Are Sports Drinks Better Than Water?

In the eyes of your grandchild, sports drinks win out big over water. They're bright and colorful — orange, purple, and blue to water's boring drabness. They've got flavor — tasty sweetness to water's blandness. But do these bright sippers really offer better replenishment than straight-up H2O?

Sports drinks are chock-full of electrolytes (salts) and replace the carbohydrates, sugar, electrolytes, and nutrients the body loses as it perspires during a strenuous workout.

"Since young children are in a period of intense growth and development, maintaining the necessary dietary fuel while exercising is critical for them," says Kate O'Keefe, a nutritionist at New York-based Nyack Hospital.

"A young athlete playing a high-energy sport such as soccer or football, especially for more than one hour, would benefit from gulping down a sports drink immediately after the exercise," says O'Keefe.

Slugging sugar-sweetened sports drinks from the couch, though, can tack on extra calories children just don't need (about 50 per eight-ounce serving). "Most kids don't just drink eight ounces of Gatorade," says O'Keefe. "They drink the whole bottle — sometimes 32 ounces or more! This piles on mega-calories that offer little nutritional value."

Shorter spurts of low-level activity (walks or calisthenics) don't require electrolyte replacement, says O'Keefe, but rehydration, which water aptly provides. Of course, kids being kids, adding a burst of flavor can go far in getting them to down larger quantities of the plain stuff. O'Keefe's tip: Add a splash of juice to water, or try cutting sugary sports drinks with water to reduce the calorie count.

If you're seeking a solid sports drink for your budding athlete, these options have merit to boot. Not only do they score high in the health category, they earn points for being kid-friendly, too.

LIV Natural: Sweetened with all-natural agave nectar, rather than sugar, this sidelines sipper bottled by a New Jersey-based company serves up brilliantly-colored flavors in lemon, orange, and mixed berry. If you're a Whole Foods shopper, you can find it there for about $1.75 per 20-ounce plastic bottle.

Recharge: Longtime juice maker R.W. Knudsen has offered this all-natural sports drink in natural-foods stores for years. It recently re-launched Recharge to take advantage of the growth of Whole Foods and its kin. Flavored with fruit juice, Recharge comes in orange, tropical, grape, lemon, and organic lemon. It gets its electrolyte content from sea salt, another natural source. It costs about $1.29 per 16-ounce bottle.

Vita Coco: If your grandchild is adventurous, why not give him some coconut water? It's fast becoming the electrolyte drink of choice among the natural-foods set for its exotic nature and taste. The first sip has a bit of an odd mouth-feel to it, similar to a drinkable Jell-O; if the kids can get past that, they'll be drinking a natural source of the electrolytes that are added to sports drinks such as Gatorade. Other flavors from Vita Coco include peach-mango, passion fruit, and pineapple; its competitor, O.N.E. (ONE World Enterprises) offers coconut and coconut acai, which is a Brazilian berry. Either will run you about $1.50 per 11-ounce tetra-pak (think: juice box).

Accelerade: The brand's mantra is 4:1. That's because some scientists believe muscular recovery to be as important as rehydration after an intense workout. And, says O'Keefe, protein boosts muscle repair. Accelerade is made up of a ratio of four carbohydrates to one protein. This Cadbury Schweppes product is widely available for about $1.59 a bottle in fruit punch, mountain berry, grapefruit citrus, and peach-mango flavors.

Dig the protein idea? Bring some chocolate milk to the bleachers. Researchers at Indiana University found in a study published by the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in 2006 that the childhood favorite helped athletes recover more quickly after periods of vigorous activity than Gatorade. Cool, right? Here's how it works: Chocolate milk has a similar 4:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio. And for your grandchildren, it's got the added benefits of vitamin D, calcium, and well, it's chocolate milk. They'd never turn that down.