The sports drink industry is massive with huge sales every year. The marketing people working behind these companies would have you believe that sports drinks are essential kit for any sports person looking to improve their performance.
The average sports drink contains quickly digesting sugars and electrolytes. The premise behind the sports drink is that it can provide a fast energy supply to the body enabling the muscles to contract and resist fatigue.
As they are quite high in sugar, sports drinks are also quite high in calories and if consumed regularly without exercise can result in excessive weight gain.
So are they 'bad'?
To answer this question we must explore define what 'bad' is? Most of us have a black or white image of food, some foods are good and some are bad. Sometimes it just depends.
If you are a child, would I recommend you drink sports drinks? No as you do not need sugary high energy drinks.
If you are an general person out running a few times a week looking to lose weight? No, the sugar will work against your efforts to lose weight.
If you are playing a championship match on a hot summers day and you are hoping not to run out of steam in the second half? Yes, the drink may help second half performance.
Sports drinks will provide us with a fast supply of energy that has been shown to aid sports events lasting over 1 hour. Gaelic games last 60-70 minutes depending on whether it is a club or county match and maybe longer when you take into consideration a warm up and injury time.
They are not needed for training sessions where the emphasis should be predominantly on adaptation rather than performance.
Sports that have repeated sprints will deplete glycogen quickly and consuming fast acting carbohydrates can reduce fatigue and increase performance by sparing muscle gylcogen and maintaining blood sugar levels.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/articles/17986904
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28182508
Whilst I would hasten to add that sports drinks for the average person are bad and not 'healthy' due to their high sugar and calorie content, they can be useful in certain GAA situations such as...
1. Improving second half performance
2. Extra time
3. Helping replenish fuels quickly if playing on consecutive days as in a blitz or a tournament
So let's be clear, I am not advocating sports drinks for general people!
High performing footballers and hurlers who are looking to gain an edge may benefit. Your average overweight junior b who is guzzling bottles of lucozade is probably better off drinking water, not taking on the extra sugar and just concentrating on improving the basic diet.
So you may want to give them a go, what should you do?
- Try drinking a bottle at regular intervals or half time during a challenge match to see how you feel.
- Make your own drink (100ml of cordial to a 1 litre bottle), (500ml apple juice and water). Sports drinks ca be expensive and making your own ca be cost effective and of similar quality.
- Don't try anything new on the day of an important match, you might feel bad or the extra sugar might not agree with you. Always practice a new routine in training or in a practice match.