Friday, February 24, 2012

Review of FRS and Quercetin supplementation

Last summer, I took advantage of FRS' offer of a Free Performance Pack. FRS had sponsored several running races that I'd done and I liked the product. To keep this review short, the 'secret ingredient' of FRS, the antioxidant Quercetin, basically won't help you (according to the primary literature I reviewed in pubmed). Should you care to read more about Quercetin, check out this thoughtful article from Lava magazine, "Plates Not Pills: Quercetin."

There was a bit of a delay in shipping due to an apparent overload of interest, but the package was still a bargain at a price of only Free + $4 for shipping. 




The pack included a bunch of single-serving sized powder bags (in the white and orange box), two cans of FRS, and two packs of energy chews. Since Quercetin has only two possible ways of helping an athlete: 1) through working (and it doesn't), or 2) through the placebo effect (which can be very powerful, but was unfortunately lost on me since I knew it wouldn't work...), the energy chews were rather ineffectual, and tasted more like medicine than anything. I prefer Sport Jellies or, especially, CLIF Shot Bloks. I use Shot Bloks on the bike during longer races to augment my primary bike nutrition of IM Perform and Powerbars. 

Photo courtesy of a review from iwaslazy.com 

The powdered mix had a pleasant flavor, but was difficult to fully dissolve into solution and had a very powerful dye in it. I'm pretty sure it could stain a brand new teflon pan. 

The drink, however, is really where FRS shines despite it's false promise of a benefit from Quercetin. Many triathletes, especially in Ironman races, like to take Red Bull during the run. With all of the amazingly unnecessary ingredients in Red Bull, including the ever-pointless Taurine and a fairly large dose of caffeine, FRS presents itself as a great alternative for the athlete that wants a quick load of caffeine and carbohydrates during the run leg. For those that currently use or are interested in using Red Bull or other energy drinks during your training and racing, I would strongly recommend that you consider replacing it with FRS. I may even leave a can in my run special needs bag at IM Coeur d'Alene this June. 

Plus, if you're a Tebow fan, they're sponsoring him and helping share the word about his foundation: 

In summary, FRS is a nicely flavored drink that blends a little bit of caffeine and carbs into a nice package. While the energy chews left much to be desired, the drink is a great option for replacing Red Bull in your long-distance triathlon special needs bag. 




2 comments:

  1. Hmmm...Is FRS the secret Tebows 4th quarter comebacks? Might be a hit or miss thing with effectiveness.

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  2. I ordered a Free Performance Package but did not receive the canned drinks, only the three other items. I mixed the orange flavored powdered drink up (shaking vigorously to dissolve the powder) and found that it had a pleasant orange juice flavor at first, but after consumed left a bitter taste in my mouth, especially the sides of my tongue. I had to rinse my mouth out with water to get some relief. I noted the heavy dye as well. The rinse water coming out of my mouth was almost the same color as the drink going in. I have no idea yet what the energy effects will be, but so far I'm less than impressed.

    Thanks for your review but when you stated that the drinks were beneficial did you mean the powdered drinks as well as the canned drinks too, or solely the canned drinks?

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