According to researchers at the University of Hertfordshire, athletes in training for the London Marathon can enhance their on-field performance by giving importance to what they eat and drink.

Dr Peter Jones, a Senior Lecturer at the University’s School of Life Sciences said that it was found out that some food products and drinks can be ingested to deliver dramatic sports performance.

From News-Medical.Net:

“The improvements in performance were only seen when the carbohydrate loaded was low in GI,” said Matt. “The mechanism behind this may be due to the increases seen in blood glucose throughout the time trial.”

Another research project undertaken by postgraduate student, Nick Tiller, found that athletes could maximise their performance through drinking mixed carbohydrate drinks, as opposed to those containing single carbohydrates only.

“This is important because, for example, if you drink commercially available sports drinks, you can only ingest 70 grammes of maltodextrin per hour, which may not be enough to maximise your performance,” said Dr Jones. “But if you supplement this with, for example fructose, you can open up two channels and increase the amount of glucose available to your body.

“There is no doubt but that the foods that we eat have a significant effect on performance. Those in serious training need to give this more thought if they are to maximise their performance.”

Apart from these healthy food products and drinks, a medically guided intake of health supplements and steroids such as Winstrol, Deca Durabolin, and Clomid can help sportsmen gain optimum benefits. But, it is recommended that steroids and sports must be mixed only after a qualified medical advice because an uninformed or indiscriminate usage of steroids can lead to side-effects.