While Gatorade and other sports drinks haven’t been around for too long, they have quickly caught on with many professional teams, collegiate teams and others who work out — and those who don’t even enter the gym.

According to registered dietitian Lisa Eberhart, drinking sports drinks without working out, is about the same as sipping on a soda.

Sports drinks a good alternative to water?

Sports drinks are good for athletes and others working out, because the body is able to absorb the drink 30 percent faster than water, according Eberhart.

“The concentration is not too high, not too low. It’s perfect so people can absorb those a little easier to rehydrate after a workout,” Eberhart said.

Eberhart said sports drinks have a number of positives.

“It helps you take in some carbohydrates, which restores glycogen, that’s in your liver and muscle,” Eberhart said. “That’s what you deplete when you are exercising. You’re depleting glycogen and when you take [a] sports drink in, it helps you replenish that glycogen. It’s really only beneficial if you’re working out more than 45 minutes.”

Freshman business major Connor Flanary said some people drink sports drinks to enhance their performance while many drink it for other reasons.

“It depends on what you’re shooting for because it has certain things that might not be good for you,” Flanary said. “Depending on what you’re trying to do, but most of the time, it’s pretty good for you.”

According to Eberhart, the negatives of sports drinks, like Gatorade and Powerade, is with people who drink them casually, thinking that it benefits them beyond a workout.

“If your just drinking sports drinks all day, like Gatorade with your lunch or walking around campus drinking Gatorade, it is the same as drinking a soft drink,” Eberhart said.

“It just has calories and sugar and it’s not benefiting you. The only time that its beneficial is either during an event likes during a soccer match or a tennis match that’s pretty long or a bike ride that’s long, its very beneficial and right after your workout, within 20 minutes of finishing your workout, it’s very beneficial.”

While sports drinks do allow the body to replenish faster and provide athletes to compete better, water has no calories.

“The only difference is sports drinks have that 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate solution,” Eberhart said. “They have some sodium and some potassium — they are lost when you sweat.”

For football, Senior Associate Director of Sports Medicine and head athletic trainer for the football team, Jamey Coll said they provide the players with options of what they would like to consume.

“We have water available at practices. We have water in the building when they’re working out in the weight room,” Coll said.

“So we have water and Gatorade. In the summer months when we’re practicing longer than an hour, we just want to make sure we have Gatorade available and that the guys are drinking from the Gatorade bottle. We do have water and Gatorade breaks.”

While sports drinks have become the norm, water is, and always has been, accessible at any time.

“For most people in most situations, water is the best thing that they can drink to rehydrate,” Eberhart said.

Athletes and staying fresh

Most athletes are provided liquids throughout their games, but what liquid do most schools and professional sports prefer?

Coll said most universities use Gatorade because of research already conducted.

“The reason why a lot of schools use Gatorade [is] because they have the research to support their product,” Coll said.

“They’re not just making a drink to make a drink, they have the Gatorade sports science institute, where they actually dissect the product and they find if its optimal for the body and they make sure it [replenishes] what they’re saying its going to replenish. But also the body is able to absorb it and continue with competing and it’s not going to take away from the competition.”

As for flavors, Eberhart said no particular flavor is better than another.

But for the State football team, there is one particular flavor that is used most often.

“Fruit punch is always a favorite here,” Coll said.

Is Vitamin Water legit?

Vitamin Water, a drink that is promoted for having vitamins that can benefit the body, has been in question by its legitimacy. Many wonder if Vitamin Water really works.

Eberhart doesn’t think highly of the way the drink is promoted.

“I consider it water. It’s plain old water,” Eberhart said. “There’s not that much benefit in vitamin water.”

“I think that it’s just kind of a gimmick. [It’s] really not that beneficial for anybody. No one is getting that many vitamins anyway. It’s just basically a calorie-free flavored way to drink water. There’s no situation where I recommended Vitamin Water.”