Taurine or Bull?
March 1st 2007 05:57
I recently developed the bad habit of drinking a small container of chocolate milk in the morning. This violated a couple of the guidelines I try to maintain for what I eat and drink. It is full of sugar and I am addicted to sugar and try not to fall off the wagon too much. I also try not to drink my carbohydrates. I want to keep them relatively low in number and enjoy the one's I get by eating them,not whisking them down my throat.
To put an end to my milk habit I got myself to drink a sugar free energy drink in its place. Now, a lifetime of reading bodybuilding magazines has made me label conscious. So, I read the label of the energy drink I was consuming and discovered that it contained 1000 mg of the amino acid Taurine. This peaked my interest. I think of Taurine as a low profile amino acid. I'm a fan of Arginine, for instance.Its a high profile amino acid. The branch chain aminos had a period of fame about 15 years ago. Glutamine is still basking in a publicity glow,but I wondered how Taurine had come to star in this energy drink.
Because I am so modern I let my mouse take me right to Google, where I was reminded once again how the drink business works. It seems that Taurine has two properties that are of interest. It optimizes the contractile function of muscles and it is found in the brain where it apparently functions in processes that end in mental acuity. There is only one problem. There is not evidence of any quantity that increasing plasma levels of Taurine will result in more availability for either of these functions. The body has an inconvenient habit of thwarting our attempts to supplement some things while fully cooperating with others. So far it looks like Taurine is on the stubborn list.
It seems that we have classic advertising at work here. The manufacturer edits through the facts and picks out what suits him and requires the consumer to search out the less profitable facts on his own. Am I hurting myself by drinking a Taurine drink? No. Am I getting benefit? Harder to say at the least. There are lots of other things in the drink that are probably doing me some good-not to mention the placebo effect.
Here's the real downside in my opinion. My energy drink has a sister drink which is not sugar free. It has more sugar grams than my chocolate milk and the insulin rush from it must be considerable. Yet, most of the people I see drinking these energy drinks are drinking the sugared version. It has all of the same various good things and the dubious Taurine, but the sugar just negates the whole drink. If I had to choose one of these drinks or my chocolate milk every morning, I'd choose the milk. Your servant, as always.
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