Artificicial Sweeteners in Sports Drinks

I recently discovered that several sports drinks have non-nutritive sweeteners as an additive. These may be "natural" such as stevia. I have read (there is a study in NIH) that these type of products actually make people hungrier. Also there are many reports of side effects such as lower blood pressure and sugar; great if you're a couch potato but not exactly what I want to happen during a bike race. There are even some reports of palpitations (which I get). I used to use HEED until I discovered the stevia. I don't think it affected me, but how can I be sure?

Why would a nutrition company put a a non-nutritive sweetener in their drink when its only purpose is to improve flavor, and it could possibly have negative effects on performance.

Seems to me the industry is not much better than Coke and other soft drink companies who fill their drinks with whatever additive they think will see. I guess maybe that's why we see so many pros drinking coke instead of sports drinks!

 

There are some generalizations in there that just aren't valid. You can't say the industry does this or that. Certainly it's unlikely that there's any food industry that's adding food additives willy nilly. That kind of claim or accusation works at a protest to get folks fired up but ultimately is a failure when it comes to accuracy or factual bases.

Name any food product that couldn't possibly cause untoward effects in someone. That would be a very short list. As for why a company would use a non-nutritive sweetener in their drink, one very good reason would be to improve the taste without increasing calories. With respect to Stevia's potential side effects, what studies did you read? What was the incidence of those untoward effects? See, you need context and facts with your claims. Do you think it's possible that when you consumed products containing Stevia that you suffered no atypical events? After all, why would you think something happened if you didn't notice anything happening? I don't know anyone that worries that something may have happened to them even though they felt fine, certainly not in the context of riding.

 

I agree that some people like to use artificial sweetening agents to improve flavor. I just don't think this has a place in a product used to help sports performance. There are many studies if you do a search on stevia side effects. All stevia sites claim lower blood sugar and blood pressure. The NIH study that suggests these sweeteners increase calorie intake is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2650084/ You are correct that I should not generalize. I was just so disappointed in Hammer nutrition. I was looking in my bike shop and many different products contained stevia. Personally I put all non nutritive sweeteners in the same category; just because it is a plant product does that make stevia safer than saccharin? Arsenic is present in apple seeds and cyanide in peach pits.

 

Here's a solution: if something has Stevia in it and if Stevia makes you unhappy, don't use that something.

Added flavors are also in sports drinks, and they're not functionally necessary. Maybe they shouldn't be put in either. Hmmmmmm.......or maybe adding flavoring and the evil non-nutritive sweeteners are added to make the products more palatable to more people. That is a good reason for a company to add such things. No conspiracy, no industry-wide hive mind needed. How many people would drink a sports drink that wasn't palatable? That's right: a lot fewer people would consume that.

Your logic again fails because you've posited that Stevia and saccharine are unsafe. There is absolutely no scientific consensus on that at all. None. Nada. The arsenic reference is completely ridiculous because it has zero bearing on the topic.

You didn't mention that sports drinks quite often have a lot of electrolytes. If some of those electrolytes are consumed to excess, there can be serious adverse physical effects. Of course, we don't worry about that because for the vast majority of the population, the risk is exceedingly small and exists for a very small portion of the public. Likewise, the risk of adverse effects from Stevia are exceedingly small and exist for a very small segment of the population.

You should also know that the use of water is potentially dangerous since for a portion of the population, excess consumption of water can lead to depletion of critical electrolytes which can be potentially fatal.

 

The Gulucose drinks are quite better than the beverages.It gives you temporarily pleasure but ultimately it is very dangerous for your stomach and your health.So i will just say that use this but with the moderation.
seo consultant

 

I hate the taste of any artificial sweeteners ever made, which is good thing since I consider all artificial sweeteners to be potentially dangerous for your long term health, thus the taste of it for me prevents me from ever wanting it.