For consideration to those who swear by various sports drinks.
The article is taken from 24ur portal.
Scientists: With the lie that you need to drink sports drinks, they earned two billion, and you get fat
London, 24.07.2012, 12:37 | N.Š.
For years even recreational athletes have been told to drink before feeling thirsty, best sports drinks made specifically for athletes. Scientists have now debunked these claims. They claim these drinks are actually harmful.
Scientists claim that for occasionally active recreational athletes it's enough to rely on thirst and drink water.
British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a study that scrutinized the beneficial effects of sports drinks. Their advertising has indeed increased strongly ahead of the Olympics, which will encourage many to physical activity.
Researchers scrutinized both the claims of the sports drinks industry about good effects on strength and body regeneration and the money flow between this industry and scientists who have promoted drinking such drinks in recent years. They found that the problem of body dehydration was exaggerated and that it was more a marketing move than promotion of scientific discoveries.
Spreading false fear
Appendix editor Deborah Cohen wrote that the BMJ investigation showed that companies producing sports drinks financed the scientists themselves, who then spread fear of dehydration. "The American Institute for Sports Medicine received a donation of $250,000 in 1992 from Gatorade producer. Four years later they started promoting the theory that body dehydration must be zero percent, and advised athletes to drink all the time."
Gatorade of course soon offered an excellent solution in advertising campaign – with drinking their drink body hydration will always be sufficient.
Promises bigger than actual effectiveness
In one BMJ study at Oxford University they checked 431 advertising promises about 104 sports products, including sports drinks.
For more than half of the claims they found no confirmations with tests. GlaxoSmithKline was the only company willing to provide studies on which they proved effectiveness of their sports drinks, but it was found that there were several errors in the methodology.
The study conclusion was that 85 percent of studies on which advertising messages are supposedly based exaggerate confirmations of excellent effects of the tested product, that tests are often unreliable, especially because they are financed by the producer, results match their wishes, whether there is scientific basis or not.
Body has no idea
During New York Marathon in 1970 runners were according to Cohen advised not to drink much so they wouldn't be too slow. In a few years the sports drinks industry managed to breed a completely different myth. The greatest success of Gatorade's sports institute is surely convincing people that the feeling of thirst – the body's homeostatic mechanism for detecting and responding to dehydration – actually doesn't work well. And on that basis the sports drinks industry in the US alone built an industry worth more than two billion dollars.
Although producers promise that those drinking sports drinks will be more successful in runs and marathons, the BMJ study found that those who drink during running only when thirsty and don't drink sports drinks are not slower at all.
"The idea that the body signals thirst too late is a plain marketing trick of the sports drinks industry," says Tim Noakes, co-author of the BMJ study.
Sports drinks are not for children, plus they make you fat
BMJ also investigated the impact of sports drinks on children's health. The industry directs advertising also to children and parents with warnings that children simply forget to drink during activity, so it's important parents equip them with their drinks.
Since these high-calorie drinks are advertised as part of exercise, i.e. something healthy, parents and children then see them as indispensable part of healthy lifestyle and excellent substitute for classic sweet drinks.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has already warned some time ago that the best fluid for sports-active children is water. Sports drinks contain huge amount of sugar contributing to obesity and tooth decay.
Experts say a child could drink 2.5 dl of sports drink only after intense exercise and sweating lasting at least 90 minutes.
More and more people resort to sports drinks who think they "lack energy", but experts warn that those who sit most of the day but still drink these drinks will just pile on kilos, since half liter of sports drink usually contains around 150 calories, plus some of these drinks contain ingredients linked to heart diseases and behavioral disorders. Sports drinks should thus be suitable only for athletes who need extra calories, sugars and salts, which regular gym goers and recreational athletes with proper diet don't lack.