Advantages Of Sports Drinks
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Terrific New eBook On How To Broil Delicious Foods What is the best sports drink? You can find hundreds of sports drinks on store shelves — but which really boost your performance, and which are just expensive sugar water? It depends on what type of sportsman you are.Do you occasionally play a stop and go sport? Are you an endurance athlete? This question really can’t be answered without knowing who the sports drink is for. I mean, Tiger Woods in a golf tournament, has different needs than a person who is running a marathon. A child’s needs to rehydrate while playing outside, is different from an older adult; a female’s needs are different than a male’s. Basically, everyone needs to rehydrate from water and minerals they have lost through sweating during the activity they are doing. So, lets break this broad subject down to the rehydrating needs of a child vs an adult. Most supermarkets and convenience stores are well stocked with neon-colored sports drinks and vitamin-fortified “designer water.” It is a marketing gimmick, simple and pure, said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, nutritionist in New York at the Albert Einstein Medicine College.There is a common consensus among health experts that sports drinks have electrolytes and sodium that are beneficial to professional athletes and marathoners, but do not give any significant value to a normal person. Other health experts question the sugar and calories these drinks can add to a person’s diet. Dr said, it is a method of selling soda to the health-conscious crowd. David Katz, who is an expert on subjects like human nutrition and physician at Yale School of Medicine. “If you’re in training for the NFL, then having Gatorade at the sidelines is reasonable,” Katz said. “But most people use them badly. “Not only are you not getting any benefit, you’re also getting increased calories and sugar,” Katz added. “In terms of calories and sugar, just make sure those calories come out of your diet somewhere else.” But manufacturers of sports drinks contend their products are healthy and safe. Craig Horswill, senior research fellow at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in Barrington, Ill., notes that Gatorade and similar sports drinks are lower in calories than many other beverages. Gatorade “has fewer calories than sodas and skim milk,” Horswill said. He also emphasized that sports drinks are intended for people who engage in sports. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine described the condition known as hyponatremia, in which marathoners and other elite athletes can suffer dangerously low levels of sodium in their blood due to over-hydration with water. But not all sports drinks provide enough sodium to offer real protection from hyponatremia. This year, Gatorade is introducing a new beverage called Gatorade Endurance Formula, with more sodium and potassium than its regular formula. But ultimately, many in the industry say consumers must decide for themselves whether to use sports drinks as part of a serious exercise regimen, or just a sugar-laden soda substitute. “Gatorade is formulated for the performance and the safety of the athlete,” Horswill said. “The biggest issue is exercising and being more physically active, instead of focusing on diet. Consumers have to be aware of what they’re consuming.”
These bottled drinks takes guarantee in order to give the drinker vitality and energy — even some give advertisement claiming hypothetical rewards like focus, balance and stress relief. But does the average consumer derive any real benefit from the sports drinks that Americans spent over $5.4 billion last year.
“There’s a certain appeal in drinking what Olympic athletes drink,” Ayoob said, “but it should be just water if you’re doing 10 minutes on a treadmill.” And because many enhanced waters contain only small amounts of essential nutrients, Ayoob advises consumers to look elsewhere for nutrition.
“That’s what we have food for,” said Ayoob.
And a substantial body of evidence points to the advantages that sports drinks can have over water for serious athletes.
Others in the industry also put the onus on the consumer to make smart dietary choices. “Fundamentally, people who have sedentary lifestyles need to make choices,” said Ray Crockett, spokesman for the Coca-Cola Company, maker of Powerade and other sports drinks.
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