View Full Version : Gatorade and Kids
So both of my kids are nuts about Gatorade. They beg for the stuff constantly. I try to restrict them to the basics (water, milk, juice) and allow them soda on special occasions. But what's the deal with "sports drinks"? Should I let them have it more often, or is there some sound reason why this stuff isn't marketed toward kids?
Anybody know of any studies about the advisability of giving Gatorade to kids?
FactionHeir
05-22-2009, 00:23
Well, its mainly glucose/fructose, so I don't think its going to be very much harmful. It will make them rather hyper though and of course give them a calorie overload.
Hooahguy
05-22-2009, 00:24
gatorade isnt kosher, so i drink powerade, but onl rarely.
sugary drinks like powerade and gatorade shouldnt be imbibed often, on the advice of my wrestling coach, who probably knows more about nature than mother nature herself. :clown:
Centurion1
05-22-2009, 00:25
Well there is probably nothing wrong with gatorade even though my father calls it gay juice. I cant see any reason why not. Im not a nutrionist though.
I think it is marketed to children somewhat i mean they use their sports heroes to advertise.
But i would recommend milk, water, and juice it definetly is better than gatorade and your kids probably just like it cause it makes them feel their cool i mean its really just flavored water with extra electrolytes (all they do is replenish salt so nothing wrong there)
RoadKill
05-22-2009, 00:58
As an athlete myself, I find that gatorade really helps clench my thirst and gives me some energy back. Gatorade and other sport drinks are loaded with electrolytes that help restored the charges lost from your cells due to excessive use of energy. So if you don't want your kids jumping off the walls and going into a blind rage of craziness, I wouldn't feed that stuff to them too much. Instead maybe give them a bottle after a sport game (if they do play) and if not one after school.
Hooahguy
05-22-2009, 01:04
im also an athlete, but i find that water really is the best thirst quencher. plus, its free. especially if you wrestle, sports drinks are a no-no.
Hosakawa Tito
05-22-2009, 01:04
They are high in carbohydrates*which is why they taste so good*, 60 calories per cup, with little sodium or potassium. Unless your kids are running a marathon they don't have much practical or nutritional value. I think of them as expensive diluted soft drinks. Water is a better fluid replacement at home, but for most it doesn't taste as good as gatorade or soda pop. Kids are all about taste, so if it tastes good they want it all the time which is only natural. I would use it as you do their soda pop ration as a treat and not a staple. Treats for physically active kids aren't a problem. Heck I drank kool aid and soda pop *the real stuff like today's Jolt* by the gallon every week as a kid, but I was an active outdoors kid and burned those calories off.
As usual, everything in moderation is the best course.
Strike For The South
05-22-2009, 01:06
It depends how active they are Lemur.
If they want some gatorade before or after outside than thats great, Gatorade has tons of benifits and a managable sugar content.
Even then though for kids there size and age serving size should be small. Gatorade replenishes electrolites and is meant for full grown men who have just expendend tons of energy and need to get there salt-water levels back to normal.
Combine that with the sugar and gatorade can actually mess you up pretty good.
I would limit them to as much as soda, more if they've been out running and jumping.
Samurai Waki
05-22-2009, 01:09
Gatorade is essentially Sugar Water... it likes to give you the impression that its good for you because it has 'electrolytes' which, you can actually get the same amount in just a normal glass of tap water. Yes, they are tasty (especially after doing a quick jaunt in the wilderness) but should be approached with as much caution as Soda.
How old are they? If they are young enough to fool, just give them a very diluted mix of cordial in a gatorade bottle. Gatorade doesn't even taste very nice so I bet they are just drinking it because it's "cool".
Centurion1
05-22-2009, 02:22
My apologies, after posting i went and looked up whats in gatorade. Well lets just say that it is not good for anyone let alone athletes to drink in excess. Just a little extra info, football, basketball, and swimmer and my coaches never let us drink gatorade, and also in those Gatorade containers at pro sports events they have a special formula that tastes horrible and is really like pure electrolytes, yellow dye, and salt. The gatorade we drink is delicious yes but it is not what pros drink its just a sugary subsittiute for the kids (guilty of this) who dont like drinking water
Strike For The South
05-22-2009, 02:44
My apologies, after posting i went and looked up whats in gatorade. Well lets just say that it is not good for anyone let alone athletes to drink in excess. Just a little extra info, football, basketball, and swimmer and my coaches never let us drink gatorade, and also in those Gatorade containers at pro sports events they have a special formula that tastes horrible and is really like pure electrolytes, yellow dye, and salt. The gatorade we drink is delicious yes but it is not what pros drink its just a sugary subsittiute for the kids (guilty of this) who dont like drinking water
yes it is. And if its not then it is gatorade plus protien.
Talked it over with the wife this evening. Her theory is that they dig on the sports drinks because they're in easy-to-grab bottles in the pantry. She may be onto something. We're going to create a kid drink shelf in the fridge, right on their eye level, and stock it with juice and water. She's of the same opinion as the majority of this thread, that we should treat it the same way we do soda.
DemonArchangel
05-22-2009, 04:26
I don't drink Gatorade. If I need to rehydrate, I drink water. If I need more electrolytes, I eat some food.
seireikhaan
05-22-2009, 04:33
Unless the kids are doing sports hard core, I would not let them at gatorade- the stuff is addictive like pop. If you're not doing some intensive exercise, particularly competitive, I would encourage water instead. Too much sugar to be consumed on any kind of consistent basis for the average, sedentary American.
From a dental perspective it's terrible stuff, not only because of the sugars, but the colours/flavourings are terrible for your teeth as well.
If kids drink too much Gatorade, they go into HYPER OVERDRIVE and get a limit break causing them to crush stuff.
(Hmm, this post did not relate.)
Cute Wolf
05-22-2009, 13:20
Reminds me of what my parents did when I drink too much cola.... At that time I think they don't want
Adrian II
05-22-2009, 13:23
Well there is probably nothing wrong with gatorade even though my father calls it gay juice.:laugh3:
Nothing wrong with your father either.
Rhyfelwyr
05-22-2009, 13:58
I'm guessing gatorade is something like lucozade (sp)?
In which case, get the version that comes in sweets. That is the most insanely wonderful sugary things that ever existed. I'm going to stop thinking about them now.
Vladimir
05-22-2009, 16:07
I loves my Gatorade. Lots of sugar and salt, yum. I understand why children would like it so much but too much of a good thing...
Give your kids diet drinks. Next to no calories in them.
The best thing my parents did was decided to let me overdose on things like McDonalds etc that I got physically sick of it. Now I never eat things like McDonalds ever again.
Hooahguy
05-22-2009, 16:59
but diet soda and drinks like that has aspertame, which is very harmful.
LittleGrizzly
05-22-2009, 17:03
I think diet pop usually has acidity in it which is not good for teeth or bones...
Though if its a straight choice i guess diet is less unhelthy...
Full sugar for me though... if im drinking pop im going to do it properly!
Sasaki Kojiro
05-22-2009, 17:06
but diet soda and drinks like that has aspertame, which is very harmful.
No it isn't..."may cause headaches" is at bad as it gets with aspartame. The rest is hooey.
I think diet pop usually has acidity in it which is not good for teeth or bones...
Though if its a straight choice i guess diet is less unhelthy...
Full sugar for me though... if im drinking pop im going to do it properly!
But normal carbonated drinks do as well.
All you do is teach your children what a toothbrush is and get them using it regularly.
Rhyfelwyr
05-22-2009, 17:09
Just drink Sunny D, it gives you a healthy orange glow!
Sasaki Kojiro
05-22-2009, 17:10
As far as teeth go, I think crackers and chips--sugary stuff that gets stuck in the cracks--are by far the worst thing for your teeth.
LittleGrizzly
05-22-2009, 17:12
But normal carbonated drinks do as well.
Ohh yeah, I know, just its fairly common for people to assume the diet version is healthy... it is healthier... but still has bad effects...so not really healthy...
Pannonian
05-22-2009, 18:43
Try Orangina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangina) instead? It's the best tasting soft drink I've tried, and once they're hooked on that, you can try mixing carbed water with various fruit juices.
As I said in the OP, the vast majority of their liquids are tap water, milk (with or without chocolate syrup) and juice. We treat soda like ice cream, a treat for good behavior.
I was just curious about "sports drinks," that's all. And from what I'm gathering, it's about as healthy as soda. That answers my question.
Mailman653
05-22-2009, 19:08
Try Orangina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangina) instead? It's the best tasting soft drink I've tried, and once they're hooked on that, you can try mixing carbed water with various fruit juices.
I love that stuff, I can finish a liter in a day. :laugh4:
In regards to the orginal post, I think most of what has been said is correct. I think to summerize it all it can be said that unless your kids are playing sports on a constant basis, they shouldn't be drinking the stuff just as an ordinary drink. They have sugars and too much sugar obviously can cause caries (cavities).
Nothing beats water for a safe and healthy drink. No sugars, no additives or artificial colors or preservitives, and depending where you live, your local tap water might be treated with floride as well.
From a dental perspective it's terrible stuff, not only because of the sugars, but the colours/flavourings are terrible for your teeth as well.
Lemur, this is very important. I saw this study a while a go:
1 Day of Soft Drinks, Lots of Erosion
The University of Iowa researchers covered extracted teeth with nail polish. They left bare two patches on each tooth, one on the enamel and one on the root. Then they dunked the teeth in test tubes filled with regular Coke, Diet Coke, Gatorade, Red Bull, or 100% apple juice.
Every five hours, the researchers refreshed the beverages. After 25 hours, they examined the teeth with a microscope. All of the beverages eroded the bare spots on the teeth. But different beverages had significantly different effects.
On the enamel, Gatorade was significantly more corrosive than Red Bull and Coke. Red Bull and Coke, in turn, were significantly more corrosive than Diet Coke and apple juice.
On the roots of the teeth, Gatorade was more corrosive than Red Bull. Coke, apple juice, and Diet Coke followed in that order.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20060309/gatorade-tough-on-teeth
Apparently gatorade is absolutely horrible for your teeth.
Hello,
Another risk with large amounts of simple sugars (like glucose and fructose) is that the body is producing extra insuline to get rid of the sugar pikes in the blood. This could eventually help causing/cause diabetes. Drinking that stuff all day, or any softdrink or sugarrich food for that matter, is not a good idea.
Pasta is also sugar rich, but that's a long chain of sugars which is slowly digested and absorbed into the blood.
What's wrong with a glass of milk. Or the best anti-thirst drink there is, water!
Fluorine.
Though, I drink bottled water, simply because it does without a lot of the chemicals present in tap water.
That depends where you live Beskar. I don't know for sure whether it's just a gossip, but it seems some bottled water is the same as tapwater for a city here. The rest of us aren't buying expensive bottled tapwater, the people in that city are lucky and get bottled water out of their tap.
As far as I know, small amounts or no chemicals (such as chlorine) at all are used to prepare drinking water in Holland.
I have to be honest, I can notice the difference in taste quite dramatically. It might just be the tap water here, but there is definitely a none pleasant one while some bottled water you can get is quite flavour-less. The quality of the water is dependent on how favour-less it is, it is the impurities in the water which give it flavour.
Many people accuse bottled water of simply just being a hoax. In some respects it is, in others it is not. When you see those bottles of water for around £20, then you can be pretty sure you are definitely not getting your money worth.
In the show Panorama over here in the UK, they did a big thing of how bottled water is pretty much a scam, and this business and ultimately we should just drink from the tap. They did this survey with "wine tasters" and these wine tasters had to apparently taste the subtle differences then rate the water. The water they picked the reason being "it has the most taste" was Thame's tap water in the sample, and Panorama used this going "You hear it from the experts, tap water was infact rated better". In actual fact, all their survey proved was the opposite, tap water was in fact the worse.
As being a bottled water drinker myself, maybe I am more attuned to the differences, I have never been able to drink tap water, I always found it disgusting. However, I always been fine with filtered and bottled water. Even the very cheap store brand ones are actually passable in comparison with tap water and that is around 13p a 2litre. (which is around 17cent)
For tap water, it generally has a metallic taste to it, then it has the taste of these other chemicals and being honest, bottle-water is obviously a good investment for me.
Try filtering? It's cheaper in the long-run and you don't have mountains of plastic bottles left over to deal with. :yes:
I usually keep a few bottled waters around for convenience sake, but normally I just drink tap water- filtered. I find it improves the taste significantly compared to when its straight out of the tap.
poorly filtered, no difference between bottled and tap here.
Confused Honorary Texan with you being American. :P
I will have to try the water in the Netherlands then next time I am there.
Tribesman
05-24-2009, 09:57
Why not just give them beer and wine ?
Pannonian
05-24-2009, 11:54
Why not just give them beer and wine ?
Lemur's an American, so the beer and wine doesn't have as much alcoholic kick as the gatorade.
Cute Wolf
05-24-2009, 13:49
try giving them money, so they can decide what kind of drinks that they want to buy....
Hello,
I agree, there's water and water. And sure you can taste differences between bottled brands of 'plain' water. Some tapwater doesn't taste great. Like you said, metallic or you taste chlorine. Preparation, storage and transport all have an effect. But it's either years ago or in other countries I tasted that.
Top quality water can't be consumed without getting ill.
tap water varies not only from country, but even from region to region and from town to town. One advantage though is that most tap water have all the stuff you need while if you drink bottled water, it's best to change brands often. As most if not all brands of bottled water only have a little part of the vital minerals.
Hello Moros,
Isn't it so that water (automatically) contains minerals to prevent it being bad for your health rather than needing to contain essential minerals? The required amounts of minerals are obtained from balanced food (fish, meat, dairy, nuts, vedgetables, grain).
Hello Moros,
Isn't it so that water (automatically) contains minerals to prevent it being bad for your health rather than needing to contain essential minerals? The required amounts of minerals are obtained from balanced food (fish, meat, dairy, nuts, vedgetables, grain).
well I'm only saying what an article in the papers some time ago said. Apparantly there are or might be some minerals you don't get from food or whatever. The only thing that I do know however if that at certain places (most places in flanders and the netherlands) it's better to drink tap water than bottled. Now I wouldn't drink tap water in Naples though.
Reverend Joe
05-25-2009, 02:53
Tosa/Moros, the problem with the water in DC is that it tastes like (and probably is) poison. I mean, it tastes thick, and it has a nasty aftertaste; it tastes like slugs have been swimming in it. I have heard it's actually recommended by health organizations that people in DC not drink their tap water.
Try filtering? It's cheaper in the long-run and you don't have mountains of plastic bottles left over to deal with. :yes:
And that's my other problem: I had a great big Brita filter, but some idiot stepped on it and broke it, and DC water is so bad that even a small faucet filter doesn't cut it. So, bottled water for me.
I really oughta buy a new filter, but I'm too lazy.
Hooahguy
05-25-2009, 02:59
here in GA the tap water is really good. just saying.
Same here, perfectly clean bad taste.
About Gatorade, I thought up a little scheme to bring up the kids true motivations. These bottle's look rather flashy, why not be uncool and let them drink it from a glass.
I don't think anyone's mentioned it before here, so I'll do it. These energy drinks normally contain a hell lot of caffeine......far more than what they mention on the label.....and that can be harmful.
This I read in a recent Health Capsule.
Yes India,
Not only caffeine, but also taurine and guarine (which have similar effects afaik). I'm not sure about Gatorade and a few others. They are more about being isotonic and/or offering a load of sugars.
That could be the case Moros: some minerals are pretty hard to get.
The New Che Guevara
05-26-2009, 00:14
Just off topic...
GATORADE!!!!!!!!~:thumb:
Thanks
:focus:
edyzmedieval
05-26-2009, 12:14
I stopped using Powerade some time ago because I wanted to overwork my body. It just replenishes the body with electrolytes and essential minerals, which means you won't be fatigued and you'll be able to continue for a long time, but it's too chemical and I don't like it. The taste is amazing though.
Now I drink Guarana tho, and it's addictive.
Strike For The South
05-26-2009, 16:45
I stopped using Powerade some time ago because I wanted to overwork my body. It just replenishes the body with electrolytes and essential minerals, which means you won't be fatigued and you'll be able to continue for a long time, but it's too chemical and I don't like it. The taste is amazing though.
Now I drink Guarana tho, and it's addictive.
:wall:
edyzmedieval
05-26-2009, 19:21
:wall:
Haha, I get your point. But on the long term, who knows what the chemicals inside might produce, so I just drink water every 15-20 minutes when I do intensive workouts or I play basketball.
The New Che Guevara
05-27-2009, 00:46
Haha, I get your point. But on the long term, who knows what the chemicals inside might produce, so I just drink water every 15-20 minutes when I do intensive workouts or I play basketball.
I just strain my body during workouts... namely the two hours I get during autumn-spring on tuesday nights at hockey training and then the 70 minutes I normally play on thw weekend.
I don't think anyone's mentioned it before here, so I'll do it. These energy drinks normally contain a hell lot of caffeine......far more than what they mention on the label.....and that can be harmful.
This I read in a recent Health Capsule.
In any case there drinks are incredibly unhealthy, if you are tired just take a brake, body knows best. It is better to do half an hour workout a day, with no heavy lifting at all, rather then pushing your limits once a week.
Crazed Rabbit
05-27-2009, 03:26
I don't think anyone's mentioned it before here, so I'll do it. These energy drinks normally contain a hell lot of caffeine......far more than what they mention on the label.....and that can be harmful.
This I read in a recent Health Capsule.
By energy drinks do you mean gatorade and powerade and the like, or the actual 'energy drinks' like Redbull and Monster? I don't think that quite applies to gatorade.
Anyway, just keep the gatorade in low amounts and you should be fine, as was mentioned. I remember drinking it as a kid with no ill effects. Didn't know about the teeth thing though - freaky!
CR
Sasaki Kojiro
05-27-2009, 03:38
Apparently gatorade is absolutely horrible for your teeth.
Didn't know about the teeth thing though - freaky!
CR
I wouldn't worry about your teeth at all with gatorade. After 25 hours it causes errosion--no problem. No one drinks gatorade for 25 hours straight. 25 hours of gatorade drinking would be spread over years, and your teeth replenish enamel naturally. Brushing helps too.
The real problem with corrosive drinks is when you sip on them all day while eating candy and such. Gatorade is supposed to be gulped down.
Hello,
It isn't the sugar which causes erosion. Sugars can be used for food by bacteria in the mouth and the bacteria produce acids. Acids cause teeth erosion. The sugars in soda and cola aren't directly bad for your teeth, it is because those drinks are acidic. They do taste sweet because of the load of sugars, which 'masks' them to have a pH of ~3-4. Gatorade has a low pH too.
Consuming a lot of sugar becomes a problem for teeth when the mouth isn't cleaned properly. Bacteria will build up and grab part of the sugar.
True Fragony.
Hosakawa Tito
05-29-2009, 22:34
Hello,
It isn't the sugar which causes erosion. Sugars can be used for food by bacteria in the mouth and the bacteria produce acids. Acids cause teeth erosion. The sugars in soda and cola aren't directly bad for your teeth, it is because those drinks are acidic. They do taste sweet because of the load of sugars, which 'masks' them to have a pH of ~3-4. Gatorade has a low pH too.
Consuming a lot of sugar becomes a problem for teeth when the mouth isn't cleaned properly. Bacteria will build up and grab part of the sugar.
True Fragony.
Very true. The worst thing to give babies & toddlers in their nap-time/bed-time bottles is something loaded with sugar like juice because it will damage their teeth much quicker. When one is awake, swallowing/talking/tongue movement within the mouth lessens the effects of these acids on the teeth.
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