Do Kids Need Sports Drinks?

Sports drinks are a booming business -- they are everywhere. They may be canned, dehydrated, bottled, dispensed in fountain form, or even homemade. Thanks to the power of the media, commercial sports drinks are marketed as the athlete's "edge" when it comes to fluid replacements. The advertisements may lead you to believe that these special formulations are the ultimate in carbohydration. They are popular, no doubt, but are they necessary? Specifically, are they necessary for children?

Let's look at what makes up a sports drink. Commercial fluid replacers are nutritionally similar to diluted soft drinks but more expensive. They offer carbohydrates (about 50 to 70 calories per cup), insignificant amounts of sodium and potassium, and generally little or no other nutritional value.

Sports drinks do have a place. If you're running a marathon, competing in a triathlon, or participating in some high-intensity endurance event that lasts longer than 90 minutes, you might want a beverage that contains a small amount of sugar to improve your stamina. But most of us, and most of our children, don't go "full steam" for this long stretch. Young soccer players, for example, often snack on orange slices (good sources of potassium and fluids) and water at half time, and reward themselves with juice or soda pop (calorie and fluid replacement) after the game.

The design of fluid replacers, or sports drinks, makes them most advantageous to the endurance athlete during exercise-- not 20 to 45 minutes beforehand, when they might trigger a hypoglycemic reaction, and not afterwards, when the muscles want full-strength carbohydrate-rich beverages to replace glycogen and minerals.

So sports drinks are just an expensive, trendy beverage for most consumers? Maybe, but there is even more of a drawback discovered recently, and parents will want to take note. Drinking too many sports drinks can erode the teeth, according to a British dentist whose 23-year-old patient regularly drank sports drinks for over a year. The acidity -- not the sugar -- was the culprit for damaging the athlete's smile. Eight sports drinks evaluated in a study highlighted by Environmental Nutrition had pH values less than 5.5. Experts urge moderation in drinking sports drinks. Try these tips:

• Try water instead of sports drinks, soft drinks or juice after a workout. It's cheaper and not acidic, as the other beverages are.
• Water down sports drinks to dilute the acidity.
• Chill down acidic beverages, because warm temperatures increase erosion.
• Drink sports beverages with a straw to reduce contact with teeth.

Sources: Environmental Nutrition, August 1997
Clark, N. Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Leisure Press, 1990.

Sandy Procter, M.S., R.D., L.D.
Coordinator, EFNEP

8/98 File: NUTRITION/ NORMAL/Physical Fitness/Fads and Fallacies

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