by Vic Shayne, PhD

The sports drink industry is still on the rise and began with Gatorade way back when. Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida and used to help athletes fight the tremendous negative impact of heat combined with water and electrolyte (mineral) loss experienced in intense exercise. Still, Gatorade is not a natural drink, but a chemical concoction. Now there are a great number of sports drinks on the market, and they are being sold and consumed without considering the fact that they may do more harm than good. In fact, a British study has shown that sports drinks erode your teeth.

University of Birmingham’s (UK) schools of sport and exercise sciences and dentistry said that during a joint study in which intensive exercise conditions were recreated, it appeared that some sports drinks can cause up to 30 times more enamel loss than water.

“Tooth erosion can be a significant problem as when the enamel is dissolved the tooth becomes a lot more sensitive. Eventually the hard dentine and pulp can be exposed, leading to infection,” said Dr Tony Smith, head of research at the school of dentistry. “This study has shown that whilst an existing sports drink was erosive, it has been possible to formulate this new sports drink with negligible erosive potential.”

More than a billion dollars a year are spent on sports drinks. If you want a better alternative, try filtered water mixed with a good green drink (SuperGreens PhytoFood). SuperGreens contains green tea extract, a food shown to boost exercise endurance.

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