Niki Bezzant: Leave the sports drinks to the elite athletes

Elite athletes might benefit from sports drinks, but an average gym-user won't burn off the calories. Photo / 123RF

At a recent food trends seminar I tried a few foods and drinks of the future. Among them was a golden-hued, medicinal-looking beverage called shine+, promoted as "Australia's first smart drink".

It's what's known as a functional beverage, designed — its producers say — to optimise brain function, concentration and focus.

It contains what are known as nootropics, compounds that enhance mental function. The nootropics in this drink include turmeric (hence the colour), green tea and ginkgo biloba.

This is the latest development in a category that also includes energy drinks, vitamin waters and probiotic yoghurt. The most well-known of functional beverages, though, is probably the sports drink.

Sports drinks are sophisticated beverages formulated for athletes doing high-intensity exercise.

When exercising for an hour or more and sweating a lot, rehydration is really important.
Sports drinks have been shown to delay fatigue and improve exercise performance in these circumstances.

The carbohydrate in the form of sugar in these drinks is a quick source of energy and helps the gut absorb water. Electrolytes like sodium and potassium replace what is lost in sweat, and sodium helps with rehydration too.

The All Blacks, then, need their Gatorade. But what about the rest of us? Is a sports drink what we need after a big gym workout or a tough game of touch?

The answer is probably no. Sports drinks are probably just giving us calories and sugar we don't need, and that applies whether we're exercising or not.

The evidence seems to support this. One study looked at healthy men and compared the effects of water, coconut water and a sports drink after 60 minutes of dehydrating exercise on a treadmill.

It found all drinks were equally as effective for rehydration.

For most of us, water is fine for hydration (although post-workout, a case can be made for milk, too). Water is also free.

Sports drinks can be high in sugar and energy — necessary for those elite athletes, but not for an average gym-goer, who's in danger of consuming more calories than their workout is burning off.

Some sports drinks can contain 10 or more teaspoons of added sugar — more than is recommended we have in a day.

We often over-estimate how much energy we're burning with exercise. If weight loss is a goal, we're better off not undoing all the good work we've done by reaching for a sports drink.

Kids don't need sports drinks; they're really just another sugary drink with the same consequences for weight and teeth.

A 2014 study found young people who consumed one or more sports drinks each day gained more weight over a three year period than their peers.

And what about the popular wisdom of sports drink as hangover cure? The expert view seems to be don't waste your money.

Yes, we need rehydration when we're hung over, but water will do the trick. Sadly the only reliable solution to this one is not to drink too much alcohol in the first place.

• Niki Bezzant is editor-at-large for Healthy Food Guide. www.healthyfood.co.nz