Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Skittles or a sports drink during your game

29 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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0:49

In this short instructional video, the speaker explains that both Skittles and sports drinks contain sugar, which is a carbohydrate that serves as quick energy—or "flash fuel"—for athletes during games. While both can provide rapid carbs, sports drinks are optimized for athletic performance because they have the proper sugar-to-fluid ratio that minimizes digestive issues. Skittles, lacking this balance, are not ideal for regular use but can serve as an emergency source of quick carbs when no proper sports drink or other carbohydrate source (like applesauce) is available. The speaker emphasizes using sports drinks for consistent performance and reserving candy for occasional, situational use.

Chapters

The sugar in this is the same as the sugar in this. So why do I recommend this over this for my athletes? Both of these are full of sugar. Sugar is also a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are the gas that fills up your body's energy tanks. So as the game goes on, you get tired, you start to feel low energy, you need what I call flash fuel. Flash fuel is basically just quick carbohydrates that your body uses to fill up those energy tanks quickly so that you can keep your energy high and you can keep performing all game long. Both of these have carbohydrates. Both of these could be considered as flash fuel. This is optimized for you athletes. They use the right ratio of sugar to fluids to make it so that you're not having digestive issues throughout the game. This is not optimized for athletes, but it is full of carbs. So if you don't have any sports drinks around or any applesauce or any other quick carbohydrate, run to the concession stand and grab you some Skittles. There's a time and place, people.