Delivering get-up-and-go drinks

market has seen a significant rise in sports and energy drink beverages. Demand for water-based flavoured drinks, including 'sport', 'energy', or 'electrolyte' drinks and particulated drinks, is similarly on the rise. In addition to caffeine, which is the main stimulant in most drinks of this type, today's get-up-and-go beverages also contain less sugar. The choice of sweetener is essential since consumers who purchase these drinks - whether an athlete seeking sustained bursts of power, students cramming for exams or moms on weight-loss diets - look for the boost that carbs provide, but don't want added calories. Nutrient premixes for energy shots 'Energy shots' offer the kick of full-size energy drinks in a single dose (60 to 80 ml) and a smaller, more convenient package. They are small, handy and full of pep. As a concentrated variant, energy shots contain a mixture of caffeine, various B vitamins, inositol and taurine - but in much higher concentration. The segment offer additional stimulus for growth, says Verena Budnick of SternVitamin, which offers manufacturers individually formulated premixes that are easy and economical to use. "Energy shots are meant to increase concentration, performance and the ability to react within a very short time. Since the active ingredients are so highly concentrated, you only need a small amount to achieve the desired effect," explains Ms Budnick. "Our vitamin mixtures are produced at our own factory. The nutrients are made up with classic ingredients like caffeine and taurine or alternatively with performance-stimulating plant extracts like guarana, ginseng or ginkgo biloba, just as the customer wishes," she adds. "Naturally all the ingredients are proportioned according to the customer's instructions and no longer have to be weighed in separately." Slow release carbohydrate New research* defines physiological benefits of Beneo's Palatinose disaccharide carbohydrate following a detailed series of human studies. Researchers led by Ines Holub investigated the following: ●Whether Palatinose would be fully digestible and available from foods and drinks in humans ●Whether the slow release of the isomaltulose led to complete digestion and absorption and how this would be reflected in its blood glucose response ●What the acceptance and tolerance of Palatinose consumption would be over a longer period of time in the human metabolism, in comparison with sucrose. The first study confirmed that Palatinose is indeed essentially fully digested and absorbed from the small intestine, irrespective of its consumption with food or beverages. It concludes that digestibility and absorption of 50g of the isomaltulose in two different food applications was essentially complete. "Apparent digestibility of 50 g [isomaltulose] from two different meals was 95.5 and 98.8 %; apparent absorption was 93.6 and 96.1 %, respectively," Holub et al. write. In the second study, a three-hour blood glucose response test was done in healthy adults, showed a significantly lower blood glucose and insulin response for Palatinose in comparison to sucrose and demonstrated that - unlike sucrose - it is a low glycaemic carbohydrate. For the third study, a double blind, controlled intervention trial was conducted in which adults with raised blood lipids consumed 50g of Palatinose or sucrose every day. The trial included various foods as part of a controlled typical Western diet over a four-week period. The study demonstrated that regular consumption was well tolerated and had no detrimental effects on blood lipids (including cholesterol and LDL cholesterol) or cardiovascular risk markers. These findings suggest that, taken regularly over longer periods of time, the isomaltulose may have beneficial effects on carbohydrate metabolism. (thAir Max 95 20th Anniversary