Alexis · Fondateur d'YVY Maté
Mate is one of athletes' favorite drinks - both as a sporting aid and as a drink to share with those around them.
Football remains the sport with the most yerba drinkers. Global stars like the Argentine genius Lionel Messi and his French teammate Griezmann are often spotted gourd in hand before matches and in the locker room.
So why do athletes love yerba mate so much? What are mate's benefits for sport?
Mate and sport: a drink for performance
French forward Antoine Griezmann is a yerba fanatic. His love for the drink helped popularize yerba mate in France after the French team's World Cup triumph.
Introduced to the South American drink by his Uruguayan teammate Carlos Bueno, Griezmann sings the praises of yerba mate across social media. He's also had several of his French teammates try the hot drink - like Manchester United playmaker Paul Pogba.
In interviews, the FC Barcelona player says his concentration, reflexes and mental well-being are all boosted by drinking the hot beverage.
But are these effects scientifically proven? What impact does mate have on athletic performance?
The studies on mate and sport
Mate and sport
A recently published study examined yerba mate's effects on performance and physical activity in eleven well-trained male cyclists.*
*[Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018 Jul; 50 (7): 1525].
The cyclists were split into two groups:
- One group consumed five grams of yerba mate a day for five days, and on the morning of an exercise trial.
- The other group consumed five grams of a placebo substance.
The study consisted of a maximal oxygen uptake test (from very easy to quite hard). Each stage lasted five minutes.
The cyclists then completed a time trial (around 30 minutes), performing a predetermined amount of work.
Alongside the time-trial performance measurements, all cyclists underwent blood tests and respiratory tests to assess any metabolic difference while taking the yerba mate.
Neither the cyclists nor the researchers knew who was drinking the yerba mate, or when.
The studies' results
Studying mate's effect on performance
The first key finding: when the cyclists drank yerba, the scientists observed a highly significant 23% increase in fat burning during the test's more moderate intensity levels.
At much higher intensities - that is, during the time trial, when carbohydrate burning was the main energy source - there were no significant differences in carbohydrate oxidation rates.
There was, however, a performance difference: when the cyclists drank the beverage, they finished the time trial in 29.4 minutes, 2.2% faster than with the placebo (30.1 minutes).
Deeper analysis also showed the South American drink let the cyclists increase their power output by seven watts.
Mate for athletes and amateur sportspeople
Mate, popular in the football world
So, is mate good for all kinds of athletes?
Yerba mate is rich in various properties: it contains vitamins (A, C, E, B1, B2), magnesium, potassium and phosphorus.
Its antioxidants are useful dietary allies, helping with weight management, while the vitamin B and C content matters for keeping the immune system healthy.
Like previous studies, this one shows yerba's ability to improve fat burning during moderate-intensity exercise for amateur athletes.
What's new here is that it also appears to improve endurance performance in well-trained endurance athletes - something never observed before.
Furthermore, other recent research in animal studies suggests yerba mate may be able to increase the rate of mitochondrial synthesis*.
*[Mol Nutr Food Res. May 31, 2018: e1800142].
Mate and athletes
As you've surely seen, mate is one of athletes' favorite drinks - footballers especially. Here are a few examples:
Messi and his pre-match mate
Samuel Umtiti and his personalized gourd
Griezmann before a match with the French national team
Cavani and his mate, a true tradition
Suárez and his mate gourd at Liverpool
Del Potro in Paris before Roland-Garros
Di María, never without his mate!
Synonymous with a culture, yerba has gradually won over many athletes, as much for the taste as for the performance benefits. We're seeing more and more devotees out in the open with full equipment - mate kits - to enjoy a traditional mate (gourd, bombilla and thermos).
