Some healthy advice: Please ditch the sports energy drinks

In a world where sugar is more freely available than cocaine and possibly more addictive, it is no wonder this legal substance finds its way into homes, tuckshops and energy drinks.

Thanks to unregulated sponsorships, sugar-pushing companies are sponsoring youth sport at a high rate due to two main reasons.

Firstly, it is to get children addicted to their product and secondly, to indoctrinate them into believing that it is essential for performance.

Sugar test

An experiment by graduated students Magalie Lenoir and her colleagues at the University of Bordeaux in France sent the scientific world on a high when their experiment tested whether sugar or cocaine was more addictive in rats.

The investigation was designed to feed rats a highly sweetened water solution and give dosages of cocaine intravenously.

Over time rats were given two free choices, sugar water or liquid cocaine solution and it was found that the rats bypassed the cocaine and went straight to the sugar water.

Lenoir and colleagues’ research opened the door to the suspicion that sweets could be as pleasurable and addictive as habit-forming drugs.

Excessive sugar could over-stimulate the sweet receptors in the brain, leading to loss of control and over indulgence.

If you have ever been down to club sporting practice, what are parents buying their children?

A sports energy drink is one of the top sellers at any sporting club or sporting event.

Sports drinks

Parents have been led to believe that the sporting drink will replace the energy lost after a short practice or game.

It’s a fallacy because the fuel needed to play your sport comes from good nutrition days prior.

There has only been scientific evidence that sugary drinks benefit an elite endurance athlete, and take note, I said “elite”, and not general participants.

You must ask the question as to why parents have been led to believe it is essential to consume energy or sports drinks during or after a game.

Welcome to the world of marketing and money-making, where profit is more important than your health.

The next reason people like to throw around is, “but coach, I am replacing my electrolytes, and that is why I need a sports drink.”

Electrolytes

Electrolytes are essential, especially if you are a high-level competing athlete and train more than four times a week.

The first step is to understand what electrolytes are made up of and then see how or why they are so important.

Electrolytes are minerals dissolved in water which have a positive and negative ion used in the metabolic process.

Electrolytes are essential for four main areas, the first being your nervous system functioning.

The brain sends electrical signals through your nerves to communicate with the cells throughout the body – muscle function where calcium is needed for muscular contractions.

Hydration is critical for athletes, and the right amount of water is always required in your body. Electrolytes, in particular sodium, help maintain balance through osmosis.

Osmosis is necessary because it regulates the right amount of water-electrolyte concentration for optimal cell functioning.

Finally, electrolytes are critical for internal PH blood levels – your PH levels need to range between 7.35 and 7.45 for balanced cellular functioning. Any deviations will lead to poor function, and you could become unwell.

Here is a list of what electrolytes you need:

Sodium – pickle juice or foods, cheese, and table salt.

Potassium – bananas, oranges, apricots, and grapefruit.

Chloride – table salt.

Calcium – milk, yoghurt, almonds.

Magnesium – dark chocolate, avocados, nuts, and seeds.

Phosphate – sunflower seeds, pumpkin, squash seeds and beans

Bicarbonate.

Healthy foods that are high in potassium. Picture: iStock

Eating just a banana or eating tiny bags of salt may not help your re-occurring cramps because there are very few things in your body that are dependent on one thing to function.

Any one of the above missing ingredients could cause poor performance, so a healthy balanced sports nutritional plan is critical for healthy sporting athletes and performance gains.

The harder you train, the more your nutrition must be tailored for your performance demands.

The next time you buy a sports drink, turn the bottle around and read the ingredients. You should notice that there is more sugar in your drink than any essential ingredient needed to replace your electrolytes.

Also, I said to replace your “electrolytes”; I did not say to “replace your energy”.

A minimal amount of sugar in your homemade sports drink is acceptable; for example, half a teaspoon of sugar per 500ml is quite alright, because your cells do absorb sugar quickly, but this is only recommended for during or post-match.