Coffee before exercise, Beer after?
A couple of months ago I wrote about a study that found drinking coffee or other caffeinated drinks an hour before exercise will reduce muscle pain.
But here’s a study that goes one better and suggests that drinking beer after exercise improves your hydration better than drinking water would.
The study from Spain is a couple of years old and I haven’t seen any follow-up studies which makes it difficult to judge it’s accuracy.
So have a read and see what you think.
The study done by researchers at Granada University in Spain tested 25 students over several months, asking them to run on a treadmill at 104F temperatures until they were close to exhaustion. At that point, their level of hydration, concentration, and motor skills were measurd.
Then half of the students were given 2 half pints of Spanish lager to drink and the remaining students were given just water.
The study found that those who drank the beer had a slightly better rehydration effection than those who drink only water.
The researchers believe this is because the contents of the beer – sugars and salts – quickens the absorption of fluids. Further more, they think that the bubbles, caused by carbon dioxide, quenches thirst and carbohydrates in the beer replace calories lost in exercise.
Based on these results, the Spanish researchers went on to recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes’ diets. Their definition of moderate consumption being 500 mls per day for men and 250 mls per day for women.
So what do you think?
Should we being having a pre-exercise coffee and a post-exercise beer?
Don’t know about you but it all sounds too much for me!
Thanks for the information. Nice Research done. I had no idea that drinking beer after exercise improves your hydration. But I don’t drink so water is the beat for me. I would suggest it to my friends.
Don’t get me wrong; I love beer… probably a bit more than the average guy but beer has many more calories than water and if you drank it you would simply be replacing the calories you just burned through exercise with new calories from the beer. Frankly this holds true for sports drinks in general as well. Water is just fine unless you’re running a marathon; it takes a lot of effort to need to rehydrate so badly.
Now coffee before exercise; I’m up for that. I’ve even been known to drink coffee while exercising. I get plenty of looks but I like it.