Drinking sports drinks during games, practices, and training has become apart of our athletic culture. I for one see the value in consuming these types of drinks when someone has a long duration of vigorous activity (1 hour+) and their dietary needs support the calories in the beverage. Sports such as basketball, football, lacrosse, and soccer are good examples of sports that may require an in game fuel that will help rehydrate and replenish glycogen in the body. Unfortunately, baseball players feel entitled to grab a few sports drinks for every game.  Unless you are a catcher or pitcher whom throws a ton of innings, water would be a much better option.

Athletes often forget that their body responds to the fuel that they consume. In the short term, most athletes can get away with dietary murder while they are young and growing. Once they approach higher-level athletics, the difference between starting and sitting is miniscule. At elite levels, it is imperative that athletes take every ethical competitive advantage possible to achieve the next level of greatness. In my view, diet is often more important than training for optimal growth and strength development.

Our student athletes at SHU have access to a wide variety of food and beverage choices. I believe the school has a contract with Coke for distribution of all drinks on campus, thus our athletes often drink PowerAde. Seeing my players drink PowerAde drives me absolutely crazy!

PowerAde’s main ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). As I posted here, the quality of nutrient in HFCS is absolute garbage. HFCS use has been linked to insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, higher LDL, higher triglycerides and a sedentary lifestyles.1 I understand that sucrose, the main ingredient in Gatorade, has been linked to many of the same issues as high fructose corn syrup, except for one large one— LIVER DYSFUNCTION.

The American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology produced a study that looked at the effects of HFCS on the livers of rats compared to those with a standard rat diet. After 16 weeks, the results of the study showed that mice given HFCS developed nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, also called fatty liver disease.2

Steatohepatits is know to the general public as alcoholic liver disease. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic forms of steatohepatitis is the precursor to cirrhosis of the liver. This on top of the poor diets most youths have we are setting them up for serious disease and illness in the near future, and for athletes this type of inflammation could hurt their performance in training and on the field as well as their ability to recover.

I plead with my athletes and explain to them the damage they may be causing their bodies and how can influence their body composition, health, recovery and performance. Usually they are not willing to give up sports drinks all together so we can agree to have them use Gatorade instead of PowerAde as a start, with water as our normal end goal.

Take the extra effort to cut out anything with high fructose corn syrup especially sports drinks and stay ahead of your competition.

1. Angelopoulos TJ, Lowndes J, Zukley L, et al. The Effect of High-Fructose Corn Syrup Consumption on Triglycerides and Uric Acid. J. Nutr. 2009;139(6):1242S–1245S.

2. Tetri LH, Basaranoglu M, Brunt EM, Yerian LM, Neuschwander-Tetri BA. Severe NAFLD with hepatic necroinflammatory changes in mice fed trans fats and a high-fructose corn syrup equivalent. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2008;295(5):G987–G995.