Sport and energy drinks

Sports drinks have a lot of sugar in them, that’s bad right?
The ‘sugar’ in sports drink is not that of what you might find in lollies and table sugar. When being active the body needs carbohydrates to help muscles contract. The body has stores of carbohydrates which can last for 60 to 90 minutes during activity. Once the stores run out, the body runs out of fuel to help it perform. It’s this time that sports drinks can provide valuable top ups of carbohydrates for the body to keep performing at its peak, because they are easily absorbed and distributed to the working muscles.

Can I have ‘energy drinks’ around training/competition to give me an energy boost?
An energy drink is different from a sports drink, the sugar is a different type to what is found in sports drinks and can be absorbed differently by the gut. Energy drinks also include ingredients that act as a stimulant for the body. They might give you a quick boost but it can be short lived and leave you feeling flat and low in energy mid way through a game or training session.