Assignment 17-Genghis Goodman

Do you want to be bigger, faster, or stronger? How about improve in a sport or just improve in overall physique. If yes, that’s great; America is known for having an issue with obesity so the more adolescents participating in regular exercise the better. However, it is apparent that physical activity is not the only way high school students try to improve. Many athletes out there try to improve through the use of sports supplements such as Gatorade/PowerAde, and whey or casein protein. Sadly, these athletes may be victims to the superior advertising made by large companies. This is because sports supplements are ultimately unnecessary to the average teenage athlete, due to the fact that they only affect athletic performance in extreme cases.

 Gatorade and PowerAde are two of the most popular sports drink out there; athletes of both genders drink them due to their claims of increased endurance, better hydration, and energy. However, do said drinks really improve performance, or are these claims built by marketing agents simply to improve sales? Gatorade has two main components- electrolytes and carbohydrates. Electrolytes are basically just salts, and Carbohydrates are basically just sugars. The idea is that when your body goes through a very intense workout or through intense heat, vital electrolytes are lost through sweat. Allegedly, when you drink Gatorade you’re replenishing these lost electrolytes, while also replenishing carbohydrates you’re burning off. However, according to Professor Tim Noakes of Cape Town University in the documentary sports science, the amount of electrolytes taken does not affect athletic ability, due to the average American’s high level of sodium intake. Gatorade’s claims of carbohydrates fueling an athlete, proved to show a clear affect, but only after about 2-3 hours of intense exercise. In fact, the manufactures of sports drinks almost exclusively do studies of the effect of their product on highly trained athletes who can perform long periods of intense exercise. It is within these long periods of intense exercise where the company’s claims become valid; unfortunately, most of the users of Gatorade or PowerAde do not exercise for multiple hours at a time at a very intense level. So what happens to these excess electrolytes and carbohydrates, or salts and sugars, when we drink sports drinks? According to livestrong.com the extra sugar and calories can lead to an increased risk in obesity, heart disease, or cavities and the excess electrolytes can lead to an increase risk of hyperkalemia. Of course in order to experience such negative effects one would have to excessively drink sports drinks with almost no exercise, however the existence of these risks show the unhealthiness of regular intake without the 2 to 3 hour intense period of exercise.

Whey or Casein protein are also very popular supplements, especially with teenage boys, according to aboutkidshealth.ca  40% of all young athletes take at least one of these dietary supplements. Who can blame them after reading claims made by manufactures of increased strength, endurance, and overall performance? Although these claims sound very attractive, they may be a little too good to be true. According to Dr. Tamie Stevenson even the most intense workouts only require the athlete to eat about 1.5g of protein for every kilogram they weigh. This number turns out to not be very high for most teenage athletes. In fact a healthy diet consisting of fish, chicken, or beef can provide more than enough protein to our bodies in order to generate more muscle mass. Why would we choose to pay money for expensive dietary supplements when we already get enough protein from the foods we eat daily? Not only is the extra protein in such supplements a waste but they can also damage the kidney, as it strains itself to filter an excess of protein out of the bloodstream. Based on the facts above, protein supplements seem to only have a positive effect for profession body builders, who work out multiple times a day, and require an extreme amount of protein to maintain their massive bodies.

In conclusion, sports supplements can have some positive effects, although these effects are minuscule and only become apparent in extreme conditions. Therefore, the use of said drinks ultimately becomes a waste of money, and in extreme cases, a risk to one’s health. Despite this, millions of American teenagers fall victim to superior advertising and claims made by these goliath companies. However, we can all live healthier lives through doing away with these supplements, drinking water, and eating actual food. This change in lifestyle will help us all live... a whey better life.