Alcohol-free beer: ideal sports drink

It's a relieving feeling when, after a tough competition, the first drops of liquid hit your tongue at the finish line and find their way towards your stomach. As a runner you have already enjoyed this moment umpteen times, even in training. Drinking is not automatically drinking – here, too, a lot can be done right, but a lot can also be wrong. While water is the primary source of fluid, carbohydrate and mineral beverages must also be consumed to replace other nutrients lost during exercise. The ideal sports drink is non-alcoholic beer.

RunAustria head coach Johannes Langer only has positive things to say about non-alcoholic beer:

“Many non-alcoholic beers are isotonic, which means that in addition to water loss, they compensate for minerals such as potassium and magnesium and even vitamins from the B group. The maltodextrin dissolved in it replenishes the emptied glycogen stores. Another ingredient is polyphenols. These phytochemicals have a beneficial effect on inflammatory markers in the blood, which can lead to a lower susceptibility to infections.”

The German Sport University Cologne defines alcohol-free beer as a better thirst quencher than water or cola and describes it as the ideal drink not only after but also during a sporting session. Quickly available carbohydrates, the minerals and vitamins it contains, as well as the performance-maintaining and regenerative effect of non-alcoholic beer (regardless of whether it is wheat, pilsner or normal beer) are impressive. A study by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg came to the conclusion that the ingredients xanthohumol and iso-alpha acids contained in beer have a positive effect on the fat and sugar metabolism and supportively inhibit inflammatory processes. So non-alcoholic beer is also healthy. As soon as beer contains alcohol, however, these advantages are lost.

Anyone who only compensates for the body's fluid loss with water over a longer period of time during endurance running risks watering down their blood too much and reducing the sodium level too drastically. At a certain level, it can even be life-threatening. The function of drinking during exercise is not only to replenish fluids, but also to replenish carbohydrates and minerals. Non-alcoholic beer can do all of this perfectly.

At the Salzburg Marathon you can enjoy a Salzburger Sport Weisse, the non-alcoholic wheat beer from the traditional Salzburg company, in the finish area Stiegl, longstanding partner of the running festival in the city of Mozart.