Sports Drinks

I have been coaching my daughters school volleyball team for the past two months. They are great athletes and usually pretty focused and skilled. Except last week - Valentines Day - they fell apart on the court. They had had a busy day at school with the added excitement (and hormones) of a school dance and sugar.

I had not talked to them previously about nutrition, so at the following practice I sat them down and we discussed healthy snacks to eat before a game. I mentioned water as a drink.

The message got through from what I saw at this weeks game - except about the drinks. Apparently parents and kids alike still think that sports drinks are good for you. We had a very quick look at what a few of the girls were drinking between games. We read the ingredients and compared the color of their teeth and tongues of the girls who brought sports drinks.

The second ingredient was sugar. Water and then sugar. Besides the fact that sugar depresses your immune system making it easier to get sick, sugar is also absorbed into your bloodstream really quickly giving you instant energy that is gone as fast as it appears. Not good when you are in the middle of a rally for game point. Sugar also dehydrates you and makes you thirsty. Dyes usually equal chemicals. Not something you want to put into your body. And who wants a blue tongue, anyway?

Alternatives? WATER for hydration. Oranges (real oranges, cut up) have fruit sugar BUT also have fiber that slows down the rate of absorption into the bloodstream for a more even energy and a fairly high water content for hydration. They also have lots of nutrients. Fruit in general has high water content, even energy, and nutrients. Remembering the dirty dozen, most fruit should be organic to prevent heavy pesticide ingestion.

I'm looking forward to our next game where I hope to see happy, smiling girls with normal (pink) tongues. That's the game!