Sipping a Pink Beverage Preride May Boost Your Endurance and Power

June 8, 2021

Drinking a beverage with a pink color before a ride may boost your endurance and power as opposed to reaching for regular, clear water, new research shows. Yahoo! Life

Psychologically, it’s common to associate the color pink with sweetness, and we tend to reach for sweet tastes before exercise in anticipation of using the glucose to fuel muscle activation.

Just before you head out on your next ride, you decide to reach for a pink-hued drink for hydration instead of just regular water. How much of a difference can it really make? According to a small study in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, the answer might be surprising.

Researchers recruited 10 participants to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes, allowing them to select their own speed. Throughout the run, they rinsed their mouths with an artificially sweetened drink that was either pink or clear—the drinks were the same except for a few drops of food dye to achieve the pink tint. During a second session, they had the other drink.

When rinsing with the pink selection, they showed more endurance and intensity than when they drank a clear drink—on average, they ran 212 meters further and increased their speed by 4.4 percent. They also reported higher levels of enjoyment in their efforts during the pink-fueled run.