Can Jelly Beans Enhance Physical Endurance? If you're about to set off on a 10K bicycle race, you can leave your water bottle behind as long as you have the right jelly beans. Or that's what the folks at Jelly Belly want you to think anyway. I just came across a flyer advertising Sport Beans - Jelly Belly's "energizing" product that supposedly enhances physical endurance better than water. The secret, apparently, is in the electrolytes, which "maintain fluid balance." Researchers at the University of California Davis tested that claim with a 10K bicycle race, following an endurance ride and - according to the flyer - Sport Beans performed "significantly better than water alone." The Sport Beans finish time: 17 minutes, 11 seconds. The Water finish time: 17 minutes, 49 seconds. In sports, 38 seconds is an eternity. So Sport Beans effectively crushed water. Yeah! Sport Beans rule! But once across the finish line, I doubt the water-drinking bicyclist begged for a Sport Beans fix, while the bicyclist who did it all with just Sport Beans surely stuck his head in a tub of water and drank it dry. Because you can't live without water! You certainly can't perform endurance sports without it. When I first told you about Sport Beans a couple of years ago, I quoted a dietician who pointed out that an orange would provide the same energy boost as an ounce of Sport Beans, but with the obvious benefit of water content. She added: "You can't get water out of a jelly bean." You can get a ridiculous study, but no water. | 
