyed when training in different strenuous and energy-intensive sports—basketball, volleyball, football, track and field, swimming, and other aero sports. These sports use so much calories and burn them fast so that athletes often get too exhausted to continue anymore. Their bodies need to get more calories fast.
Conclusion
Ordinary sugar can give the same energy, but not as fast as honey can. In its liquid form, it is easily absorbed by the body. In addition, it has healthful nutrients the body needs, unlike sugar which gives off nothing but sugar.
Just make sure you are buying natural raw honey. There are lots of fake honey brands being sold in the market today.
Source: ( scientificamerican.com )
