Caroline Hearst
Reporter

Sports drink manufacturers market their products as better alternatives to water, but they may impact your wallet more than your health.

“It is better to have free water, and food, juice or smoothies made from whole foods, than to have the ‘designer’ drinks,” said Erica Goode, M.D., a general medicine physician at Central Pacific Medical Center’s Institute for Health and Healing.

Goode, who has conducted nutrition research on the benefits of energy drinks, has concluded they do not offer a substantial advantage over whole foods or plain water.

“Whole simple fruits, vegetables, protein sources such as eggs, beans, milk, yogurt, other dairy products; fish, poultry, and other meats all have multiple, subtle nutrients and phyto [plant-based] nutrients,” said Goode.

“When vitamins are kept in a liquid with a clear glass or plastic bottle, the B and C vitamins are fairly rapidly lost, relative to amounts added at the beginning,” said Goode.

“The number one reason to buy sports drinks is flavor,” and not nutritional value, said junior Lauren Hawkins, who admitted she does not feel a difference after drinking enriched beverages.

While a jar of vitamins will supplement one’s diet for weeks, a bottled beverage may last mere minutes, and the cost adds up.

“Relative to a vitamin pill containing similar amounts of, say, B vitamins and Vitamin C, the difference is about $4 for a drink versus 3 cents for a vitamin pill,” said Goode.

But sports drinks have a charm that vitamins do not.

“I love the little stories on Vitamin Water,” said Hawkins. “The best is the purple one. It cracks me up.”

“Unless someone has unusual needs to carry one of these bottles about, it is a big waste of money,” said Goode. “Plus, the environment suffers.”