Water remains best sports drink

Editor's note: Nancy Justis is a former competitive swimmer and collegiate sports information director. She is a partner with Justis Creative Communications.

By Nancy Justis, correspondent

There are a lot of ways to 'keep up with the Jonese,” including with the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and the toys we have.

There's one area we shouldn't worry about - what the next kid on the sideline is drinking. The sports and energy drinks.

Sure, the colors of blue, red, orange and green are pretty, and the bottles have some cool designs, too. But experts agree the best liquid your child should be drinking during exercise, practice and games is just good old plain water. Buy a cool water bottle if you must, but fill it up from the tap. And it's a whole lot less expensive.

Sports drinks were developed for competitive athletes who needed quick, convenient replacement of fluids and certain nutrients - carbohydrates, sodium and potassium lost when someone sweats. They weren't meant for kids playing a 45-minute soccer game or for a six-year-old playing flag football.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a 2011 report, noted water 'is the appropriate first choice for hydration before, during and after most exercise regimens.”

For most practices and games, electrolytes lost through sweat can be replaced with the next snack or meal.

'... sports drinks offer little to no advantage over plain water,” the report noted.

Most of the sports drinks provide a lot of stuff kids don't need - added sugar (as much as eight teaspoons in a 20-ounce bottle), citric acid that can erode tooth enamel, artificial flavors, food dyes and additives such as thickeners and stabilizers, whatever that means.

There always are exceptions, however.

'Middle school and high school athletes may need sports drinks if they're exercising for longer than an hour, have back-to-back competitive events like an all-day soccer tournament or are exercising in hot, humid weather that increases the risk for dehydration,” Jill Castle, author of the book 'Eat Like A Champion,” noted.

But most of the time kids can stay hydrated by drinking water and replacing the lost electrolytes through foods such as bananas and crackers. Or by eating a meal after the game or practice.

There is a difference between sports and energy drinks. The Virginia High School League's executive committee several years ago voted to ban the use of energy drinks by student-athletes during games and practice 'because of potential serious safety and health issues.”

Dr. Katherine Dec, chair of the VHSL sports medicine committee, told The Sun, 'Kids see (the drinks) as something to give them energy. But it's not the physical nutritional energy that they need to perform well, so we need to keep with that hydration, replenishment concept. We want them to be appropriately replenished post practice and games and appropriately hydrated so they don't run into problems with heart rate, blood pressure, jitteriness - some of the complaints from kids through the past few years after drinking these drinks.”

The ban, based on a National Federation of State High School Associations statement, also states:

- Energy drinks should not be used for hydration.

- Energy drinks should not be consumed by athletes who are hydrated.

- There is no regulatory control over energy drinks, thus their content and purity cannot be ensured. This may lead to adverse side-effects, potentially harmful interactions with prescription medications (particularly stimulant medications used to treat ADHD), or positive drug tests.

In short, energy drinks, according to '5 Things Parents Should Know About Energy Drinks,” which appeared in TrueSport, are not a great choice for hydration.

l Let us know what you think by contacting Justis at njustis@cfu.net