Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Are sports drinks okay for athletes?

31 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this concise expert monologue, Kelsey Higginson explains that sports drinks are appropriate for athletes during very long practices, games, or races because they supply carbohydrates, electrolytes, and fluids that are depleted during intense activity. She acknowledges that sports drinks contain sugar, which she frames as a source of quick‑acting carbohydrate energy, and advises that if athletes prefer to avoid sports drinks they should obtain those carbohydrates from other sources.

Chapters

Are sports drinks okay for athletes? I typically am recommending sports drinks to my athletes when they are in very long practices, when they are in the middle of very long games or races, because sports drinks are full of carbohydrates. They're also full of electrolytes and fluids. These are the things that your body is using up throughout your intense games or workouts, and it's the things that need to be replenished or put back into your body. A lot of people like to demonize sports drinks saying, oh, they're just full of sugar. Exactly. They're full of sugar, which sugar is a carbohydrate, and those carbohydrates are gonna give you the quick energy that you need to keep going throughout the game. If you don't want carbohydrates in the form of a sports drink, that's totally chill. Just make sure you're getting them somewhere else.