Who Needs a Multivitamin When You've Got Sugar-Infused Electrolytes?

I don't know when or how my 5-year-old son ever got his first taste of Gatorade. But now he's an addict, and I'm guilt-ridden whenever I give in and proffer a bottle of the rainbow-hued libation (usually as a bribe), replete with all of its sugar and non-nutrition and a shitload of those supposedly dangerous food additives with ominous sounding names like Red 15 and Yellow 47.

But behold: The New York Times has informed me that his victual vice may not be so bad after all.

My wariness is understandable. After all, my kids get watered-down apple juice for snacktime (you should see when they go to Grandma's and get the real thing), they're required to drink skim milk with every meal, and they've never had soda (or pop, depending on what region you hail from). One time my daughter sipped from the wrong cup at a birthday party, got a mouthful of carbonated 7Up, and spit it out, crying that her fruit punch was "too spicy." I just don't believe in wasting my kids' junk-food splurges on beverages -- we have plenty of other, more tactile garbage in the house for them to indulge in.

So when Jackson started asking for Gatorade at the supermarket, I was slightly flummoxed. Just this one time won't hurt, I thought, not realizing I had started down the treacherous, treasonous path of electrolye enabler. Now it's become his special treat of choice when we find ourselves in a venue that offers such culinary crap, surpassing even cookies, ice cream, and fruit rollups. "Please get this nice bag of Sour Patch Kids," I begged him at the movie theater last week, as I watched his eyes longingly scan the beverage refrigerator.

The Times article doesn't give a total green light to my son's desire for sports drinks: Consumption is recommended mainly for kids who are participating in serious sports and who might not drink the water they need to stay hydrated because kids just, well, don't like to drink water. But playing Wii bowling and chasing after his sister are both pretty strenous activities, so I am no longer avoiding the 'Ade like the plague.
Read more...