Friday, September 25, 2009

Sports Drink -To drink or not to drink?

Ok, here's my take on Sports drinks..

Most sport drinks including Gatorade has sugar and a lot of it.. Check your Carbohydrates amount compare to your sugar amount on the food label. You will see all the carbohydrates are coming from sugar. During most exercise bouts your body only needs water before, during and after your exercise bout (run, workout etc.) If you are exercising under extreme heat or outside training on a hot day for 90 minutes or more, it is recommended you take in a sport drink to replace some minerals and electrolytes you may have loss from sweating during your activity. This may also apply to someone out of shape; their body may react with excessive amount of sweating and then may need to replace their minerals and electrolytes.

Some people may experience an energy kick from drinking a sport drink during a workout. Once again, sugar! Sugar will provide a quick source of energy. Personally I rather see someone adjust their meals on their training days to make sure they taking in enough nutrients to provide then enough fuel to make it through their workout. By adding an apple, plum or orange before a workout could help kick up their workout with a healthier source of fructose, plus you’ll be adding fiber and other Phytochemicals from fruits.

Also, some sport drinks add caffeine, which will give you a kick.

Sport Drinks that are sugar free or lite in sugar are the worse of the bunch.. What are they putting in to replace the sugar? You are better off to drink one with sugar then one with another sugar replacing chemical. Right now Stevia and Xylitol are the only natural and safe sweeteners we have that I know about.

Sport Drinks can be useful at times and thus were created for a certain reason. However our society has used and abused Sport drinks as a safe alternative to soda or juice. But once again check your labels and you will see it’s not a safe alterative. Give your body what it needs and wants WATER.

I hope this was helpful!

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