Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Good afternoon,

I chose to research if energy drinks can adversly effect our health or if they are good for you like they claim because they contain vitamins. I always wanted to drink an energy drink before a basketball game to give me more energy and my mom was always against it because she doesn't think they are good for you. So she suggested I try this as an science experiment. So far I have done research on the ingredients and how they affect us. I have had two adults drinking different energy drink and testing their blood pressure and pulse before they have the drink and at thirty minute intervals. I also quiz them on how they feel. Am I on the right track for this experiment?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi seventh,

You have a very interesting question, and I'm glad to see that you are motivated by your own experiences!

"Health" is a very broad category, and you may not be able to see adverse health effects in a short period of time. I think the measurement of blood pressure and pulse is a good start. How long (total) are you testing these variables - over the course of 2 hours? What are your subjects doing during the 30 minutes in between your measurements?

One thing you could test is whether these drinks do help your subjects perform better on a certain task. The drinks are supposed to provide energy, so you could have your subjects do some sort of activity (sprint, use an exercise bike, run on a treadmill, etc.) that would require a lot of energy, and see how they perform with and without the energy drink. You can also measure heart rate and blood pressure before and after the exercise to relate it to your health effects. Note that you should test each person at the same time of day, so it would take more than one day to do this. For example, each person should do the task with the energy drink one day, but without it the next. You would also have to ask them to avoid caffeine and sugary foods and drinks during your testing days, since those are the kinds of ingredients in the drinks.

I would also suggest getting a few more people involved, if possible. The greater number of people you test, the more confidence you can have in your results.

So far, it appears you are off to a great start. Keep us posted with your progress!

Best wishes,
Heather

Thank you for your suggestions.

Hi Seventh,

I have a couple of other suggestions for an experiment for your project. The main difference between sports drinks and something else you might drink, such as fruit juice, are the sugar composition and the chemical composition of the color in the drink. Sports drinks contain high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes, while fruit juices contain sugars like glucose, fructose, and sucrose, and natural plant pigments. You could test the difference in these two types of drinks with one of the following projects:

1. What is the effect of SD vs FJ on glucose blood levels? For this project, you would need a glucose meter, testing strips, and volunteers to drink a sports drink one day, and fruit juce on another day, and you would find out if there is any difference in glucose levels after consuming the drinks. Please note that this is an experiment on humans, and you would need consent forms and permission to do the experiment. However, it would be excellent if you could do this. Ask your teacher about the procedures for getting approval to do an experiment like this. You would need to do background research to find out the significance of glucose blood levels.

2. Do ants/fungi prefer SD or FJ? For this experiment, you would use an invertebrate animal, such as ants, or a microbe, such as fungi, that normally would consume sweet drinks and find out if the organism prefers SD or FJ. If it is 18 degrees Centigrade (65 F.) where you live right now, you could do the ant experiment outside in the garden with wild ants. For the mold/fungi experiment, you could just set out open containers of SD and FJ in a protected spot, like a windowsill, where they won't get knocked over, and see which one shows mold growth first. For this project, you would need to do background research to find out about the nutritional requirements of humans, ants and/or fungi to see if you can make conclusions that would apply to humans (I think you would be able to do this).

3. Why don't you call one of the sports drink companies and ask for ideas? There is a lot of advertising that implies that sports drinks are healthy. Is there any scientific data to support the advertising claims? Perhaps you could get suggestions for a science experiment. You could call a fruit juice supplier and ask for similar information.

Donna Hardy

Thank you for your suggestions.

My sister did a similar experiment on sugar levels because she is hypoglycemic and thought it would be helpful to know what foods/drinks affected her blood sugar level; what raised her sugar level the most when hers was low.

Since we have the same science teacher, he might think this is to close to what she is doing.

I'm charting blood pressure readings after drinking energy drinks. I'm also charting pulse rates and energy output. I'm having problems determining how to calculate the different readings for the blood pressure. Do I need to show an average increase/decrease, and how to you do that with a reading of ex. 124/87, 135/75. Do I need to maybe chart the systolic and diastolic readings separately? HELP!!

Hi,

You are welcome. I agree that you should do a completely original project. However, there’s nothing wrong with using a technique that your sister did and designing a unique experiment. Your project should be evaluated on its own merits. If you do background reading and develop your hypothesis before designing your carefully controlled experiment, you should be able to do an excellent project.

The following site lists the glycemic index of several drinks, including Gatorade:

http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_foo ... _index.php

Notice that Gatorade has a glycemic index of 78, compared to all of the fruit juices, which are about 48. Generally, a lower glycemic index is considered more healthful, so you would probably see a difference in results with a project like this. The only problem with this project is that it would support your mother's point of view.

One of the primary considerations in selecting a project is to obtain results that are measurable. That's this nice part about the glucose meter; your results will give you a number. What about the mold or ant projects? Does either of these ideas appeal to you? Do you have any other ideas?

Donna Hardy

Hi Seventh,

You should always post your questions on the same topic on the same thread. I will ask the moderator to put this together with your earlier post. This helps the experts who are following your topic.

Here's a website that measured the effect of Gatorade vs water on heart rate, body mass, and blood pressure before and after exercise.

http://people.uwec.edu/dalleclc/KINSjou ... 202006.pdf

The researchers did report a difference in heart rate, but not in blood pressure, which implies that they did not find any difference in blood pressure. Why did you decide to do blood pressure?

I recommend plotting the systolic and diastolic measurements separately to see if there is any difference.

Donna Hardy

Hi I merged the new and old topics. Unfortunately, the posts are sorted by the time of posting, so things have become slightly scrambled. Donna's first post today (Feb 24) refers back to Seventh's first post today, and Donna's second post today refers back to Seventh's second post.

Hi Seventh,

Although you may not expect to see blood pressure changes with the use of sports drinks, there is a way to combine your systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) measurements. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) can be calculated using the following formula:

MAP = [(2 x diastolic) + systolic]/3

This gives a weighted average of blood pressure, because 2/3 of the cardiac cycle is spent in diastole (when the ventricles of the heart are relaxed), and 1/3 of the cycle is spent in systole (when the ventricles are contracting). You can compare the raw numbers to MAP before you decide which way to present your data.

Good luck!

Heather

Hey appreciable efforts. Actually I need to know which drink is healthy and which is not. I want to know where have you reached in your research. Which drink you have found full of nutrients? I am taking Green drink. Effects are good though. But I want to know your experience too.