Sports Drinks and Energy Drinks: Not for Kids

The American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Nutrition and Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness published their “Clinical Report – Sports Drinks and Energy Drinks for Children and Adolescents: Are They Appropriate?” 

In today’s blog I am going to merely quote summary statements from that report.  The full text is available free on line and I encourage you to use the reference at the end to access, print and read the full text.  The details and references are stunning.

“Sports drinks and energy drinks are significantly different products, and the terms should not be used interchangeably.”

“Rigorous review and analysis of the literature reveal that caffeine and other stimulant substances contained in energy drinks have no place in the diet of children and adolescents. Furthermore, frequent or excessive intake of caloric sports drinks can substantially increase the risk for overweight or obesity in children and adolescents.”

“With children and adolescents, careful consideration is necessary when selecting a beverage to hydrate before, during, or after exercise and outside of physical activity to prevent excessive sugar and caloric intake that may encourage dental erosion, overweight, and obesity.”

“Children and adolescents should be taught to drink water routinely as an initial beverage of choice as long as daily dietary caloric and other nutrient (e.g., calcium, vitamins) needs are being met. Water is also generally the appropriate first choice for hydration before, during, and after most exercise regimens. Children should have free access to water, particularly during school hours.”

“Sports and energy drinks are not indicated for use during meals or snacks as a replacement for low-fat milk or water.”

“The actual caffeine content for many energy drinks is not easily identified on product packaging or via the Internet. The total amount of caffeine contained in some cans or bottles of energy drinks can exceed 500 mg (equivalent to 14 cans of common caffeinated soft drinks) and is clearly high enough to result in caffeine toxicity. …

Additional concerns regarding the use of caffeine in children include its effects on the developing neurologic and cardiovascular systems and the risk of physical dependence and addiction.  Because of the potentially harmful adverse effects and developmental effects of caffeine, dietary intake should be discouraged for all children.”

“For most children and adolescents, daily electrolyte requirements are met sufficiently by a healthy balanced diet; therefore, sports drinks offer little to no advantage over plain water. During or after participation in short training or competition sessions, athletes generally do not need supplemental electrolyte replacement.”

“Low-fat milk is a good option for use as a post-exercise protein-recovery drink.”

“In general, the use of amino acids in energy drinks in place of traditional dietary sources is not supported by the scientific literature and, therefore, is discouraged for children and adolescents.”

“Given the current epidemic of childhood overweight and obesity, we recommend the elimination of calorie containing beverages from a well-balanced diet, with the exception of low-fat or fat-free milk, because it contains calcium and vitamin D, which are particularly important for young people.”

Want to learn more, check out this link to read the full report:http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/05/25/peds.2011-0965

Call us to find out more: 530-878-2358

Chocolate Milk Makes Cavities!

Chocolate milk is candy.  Granted it has milk protein and calcium, but the sugar ratio to other nutrients still makes it candy.  As for its ability to make cavities, it is less of a problem than juice and sports drinks because it is not acidic like them.  I put it on the same scale as chocolate candy, except we do not nibble on chocolate candy multiple times a day every day.  Infants and toddlers who drink chocolate milk do sip on it at multiple opportunities during the day.  Some have it in a sippy cup or bottle and sip on it all day.  As you might expect, these kids develop a high rate of cavities early in life* and they establish an oral bacterial balance around their teeth that will plague them their entire life.**

If your child is already “addicted”*** to the sweet flavor of chocolate milk, there are a couple options for you.

1) Adamantly restrict chocolate milk to one glass at mealtime when it will be mixed with the other foods of the meal.  Note:  If you can do this you are a committed person (and tougher than me).  If children are used to having chocolate milk throughout the day, and they know it is in the house, they will insist on having it as usual and you will have a small war (demands, crying & tantrums) on your hands.  My experience with small wars with children is that they win … every time.  They don’t understand losing and they will persist until they win.

Then vs Now: Why So Many Cavities?

The rising number of cavities the last 30 years, especially in children, has far outgrown the dental industry’s ability to fill the cavities!  There are simply not enough dentists.  How could this be?  We only need to go back a couple hundred years and cavities were not a problem for anyone except the Royalty and the rich.  Only the rich had dentists, typically in the royal court.  And there is our first clue.

Only the rich could afford the sugar, which needed to be shipped around the world to be used in the Royal Court’s confections and white pastries.  There is a second clue.  Refined white flour, when cooked, becomes a cooked starch that is capable of feeding the bacteria that cause cavities.  Additionally, the starch sticks between the teeth (flour and water paste) where it holds dissolved sugars from a variety of otherwise healthy foods like fruits.

Sugar Blues: It's Not Just About Cavities

A book I read in the 1970s entitled “Sugar Blues” made a clear connection of sugar with disease (high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and heart attack, and diabetes) as well as demonstrating the addictive quality of sugar.  Since then I have been dismayed by the huge attention given to fat in the diet.  Though excess fat in the diet is not good, it is not nearly the bad culprit it has been made out to be.  Meanwhile, a far bigger player in the chronic disease patterns in our culture has gotten very little attention; namely sugar, and specifically fructose (which is half the sugar molecule in your table sugar).  You have all seen fructose advertised a great deal in recent years, but have you noticed?  There is very little mention of fructose in food advertising lately.

I recently had the distinct pleasure of hearing a seminar discussion conducted by 3 leading pediatricians who are all metabolic specialists in teaching hospitals in the USA.  They discussed metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dislipidemia), and its cause (fatty liver degeneration and liver failure) which in children is caused primarily by excess fructose intake.  In adults it is also caused by sugar, but is more commonly thought of as caused by alcoholism.  It turns out the liver is the only tissue in the body that can break down (digest) a fructose molecule (there seems to be no system in the body that has a use fructose).  The liver has a limit how much fructose it can metabolize in a day.  When it gets too much fructose, it’s attempts to metabolize the fructose results in half digested “byproducts” which are toxic, which the body needs to deal with and which ultimately get stored as “excess fat,” not healthy fat.

The average American surpassed eating the liver’s daily maximum amount of sugar in about 1977.  The rise in excess weight gain and increase in the presence of metabolic syndrome started about the same time.  As a matter of fact, the average sugar consumption in this country in the 1960s (30 grams) has increased to an average today of 200 grams.  The liver’s capacity maxes out at about 50 grams of fructose.  Today, metabolic syndrome does not affect just elderly adults.  It affects everybody eating excess sugar, including our children. There are documented cases of liver transplants for fatty liver degeneration in obese teenagers.
And about addiction.  The biochemistry research documents that sugar delights the pleasure centers of the brain exactly the same as alcohol, addictive drugs, nicotine and other substances.  I won’t belabor that; just know sugar is just as addictive as those other substances.  Notice how your craving increases during these sugar laden holidays?

Please, Please.  Don’t start your children, toddlers and infants on sweet beverages (liquid candy), sweet pastries, candies and sweet cookie/cracker snacks.  It is not just about the cavities.

Scott Thompson, DDS
Meadow Vista, California