Do You Give Your Kid’s Gatorade?

GATORADE FOR ACTIVE KIDS?  Gatorade (in it’s original form without all the iridescent colors and artificial sweeteners) was designed for the athlete who hits the wall at 60 minute of heavy aerobic activity and needs rapid glucose for the next hour.  And, quite frankly, it does a good job at this.  And ONLY this.  But, the marketing guys obviously knew what they were doing when they advertised to expand the market, most notably for children.  So contrast the sweaty athlete in the middle of an Ironman Triathlon to the sedentary child playing XBox on the couch.  The concept of a “sports” drink has morphed far beyond its intended market, but the perception that these drinks are in some way healthy has been persistent.  For all but the endurance athlete these drinks are nothing but empty calories and should be avoided.  We should NEVER drink our calories.  Period.  Read More…