Across the world we are seeing more and more young athletes reaching for a sports drink after training and on match days. Part of the reason is simple: plenty of parents assume they’re the healthy option for their young athlete.
The trouble is, most children aren’t training hard enough, or for long enough, to actually need one. A session might be scheduled for an hour or more, but your child is unlikely to be working flat out for the whole of it. So not only might they be doing less intense exercise than you’d think, they’re also unlikely to need replenishing with a sports drink at all.
There’s research to suggest that regular, higher-volume sports drink consumption can even contribute to weight gain in children. If offering a sports drink every time your child heads off to training or a match has become the habit, it might be worth rethinking.
A few things worth knowing:
- Sports drinks can genuinely help during and after high-intensity exercise lasting over an hour.
- In hot weather, small amounts of a sports drink (a small bottle, around 330–350ml) during exercise lasting over an hour can help guard against dehydration.
- They also bring extra calories, sodium and sugar. Used the wrong way, that can contribute to excess weight gain and work against your child’s health rather than for it.
- They’re often high in sugar, which won’t do your child’s teeth any favours either.
- Relying on them regularly can crowd out more useful nutrients your child actually needs for growth and general health.
- Marketing aimed at children and teenagers leans hard on a few common claims: that sports drinks are a healthier alternative to soft drinks (they’re not, really); that they boost performance (what they can do is help keep a young athlete hydrated during longer bouts of exercise); that they raise energy levels (not something the evidence backs up); and that they’re a better thirst-quencher (largely down to the salt content, rather than anything magic).
For most children, eating a balanced diet and drinking plain water before, during and after exercise is enough to stay properly hydrated, even through longer sessions.
So if water can do the job without any of the downsides, isn’t it worth reconsidering the sports drink?
