Should You Use Sports Drinks to Stay Hydrated?
Sports drinks provide the body with fluid, carbohydrates, and electrolytes.
First, let’s make sure we are thinking about the same types of drinks when we use the term “sports drinks”. By sports drinks, I’m referring to Gatorade, Accelerade, Powerade, Propel, and the like.
When you are in the grocery store and see the labels on some sports drinks you may be confused into thinking it’s something you would benefit from consuming. The variety of health benefits claimed can include such things as improved health and more energy.
When sports drinks we initially created, the whole point was to provide athletes the replacement fluid, electrolytes, and macronutrients (ie carbohydrates) they need to perform long term bouts of exercise optimally.
So think about that….do you perform long duration exercise where you want to replace carbohydrates burned? If you are like the average American or individual fighting heart disease, your goal is to lose weight. Replacing the calories you burn is not part of the ideal plan to achieve your goals.
In most cases, water is going to be enough for you to replace lost fluid during activity and keep core body temperature to an appropriate level.
Now, for workouts lasting more than 60 minutes, sports drinks do contain some nutrients that can be of value.
Carbohydrates
I’m going to include carbohydrates in this list, so we can differentiate for athletes versus you. When working out, your muscles utilize glycogen. Muscle glycogen levels are limited and become depleted. How quickly levels are depleted depend on exercise intensity and duration. Many sports drinks contain 10 to 20 grams (40 to 80 calories) of carbohydrates per 8 ounce serving. This is a 6 to 8% carbohydrate concentration. Due to high fluid losses during high intensity/duration activities you do not want the carbohydrate concentration to exceed 8% which can delay gastric emptying and lead to gastrointestinal issues.
As an FYI, soft drinks and energy drinks typically contain carbohydrate concentrations above 10%.
As I mentioned above, your goal is not necessarily to replace carbohydrates burned via the carbohydrates in sports drinks. However, there are now low calorie sports drinks on the market that also provide some of the below nutrients which may be beneficial to you.
Electrolytes
Dr. Houston Answers Your Top Heart Health Questions – Part 2
Here are more of the questions and answers from my interview with Dr. Mark Houston in February 2010.
Lisa Nelson RD: Is there a connection between blood pressure and heart rate?
Dr. Houston: If blood pressure increases, normally the heart rate should decrease. However, in some patient with dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system the heart rate may increase with the blood pressure.
Lisa Nelson RD: Blood pressure fluctuation – What causes blood pressure to fluctuate drastically throughout the day? Is it something to worry about?
Dr. Houston: Most people have fluctuations during the day due to the normal circadian rhythm (high in AM and low in PM). Stress, anger, eating, exercise, rest, meditation, coffee are some of the things that will alter blood pressure. About 60 % of patients that drink coffee have increase blood pressure for several hours after consumption.
Lisa Nelson RD: What is the risk of not treating high blood pressure? For example, someone has a blood pressure of 160/100, but they feel perfectly fine. Why should they be concerned and seek treatment?
Dr. Houston: Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney failure, loss of vision, aortic rupture, valve dysfunction, atherosclerosis. Hypertension is the silent killer. At this level the arteries will be damaged over time and all of these complications will occur. At that high level of blood pressure one will decrease life expectancy by about 15 years or more.
Lisa Nelson RD: Do blood pressure recommendations change with age?
Dr. Houston: A normal blood pressure is 120/80 regardless of age. If it goes up with age it means the arteries are not healthy, but very stiff.
Lisa Nelson RD: What is a normal blood pressure response post exercise? How quickly should heart rate return to normal post exercise?
Dr. Houston: Blood pressure will fall for several hours after exercise depending on hydration status and severity and length of exercise. Usually systolic (top number) blood pressure falls about 10-15 mm Hg and diastolic (bottom number) 5-10 mm Hg. Heart rate should return to normal within 2 minutes post exercise.
Part 1 – Top Heart Health Questions Answered By Dr. Houston
I’ll be posting more of the Q&A with Dr. Houston over the next few weeks. Sign-up for the e-course 7 Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure and you’ll also be notified when the new blog posts are added.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
http://www.lowerbloodpressurewithlisa.com
