sports drinks and false advertisement

Francisco Martinez

English 101

4/11/10

Despite Gatorade claims that its drink is good for the body. The truth is Gatorade is bad for most peoples health over time. If not used properly people can cause really bad harm to there health. But how can one say its bad if the advertisement claim the total opposite of this. We cant always go for what an advertisement says because not all advertisements tell you the negative side to product. Advertisements tell us what we want to hear not the opposite. We see a famous person advertising Gatorade then we want to have the product. How do we know if sports drinks are safe to drink?

Gatorade claims that if you drink there product it will revitalize the lost nutrients when one sweats. They say that one needs to take in carbohydrates and electrolytes to better our rehydration. What are electrolytes? it is just a more complicated way to say salt. And the carbohydrates provide energy, but unless you are doing some activity that really dehydrates you, drinking Gatorade while do nothing it is just consuming calories for no reason.

But yet they convince us with there advertisement that it is necessary for us to have carbohydrates and electrolytes in a sports drink. In advertisements we see all these people running and then after getting so tired they grab a Gatorade or any other sports drink and then they seem so relaxed and there thirst is all gone. They make us want those sport drinks , and believe it or not people want to be like those people on TV especially the famous people. Big companies are always going to give us all the positives of there drinks but there never going to announce whether there good for our health.

If you are having for example a Gatorade with a pizza your taking in an excess of carbohydrates sugar and electrolytes that you really wouldn’t need unless you involved in a activity that makes you sweat a lot. These types of drinks are bad for your teeth if you drink them on a daily bases and not using the drink for what it’s meant for which is to rehydrate. Also since the sports drinks contain so much sugar its bad for people with diabetes . We drink sport drinks thinking its going to help us with our work out or our sport , but we don’t stop to think what they contain. Majority of sport drinks like Gatorade contain ingredients that are bad for our body.

One of the worse ingredients that these sport drinks contain is called high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that can be worse for you even more then sugar. In reality a sport drink contains more sugar than u can imagine or think it has. When you drink a Gatorade, for example you may be all hyped and running back and forth , but when you least expect it you get a major crash. all sport drinks have that effect no sport drink is going to last for a long time as u expect it to. People who are sensitive to aspirins cant drink sports drinks because it can cause them allergic reactions. A simple drink can cause unhealthiness to your body and sometimes you wont even notice.

Do sports drinks really help you? The answer is “yes“. If sports drinks are taken as they are suppose to , they can help you. If you are playing a sport or working out and are sweating or running a marathon, then you are dehydrating. You have one of two options you can either have water or a sports drink that not only dehydrates you, but replenishes the burn of carbohydrate and the lost salt or also know as electrolytes . These types of drinks claim they replenish the amount of salt you loose when sweating. The Carbohydrates help keep you energized providing the extra energy you need to continue on with your activity. For someone who participates in a marathon or does extensive long amount of exercise. They can have a sport drinks. The extra calories, sugar and electrolytes in a sports drinks can be justifiable. Sports drinks are better taken by adults then children.

The advertisements for sport drinks like Gatorade may be very persuasive but I personally I am not for them. In my perspective there are more negatives than positives towards these sports drinks like Gatorade or any other sports drinks. I find it hard to believe that these sports drinks can have positive side to them, or how parents let there children have sports drinks when there better of just having plain and simple water. People who want to avoid sports drinks but want to not have just plain water there are ways you can create a drink that can replenish the “electrolytes”, “carbohydrates” and rehydrate you .