Ketone-Based Sports Drink Promises Edge for Athletes

A sports drink that tests suggest can increase performance levels by up to two percent will go on the market later this year. The key ingredients of the drink are flavoured compounds called ketones which the drink's developers say, are particularly effective in enhancing performance in endurance athletes. Jim Drury has more.
The creators of the DeltaG drink say it could give professional athletes an advantage.

Developed at the University of Oxford, it has a novel ingredient - lab-produced ketones, which mimic the ketones, or compounds, found naturally in the body as acids left over after fat is burned.

British World Champion rower Brianna Stubbs was in the team that developed the drink and says it helps her row faster.

DeltaG is the result of 20 years work by Professor Kieran Clarke.

She says ketones are absorbed rapidly by the body's organs and are a valuable energy source. They're produced naturally when the body is being starved. Providing them in drink form, says Clarke, provides all the gain, and no pain.

"Over time when you haven't eaten you produce these ketones and it takes about seven days to two weeks, in fact, to bring the ketone levels up and we can get that same level within one drink."

Drinks in orange, chocolate, coffee and berry flavours will go on the market in the US this year.

Credit to Reuters.