Gatorade or Gator-addict?

Photo Credit: www.gatorade.com

Baseball playoffs, regular season football, and preseason basketball. I guess you could say that it is definitely a big time of year for sports.  All over the sidelines for these sports we see those big orange containers with that oh-so-familiar lightening strike on the side. That only means one thing-- Gatorade! The players (and tons of other people) drink it like its water, but maybe that isn't the best idea.

We've grown up with Gatorade always being the number one sports drink around.  Recently, they've even come up with different series for different times during your workouts.  It seems like a great idea--we're rebuilding our electrolytes by drinking it, right? Well, sort of.  

Gatorade is filled with a ridiculous amount of sugar. There are 34 grams of it in just 20 ounces. We can assume that when you're in an active state, you're probably drinking about double that just to stay hydrated.  This amount of sugar is enough to pull you in over and over again, making you a Gatorade addict.  It might sound hard to believe, but it is very possible.  I'm not talking about a drug addict that shows visible signs of being addicted to heroine or cocaine, but a simple kind of addict that is very common in our society.  It might start with being tired when you don't drink any Gatorade for a day or two, so you drink some.  Then if you don't have it for 24 hours, you get a slight headache, so you up your intake some more without even thinking about it.  Soon, you're hooked and don't even realize it.

The moral of the story here: sports drinks are helpful but definitely hurtful. It is wise to limit yourself from the start, and just stick more to water than anything.  

Make sweet choices--in food and in life.