Forget the Causeway Classic. This year's big game at UC Davis saw sports-formulated jelly beans go up against two other carbohydrate supplements: sports drinks and gels.

And the winner is ... all three. Researchers with the UC Davis Sports Medicine Program found that Sport Beans from the Fairfield-based Jelly Belly Candy Co. were just as effective as popular sports drinks and gels in maintaining blood sugar levels and improving the exercise performance among competitive endurance athletes. Jelly Belly provided free Sport Beans for the study.

The Sports Medicine Program announced in April that it would carry out the study, and reported the results last month as a poster presentation in San Diego, at the an-nual meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Sixteen cyclists and triathletes -- healthy, nonsmoking men and women aged 23 to 45 -- participated in the study. On four occasions, the athletes performed 80 minutes of moderately intense exercise, then completed 10-kilometer time trials, while ingesting different carbohydrate supplements or water only.

When ingesting the carbohydrate supplements, the athletes achieved 32-to-38-second faster times in the trials, compared with the athletes' times when consuming water only. The researchers also found that athletes using Sport Beans completed the time trials with the highest average "power outputs," referring to the amount of force applied to the bicycle pedals to go faster.

Sports-formulated jelly beans contain electrolytes and vitamins that standard jelly beans do not.

Based on the study, the Sports Medicine Program recommends the following for athletes who decide to use sports-formulated jelly beans as a carbohydrate supplement: about half of a 1-ounce-sized bag for every 20 minutes of exercise, depending on body size.

-- David Ong, UC Davis Health System