Healthy and unhealthy foods

What is in Sports Drinks?
We see it every day – children drinking brightly coloured sports drinks after footy practise, before a weekend match or at lunchtime with their tuckshop order.
They are also very common in a range of activities, such as playing on monkey bars.
Because of this, we thought it best to separately cover sports drinks in a little more detail, to determine what’s in them and if they are a healthy addition to your diet.
Sports drinks first originated in 1960s, when scientists were trying to determine how to keep athletes hydrated for longer.
They discovered that after periods of intense exercise – when we lose lots of water as sweat – an athlete’s stores of electrolytes and carbohydrates would be very low, making them fatigued and lethargic.
Electrolytes and sodium are necessary for achieving optimal hydration, assisting with delivering fluids quickly and to the correct places in the body.
By adding these additional ingredients alongside some sugar, scientists achieved the ultimate hydration fluid for sports competitors.
This allowed them to refuel their energy levels and keep them hydrated (like during a trampoline session).
These days, sports drinks still contain electrolytes, sodium and sugar, however, the sugar content has either been increased to improve taste, or replaced with an unhealthy artificial sweetener.
Artificial colours and flavours are also commonly added, which may have an adverse effect on some children.
Are Sports Drinks Really Necessary?
For the average person doing an average amount of physical activity, sports drinks are not needed.
They fill your body with unnecessary amounts of sugar and artificial additives.
However, if you or a family member has completed 60-90 minutes of intense exercise in hot conditions, then a sports drink may assist with becoming properly hydrated.
Just remember you need to be burning off the sugar in the drink through an exercise to ensure that it isn’t converted to, and stored as fat.
A fantastic natural sports drink alternative is coconut water which is loaded with electrolytes and has brilliant hydrating properties.
If you or a family member requires a sports drink, why not go down the natural route and opt for an icy cold coconut beverage.