Teens fooled by smart publicity of sports drinks?

A new survey involving more than 15,000 middle and high school students throughout Texas revealed that youngsters, who drank sugar-sweetened beverages, including sports drinks, were more likely to eat unhealthy foods and watch more TV than kids who didn't take such drinks.

Researchers believe smart marketing gimmicks of most sports drinks have led the teenagers to count them among healthy options.

Are sports drinks healthy options?
Researchers at Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Austin questioned teens about their eating habits and drink preferences, about their daily physical activity and the time they spend in front of the TV or computer each day.

About 20 percent of the teens in the study were obese.

Nalini Ranjit, PhD, and colleagues found that the kids choosing sweetened beverages over carbonated sodas also exercised harder and were more likely to eat healthy foods.

Health-conscious teens might steer clear of carbonated drinks for fear of excessive calories, but they tend to fall for flavored and sports beverages, wrongly considering them to be healthier choices.

Sports beverages not consistent with a healthy lifestyle“Adolescents and their parents need to be educated that consumption of large amounts of flavored and sports beverages is not consistent with a healthy lifestyle,” said lead researcher Nalini Ranjit.

Researchers believe smart marketing gimmicks of most sports drinks have led the teenagers to count them among healthy options.

“Adolescents who engage in an otherwise reasonably healthy lifestyle with lots of physical activity and a healthy diet still consume large amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages in the form of flavored and sports beverages,” Ranjit said. “We believe that this is due to successful marketing that has led consumers to see these beverages as healthy.”

Too many teens falling for sports drink?
Reporting online in the journal Pediatrics, the researchers noted that such drinks often contain a little percentage of real fruit juice, and high amounts of sugar contents.

Researchers said the findings were disturbing as the study revealed that 83 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls had one or more sugar-sweetened beverage the previous day; 28 per cent of them reported to be drinking three sports drinks a day.

The authors hope that this eye-opener will help to better inform policy makers as they work on public health campaigns.

Via : themoneytimes