Sports Drink Nation

More on the sports drink debate: Friend of Activeness (FOA) Anonymous Economist, perhaps moonlighting as Anonymous Scientist, checks in from academia. She writes:

"Just say 'no' — no matter how many free samples they send you.

The acid content of Gatorade is 2.95. The acid content of battery acid? 1.00. You're drinking battery acid! (Diet coke = 3.39; pure water (neutral)= 7.00.)

If you've got to do it, at least add a tooth brush to your gear bag. (Germs love a low PH (high acid) mouth.)

If that's not enough, a workout stimulates growth hormone, which makes you insulin resistant. As a result, a post-workout sports drink may elevate your blood glucose and diminish your insulin sensitivity - just the opposite of what you want a workout to do. And with insulin resistance, the calories in that drink will go right to your abdomen - just look at the people around you. And insulin resistance stimulates aging.

Your triglycerides may also increase — the body will use the extra glucose rather than fat. Why would you want to shut down the fat burning process after a workout by consuming simple carbohydrates?

Perhaps I just haven't found the right literature, but sports drinks don't make sense to me yet."

Solid points by the Anonymous Economist, who is so smart that I'm afraid to argue with her. In the past she has questioned the effectiveness of helmet laws, exposed some fallacies on steroid use in sports, and pointed out a link to 10 reasons not to run marathons.

I agree that we abuse sports drinks. It's the American way to be hornswaggled by corporate marketing machines and to over-consume everything we can get our fat hands on. Take some newly-arrived visitors from another country to your local Wal-Mart and watch their jaws drop at how overweight Americans are and at the incredible amount of crap we buy in bulk and load into our SUVs. (The chairman of the world's largest architectural firm has much more to say on curbing our obnoxious resource consumption, which he deems "a national crisis.")

Back on point: After about 13 years of experimenting with on-the-go nutrition while trying to be an endurance athlete, I can't imagine not drinking some type of sports drink to provide enough carbs and electrolytes to allow me to keep going for hours at a time. The alternative is for the light switch go off, the muscles to stop working, and to see stars in a light-headed state of bonkness.

I agree that Gatorade's ad and marketing agencies have duped the average Joe and Jane into thinking they need to down a bottle of sports drink after a walk around the block, when really they're adding more calories than they just burned. And plenty of endurance athletes, including myself, take in sports drinks when they're not needed — like after a run, ride, or swim of 60 minutes or less. Or we swig from the ubiquitous bottle in the fridge because we have it on hand instead of soda. (Plus, let's be honest: It's perfect for hangover recovery.) But, yes, the bottles of Gatorade being offered at Quizno's, the gas station, or the airport might as well be soda in terms of health benefits. Lately I've been seeing friends opt for Propel Fitness Water for hydration during or after moderate workouts, and this seems like a good idea — unless you are JPD, bringing a Propel bottle along for a 90-mile ride and then kicking my butt, anyway, after I mocked him for doing it.

As if sensing the Anonymous Economist's skepticism, the New York Times has a story on the importance of energy gels, bars, and sports drinks to endurance athletes. (Thanks for lettting me steal your illustration for this post.) Granted, the story is from the Times' Style section, which always scares me.


And, finally, what if Insidetri.com was to tell you that you probably aren't taking in enough salt during your long workouts? Is that something you'd be interested in?