Choosing the Right Sports Drink – For Runners
Sports drinks
Sports drinks used to be simple – it was a choice of plain water or flavoured water, both of which could keep you hydrated but little else. Now there are specially formulated ‘sports drinks’ that will help you before, during or after your run – there are drinks that will make you more alert or even offer an alternative to a meal, and there is at least one product that claims to make you stronger while you are sleeping.
It’s easy to be confused about what’s on offer, particularly when the labels, such as sport, energy, carbohydrate, isotonic, etc., are so confusing. So here’s a guide to understanding the sports drink market together with what to drink and when.
Understanding the label
Don’t read too much into the label, as there is little consistency with terminology and its meaning. The role of today’s sports drink (we’ll ignore protein drinks for the moment) is two-fold: to replace fluid and electrolytes lost through sweating and to put back or top up the body’s carbohydrate reserves. How well a drink fulfils each role depends on the concentration of carbohydrate it contains, which is something you can see on the label of a pre-mixed drink and need to think about when you are mixing your own.
If the carbohydrate is more than 10 per cent of the drink, it will slow down the rate at which your body can absorb the fluid and therefore use it to replace that lost through sweating. If rehydration is your main priority, look for a drink that is hypotonic, i.e. one that is more dilute than your body fluids, such as orange squash or diluted fruit juices, because your body can absorb it quicker than plain water. Isotonic drinks have the same concentration of particles as your body. Popular brands can be absorbed as fast as water while also providing some additional fuel. Drinks that are more concentrated than body fluids are hypertonic and will slow down the rate of absorption of fluid and would include neat fruit juices and many fizzy drinks.
Hydration test
To find out whether you are dehydrated, check the colour of your urine as soon as you wake up. If you’re well hydrated, it should be a pale yellow straw colour. If it’s darker, you should be drinking more. Don’t perform this test after taking a vitamin supplement as it can affect the colour of your urine. Opinion varies about how much water you need to drink every day, but the Food Standards Agency recommends six to eight 25oml (Sf1 oz) glasses.
The right sports drink
oRun of less than 30 minutes: nothing or water
oGentle-steady run up to 1 hour: water
o High-intensity run up to 1 hour: hypotonic or isotonic sports drink
o High-intensity run of more than 1 hour: hypotonic or isotonic sports drink
Protein drinks
If you spend enough time in health food stores or sports shops you will come across protein drinks, which offer a heavy dose of carbohydrate and protein as a recovery drink. Most recreational runners will find that there is enough protein in their normal diet to ignore these drinks.
Gels
Gels are a relatively recent addition to the sports nutrition market and are less of a drink but more a concentrated shot of carbohydrate. They can not only supplement your drinks but also offer an easy, transportable way of eating on the run during long endurance runs aid races; In fact, many people use gels and water rather than worrying about a particular carbohydrate drink.
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