New Study Supports Positive Effects of Baking Soda on Athletic Performance

17/09/2024 16:22

By Sophia Vale on SwimSwam

*Disclaimer – Please always consult your medical doctor before experimenting with any changes in diet or supplements.

A recent breakthrough in Sweden is shining the spotlight on sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda, as a real contender in the world of legal performance enhancing substances. In July, Maurten, a Swedish sports nutrition company that has been creating innovative drinks and gels using baking soda since 2015, released a study supporting the claims that their Bicarb System successfully boosts athletic performance with minimal to no gastrointestinal side effects.

Studies have been conducted since the 80s exploring the potential for sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to enhance athletic performance in high-intensity exercises that range from 1 to 10 minutes (think lifting, sprinting, etc.). How? By elevating the threshold at which athletes start to feel the burn of fatigue in their muscles. The theory for why and how that happens has changed over the decades, but today we understand that it has to do with baking soda's interaction with the hydrogen ions in our muscles.

If you're like me and are wondering why you haven't heard of anyone using baking soda before a race if this info has been around since the 80s, it's because it's not as simple as it sounds. Consuming baking soda on its own will almost surely send you into gastrointestinal torment. Most people report symptoms such as bloating, cramping, vomiting and even explosive diarrhea. To most, the risk far outweighs the reward. Until now…with this study proving that Maurten's new hydrogel technology allows athletes to utilize the performance enhancing technology of baking soda without having to fear the gastrointestinal mayhem. Basically, the hydrogel formula smuggles the baking soda through the stomach allowing it to safely enter the small intestine before being released.

However, even with the hydrogel safeguarding athletes from major toilet trauma, Kristin Jenny with Cycling Weekly reviewed the less-than-pleasant experience of actually consuming Maurten's Bicarb System back in June of 2023. She writes, "The mix is an acquired taste and texture. It is not as firm as a Maurten gel (which is similar to Jello) but not exactly drinkable. 

You are not supposed to chew the sodium bicarbonate discs, so I had to shut off my brain and gulp down the slightly sweet, tasteless, cold goopy mix. The mixing bowl is about two-thirds full of the mixture when everything is mixed, so it is more than 10+ spoonfuls of glop going down your gullet. 

First impression: not great and not easy to consume from a psychologically enjoyable standpoint. I couldn't imagine being game to scarf this down on a dark, cold race morning." She notes that Maurten also instructs athletes to wait a full 90 minutes after consuming the mixture before they begin their exercise.

A revelation from the Maurten study is that baking soda can make a difference for both sprint and endurance athletes. Previously, it was assumed that baking soda would only aid athletes in high-intensity, short-duration exercises. The Maurten study shows that over the course of a 50-kilometer bicycle time trial, cyclists received a 1.4% boost. That means in a race that lasts about an hour it helped cyclists shave off a minute. A whole minute. Elite athletes know what difference a second can make, and this gives them an entire minute?

Alex Hutchinson, a reporter with Outside, has been following the rise of baking soda (no pun intended) closely, especially at the Olympics. "In Paris, I watched another batch of newly crowned champions swear by it: triathlete Alex Yee, mile superstar Faith Kipyegon, along with Cheptegei, Hodgkinson, and others."

So, is everyone going to start using baking soda now? Maybe not. It costs $70 to get your hands on a jar of the Maurten Bicarb System, which yields only four servings. If other companies can hop on the hydrogel bandwagon and provide more servings at a lower cost, it may become more mainstream, especially for amateur athletes. However, the Maurten system is patent pending in Europe and the U.S.

Are there any moral considerations? Given how readily available baking soda is, many commentators seem unbothered by it. Hutchinson writes "I find it hard to get worked up about the ethics of baking soda. It's like caffeine: clearly performance-boosting, but so common and harmless—diarrhea aside—that you can't construe it as cheating." 

So what's next? "There are two ways this can go," Hutchinson writes. "One is that baking soda, in its newly digestible form, becomes as ubiquitous as caffeine for endurance athletes. The other is that it goes the way of previous supplement frenzies like ketones and beet juice: not entirely discredited, but more of novelty than a necessity despite initially promising scientific data…But before we anoint baking soda as the new caffeine, we're going to need more studies."

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