Bart Maes

How important are sports drinks, water, performance drinks and energy drinks for your daily performance? And what role do they play for top athletes?

Did you know that with a loss of 2% in body fluid your performance will decrease by 10 to 20%?

Moisture loss reduces our performance. We get tired faster, we are less able to concentrate, our nerves get stimulated earlier, and top performance is not achieved. You notice this during exercise, work and during other daily tasks. The decline in performance due to moisture loss applies to both children and adults. Sufficient body fluid is a condition for feeling fit. .

When body fluid decreases by 4%, nausea may occur that may be accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. With a loss of 5% in body fluid, our performance is reduced by 30%. With a loss of 8%, our breathing starts to become restricted and we experience weakness and mental confusion. (1)

Did you know that it is essential and easy to maintain your fitness and performance by drinking enough?

Fresh fruit and raw vegetables contain 80 to 95% moisture. You can add these to meet your moisture requirements.

• An adult needs an average of 2 liters of fluid per day.
• Small children need 1 to 1.5 liters of fluid per day.
• Babies 110 to 150 ml per kg body weight.

This article is not intended to advise on the fluid intake of babies. I would like to point out that troublesome babies sometimes tend to become troublesome faster due to lack of moisture.

Five facts and tips to keep your fluid balance on the right level for sufficient energy:

1. Darker yellow urine is a simple indication that you have not taken enough fluids.
2. Do not drink from plastic water bottles or containers.
   The University of Wageningen concluded that when reused, 53% of all plastic drinking bottles contain germ numbers higher than 100,000 per millimeter. Which is comparable to ditch water. In the case of abdominal pain, the cause is usually the plastic water bottle that can never really be quite clean due to the fact that plastic is porous. The best is glass followed by stainless steel.
3. Distribute your fluid intake throughout the day.
   And don’t wait until you get thirsty. This way you prevent dehydration and weaker performance.
4. Water + heat + oxygen = bacteria that increasingly multiply.
   This burdens your fitness and immune system. Always drink fresh water and not water that has been opened and has stood open for some time.
5. Headache or migraine?
   This is often attributed to a shortage of moisture. In 80% of the cases, taking in fluids will solve the problem.

Did you know that there are major differences in sports drinks and energy drinks?

Your brain works on sugar, your muscles work on sugar, your organs work on sugar. Yet sugar has become a dirty word, because we eat and drink too many “refined” sugars.

Which sports drinks or energy drinks should you rather not consume?

White or brown sugar are highly refined, but the sugars contained in most sports drinks and energy drinks are even more refined. An example is high fructose syrups. These are pathogens and are not worthy of the name sports drinks or energy drinks. In the long term they deprive your body and mind of top performance and resistance.

How does refined sugar deprive your body and mind of top performance?

These sugars cheat your hormones, and steal vitamins, minerals and healthy substances from your body.

For example, Red Bull is bullshit as an energy drink. One of my representatives stopped along the highway to drink Red Bull in order to stay awake. He drank the Redbull in one go. After ten minutes he was sleeping like a log in the car.

Modern sports and performance drinks are made of refined glucose, fructose, maltodextrins, starch and sucrose, chemical flavoring, coloring and fragrances. Acids are sometimes added for shelf life and they often cause stomach and intestinal problems. Don’t drink them!!

What can you drink that’s best for your general fitness, concentration, alertness and for achieving top performance?

Natural mineral water from glass bottles is a good general drink that prevents your fitness, concentration, alertness and performance from falling. Water with a very low mineral content is not recommended. For example, do not drink Spa water. An occasional cup of organic tea or organic coffee is absolutely acceptable.

I can already hear you thinking: “Water, tea and coffee do not contain kcal so it cannot provide any energy to you!” This statement actually is not entirely correct, because your body and mind lose energy due to loss of fluids.

Did you know that you can drink energy or sports drinks with healthy sugar for extra energy?

Opt for an energy or sports drink with unrefined sugar. By far the best unrefined sugar source is coconut blossom sugar.

Coconut blossom sugar is made from the blossom of the coconut tree. Coconut sugar is full of minerals, trace elements and antioxidants. even more than almost all fruits and vegetables. In addition, coconut blossom has another major advantage, namely its low glycemic index. A low glycemic index means that the energy of coconut sugar is released slowly (up to 4x slower than with refined sugars), so your blood sugar level does not get heavy ups and downs.

In short: Performance drinks, sports drinks and energy drinks with unrefined coconut blossom sugar are superior to mainstream energy drinks and sports drinks with refined sugars.

The Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps drinks chocolate milk as a sports drink

Michael has already won 23 Olympic gold medals. 8 at the Beijing Olympics alone. No other sportsman has won more Olympic medals than Michael Phelps.

He drinks chocolate milk during training sessions and competitions. Chocolate milk contains a lot of sugars, cocoa and a small amount of protein. During training and competitions, these proteins ensure fewer injuries and faster recovery of the muscles. The small amount of protein in his sports drink is important. In this case it is not “the more the better”. Taking a lot of proteins during training and competitions is not the right thing to do. Proteins are difficult to digest and digestion requires energy. The chocolate milk that Michael drinks does not contain any acids or chemical flavoring, fragrances or preservatives.
This should be an example of what a real sports drink is.

Which energy drink or sports drink do you drink and for what purpose?

• Do you want to be more alert?
  Then make yourself a drink based on coconut blossom sugar, cocoa, coffee and guarana.
• Need to boost your concentration?
  Then make your drink based on coconut blossom sugar and matcha.
• Do you want to feel Happier?
  Fix yourself a nice drink for yourself based on coconut blossom sugar, saffron and vanilla.
• Ideal for kids for better school performance or during exercise.
  Beverage based on coconut blossom sugar and cocoa. Also ideal as a breakfast drink.
• A sports drink that adapts to your needs?
  Make your sports drink based on coconut blossom sugar and cocoa.

Use an instant beverage powder to make an isotonic, hypertone or hypotonic sports drink yourself, depending on your needs at that time.

• Drink a hypotonic drink as a thirst quencher
  How do you make a hypotonic drink? Mix a maximum of 5 grams of beverage powder with 100 ml of water
• Hypertonic drink as an energy source (ideally 1 hour before and after exercise or strength training)
  How do you make a hypertonic drink? Mix a maximum of 8 grams beverage powder with 100 ml water.
• Isotonic drink as a fast thirst quencher and energy source
  How do you make an isotonic drink? Mix between 6 and 8 grams of beverage powder with 100 ml of water

Intensive athletes drink around 250 ml per 15 minutes.
Water with a very low mineral content (less than 50 mg dry residue) is not recommended.

An apt slogan to keep in mind:
“Without rhythm there is no life … if you breathe well you will have a long life.”
book “Sport en Yoga”, Selvarajan Yesudian & Elisbeth Haich

(1): Sports Nutrition, Anita Bean, p96