Sports
Drinks
Keeping Yourself Fueled up on the field
Judy
Goffi MS, RD, CDE, LD
Fluid
replacement is critical to successful and safe sports
performance. Numerous research studies support the use
of electrolyte and carbohydrate replenishment drinks
as a way of improving performance and preventing fatigue
(1-2). One study showed that athletes used 22% less
stored carbohydrate during sprint exercise when drinking
a carbohydrate supplement drink (2).
What Makes
a Good Sports Drink?
A good sports
drink should contain carbohydrate and sodium which maximizes
fluid absorption and helps to provide your muscles with energy.
It should also provide potassium and magnesium, as these are
often lost during exercise and competition. If you are sweating
heavily, your drink should contain up to 8% carbohydrate as
this will enhance fluid absorption.
The following
is a list of some commercially available sports drinks.
|
Sport
Drink
|
Sodium
|
Potassium
|
Magnesium
|
Carb
concentration
|
|
Accelerade
|
190
|
64
|
128
|
9%
|
|
Revenge
Sport
|
100
|
110
|
20
|
7%
|
|
G
Push
|
285
|
60
|
5
|
7.5%
|
|
Gatorade
|
165
|
45
|
0
|
6%
|
|
Powerade
|
79
|
49
|
0
|
8%
|
|
All
Sport
|
82-120
|
75
|
0
|
8
to 9%
|
|
Cytomax
|
60
|
112
|
0
|
7
to 11%
|
Of the above
list, only Accelerate, Revenge Sport and G Push even contain
magnesium. Popular drinks such as Gatorade, All Sport and Powerade
contain none.
Check with
your local health food store and read the back of the labels
for information on carbohydrate content, sodium, potassium and
magnesium content.
Don't get
fancy with buying a sports drink. There is no need for ginseng,
ecchineaca or any other herbal "enhancement" that
has no basis for improving performance or decreasing fatigue.
Fatigue occurs due to loss of stored carbohydrate or glycogen.
The way to replace that is through a carbohydrate supplement.
References:
1. Ivy JL,
Lee MC, Brozinick JT, et al: Muscle glycogen storage after different
amounts of carbohydrate ingestion. J Appl Physiol 1988;65(5):2018-2023.
2. Sugiura
K, Kobayashi K. Effect of carbohydrate ingestion on sprint performance
following continuous and intermittent exercise. Med Sci Sports
Exerc 1998 Nov;30(11):1624-30 
