The Truth About Sports Drinks and Your Family's Health

I'm not trying to make Gatorade the enemy here, however I wanted to explain something I've been saying for the past two years, that was just written about and covered by MSNBC, among other news stations. If you check out the article here, you will notice that the reporter, in the limited time he or she had to writeup the story, didn't really explain why sports drinks are bad for most of us. Energy drinks-it's kind of obvious-there is caffeine in them and your kids shouldn't have them. Sport drinks...do you know why they're contributing to our childhood obesity epidemic? No. Didn't think so and that's ok, I'll break it down for you and then you can choose what's best for you and your child.

First, a little background and science. Sports drinks were designed to QUICKLY replenish valuable energy depleted by vigorous exercise (Gatorade was formulated for the Florida Gators football team to enhance practices and speed up recovery time between them). This is important because when you run a marathon, workout in extreme temps or participate in other energy-draining activities you use up your glycogen store (your stored energy in the body). You need to fuel up again quickly to repair muscles and fuel your body for recovery and normal function. More science ahead, but you get where the need comes from?

So the science. How sports drinks are supposed to work is that when you exercise vigorously (I keep stressing vigorously because taking a walk around the block doesn't cut it) your body uses the glucose already available in your body. It is a naturally occurring sugar that is formed from carbohydrates (which is why I always stress getting the right carbs is key to a healthy diet) in your food. Then it is further broken down to give you energy. (Almost done with the science stuff.) If you are eating a healthy diet you will have a healthy store of glucose in your body so you will need to replenish quickly. If you overeat and/or eat a poor diet, you will have excess glucose in your body that will be stored in your liver, muscles, etc. as fat. Obviously not good.

So here's the problem.

More and more people and their kids are gulping down these sports drinks instead of water for hydration. Yet, exercise has fallen by the wayside and TV and video games are the mainstay. So if you are putting all these sugar and carbs in your body and not utilizing them for exercise they will turn to fat. SIMPLE.

Let's analyze the Nutrition Facts from one 32fl oz. bottle of Gatorade Glacier Ice. At first glance you might think the stats are not that bad. Only 50 calories, 100mg of sodium, 14g of sugars. BUT, THERE ARE 4 SERVINGS PER BOTTLE!! That means there are actually 200 calories, 440 mg of sodium (1/3 of your daily intake in just one drink) and 54g of sugars. WOW.

Again, sugar, salt and carbs are needed for endurance athletes. But you can see why this drink will pose a problem for a kid who's popping chicken nuggets and playing grand theft auto all day.

Let's go into another issue-the ingredients.

Initially when Gatorade was made for the football players, it was pretty much straight glucose and water-pure natural sugars that were readily absorbed by the body to refuel. It tasted gross but did the trick. Then Pepsi bought the drink and changed it for the masses. Now here's a look at what this "sports drink" is filled with:

Water, Sucrose Syrup, Glucose Fructose Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Ester Gum, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Blue 1.

Ok let's ignore the glaring offenses of the ambiguous "natural flavors" and sodium citrate and focus in on the insanely unhealthy ingredients listed above. HYDROGENATED OILS!! I know you know these and that you should avoid them because they are TRANS FATS. Yes, in gatorade, aertery-clogging, carcenogenic trans fats. Oh but if those don't get you how about some blue dye. I hear that's good for the kidneys and liver.

By now I hope you're seeing why it's not just about ragging on a sugary drink. It is in fact all about fueling our inactive kids with drinks filled with sub-standard ingredients that are built to make them fat (purposefully or not-you decide).

The alternative. Good, old WATER! Lots of it. And a healthy diet. You can also use Vita-Coco Coconut Water for a natural hydrating drink that replenishes 3 more electrolytes than Gatorade and has only one ingredient: Coconut water.

Oh and PS-this will save you a whole lot of money...:)