Quench Your Carbs

This weekend I attended the 10th Annual Northwest Chiropractic Symposium. It was geared toward caring for athletes, and one of the lectures was on sports nutrition. Among the many (read, a bajillion, it was like listening to the micro machines guy) topics that were covered was the topic of sports drinks. Not everyone that reads this blog is an athlete (at least not yet), but life is a sport and I found a lot of the info applicable to everyday nutrition.

Here’s the skinny: Sports drinks are great to use during competition, because they replenish the sodium, which can stave off cramps (1), and have added sugar to keep your energy up. That being said, for every 1 athlete out there using a sports drink while competing, there are thousands of spectators drinking the same thing. Even worse, countless more are drinking soda. A substantial portion of our daily carbs come from sugar-sweetened drinks, and recent research shows that the carbs coming from our drinks are packing on the pounds faster than the carbs coming from our food (2). In short, the sugar level in our drink should reflect the level of our activity at that time; those watching the sport should be drinking water and those playing it can reach for the Gatorade.

Tips: For your workout or your next game, add a scoop of protein to your sports drink, or buy one with added protein, to increase endurance and decrease the rate of muscle breakdown during exercise (3). For home, take a look in your fridge and count how many sugar-sweetened drinks there are. Next time you go to the store, leave one of those drinks off the list. Start small and make simple changes that don’t drastically change your lifestyle faster than you can adjust to it.



1.Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2007;39(5): S15, A-572.

2.Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:1299–306

3. Int. J. Sport Nut. Exerc. Metab. 2008; 18(4) 363-78.