The Starting Blocks
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Should Drinks Like Gatorade Sport the 'Junk Food' Label?
"Public health advocates want the standards to ban the sale of Gatorade and Powerade, which typically contain as much as two-thirds the sugar of sodas and more sodium, as well as sweetened waters such as VitaminWater and SoBe Life Water. Excessive sodium intake by young people could fuel a surge in high blood pressure, which until recently was considered a health threat only in later life, they said." Source
Sports drinks are intended to help the athlete perform. To have these available on school grounds, in vending machines, for kids to drink while they sit through their classes is not the optimal atmosphere for these products.
When manufacturers claim that the lower caloric value is "good" for kids, they are purposely ignoring the other elements of "sports drinks". They are purposely attempting to attract a market that isn't suitable for the product... And they're succeeding.
View this comparison of sports drinks, by the University of Arizona.
See previous post
Sports drinks are intended to help the athlete perform. To have these available on school grounds, in vending machines, for kids to drink while they sit through their classes is not the optimal atmosphere for these products.
When manufacturers claim that the lower caloric value is "good" for kids, they are purposely ignoring the other elements of "sports drinks". They are purposely attempting to attract a market that isn't suitable for the product... And they're succeeding.
View this comparison of sports drinks, by the University of Arizona.
See previous post
Labels: athletics, Performance, recovery, sports drinks
1 Comments:
At an extreme, some people would classify any man-made drinks as "artificial." Water found in nature is natural. Yet, its also cleaned or produced and considered natural. Juices from concentrate aren't freshly squeezed, but they're still perceived as sort of "natural." When humans reconstitute liquids in a lab to make them look and taste like natural things, maybe this is going too far? Then again, think of the machine you ask for food on the Star Ship Enterprise. This reconstitutes nutrients from all around you. In this sense, maybe the word "artificial" is a judgment and the thought itself is the only thing that is artificial?
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