Whether you’re battling morning sickness, dehydration or just wanting to quench your thirst with something more flavorful, it’s important to know what’s safe to sip while on this journey.
This article explores the safety, benefits and potential concerns of consuming sport drinks like Powerade and Gatorade during pregnancy.
Is Gatorade safe while pregnant?
Generally speaking, Gatorade is considered safe to drink during pregnancy. It contains electrolytes that include sodium and potassium, which is known to refresh your body and prevent dehydration.
Pregnant women are good to drink Gatorade, especially the G2 Gatorade series to treat morning sickness, nausea, diarrhea or increase activeness.
However, know that this sports drink contains a significant amount of sugar and shouldn’t be drunk to excess. You should only drink occasionally.
Regularly drinking high sugar beverages such as Gatorade could unnecessarily make you put on weight and increase blood sugar levels.
If you’re currently on some strict medications like Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen, or have any of these ailments listed below, then check first with your doctor before drinking it.
- Have diabetes
- Gestational diabetes,
- Persisting heartburn,
- High blood pressure
Can pregnant women drink powerade?
Similar to Gatorade, powerade is also considered safe to drink for pregnant women. It also contains electrolytes such as potassium and sodium, which will as well replenish lost fluids in pregnancy.
If treating morning sickness in pregnancy is the reason you’re drinking powerade, then keep on. Aside helping morning sickness, it also keeps you hydrated enough while providing comfort from pregnancy-related fatigue and headaches.
Powerades have almost the same benefits as Gatorades as it is commonly used to combat diarrhea and nausea. But do not choose any flavor at all.
I recommend that you go for the Powerade Zero flavor as it barely contain any sugar and calories.
Benefits of sports drink for pregnant women – Gatorade while pregnant
Let’s take a closer look at how these drinks can benefit your pregnancy journey.
Helps in Rehydration
During pregnancy, you lose a lot of water. You pee a lot, sweat, nauseate, and sometimes have your undies soaked from amniotic fluid leakages. Thus, it becomes necessary to replace these lost fluids.
Sports drinks like Gatorades, powerades or body armor contains sufficient amounts of water that can fulfil a part of your daily hydration needs to keep you hydrated.
If you’re dealing with any of these in pregnancy, do not hesitate to drink these drinks to help it;
- Morning sickness
- Nausea
- Excessive sweating from pregnancy exercises
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Amniotic fluid leaks
In as much as you can resort to sports drinks to relieve these ailments, you don’t have to substitute a good healthcare over them.
You can only drink them moderately as part of a treatment recommended by your doctor. It’s always important to talk your doctor first if you’re encountering any of these.
Energy boost
During pregnancy, your energy demands are higher because your body needs to support the growth of your baby while encouraging you on your daily activities.
Sport drinks are packed with a lot of carbs, which are even broken down into glucose for quick absorption.
If you feel very drained in the middle of a workout session, you can drink gatorades or powerades to help you recover energy very fast.
Easing Pregnancy-Related Migraines
You’re likely to encounter series of headaches in pregnancy due to dehydration.
Sports drinks contain electrolytes such as sodium and potassium required by the body to maintain fluid balance, which in turn will help ease re-occurring headaches and migraines.
Reduce muscle cramps
Our bodies have certain minerals known as electrolytes which are important for many bodily functions, including muscle contractions.
The reason behind muscle cramps is an electrolyte imbalance and that’s where sports drinks like gatorades and powerades come in.
They fortify your body with electrolytes that’ll help restore this balance and minimize occurrence of muscle cramps.
More interesting to drink
Let’s be honest – sometimes, plain water can be boring! The flavors of sports drinks can make hydration more enjoyable, encouraging you to drink more fluids throughout the day.
These drinks come in a rainbow of flavors. You got Gatorade’s Fruit Punch, Powerade’s Mountain Berry Blast, and even some exotic ones like Mango Extremo! Every sip brings its own little adventure, making them much more exciting to drink than plain water.
What is the best hydration drink for pregnant women?
While pregnant, it’s very important to stay hydrated. Here are some of the best drinks to achieving that:
1. Water
No surprise here, water’s top on my list anytime, anyday. It’s super important for the health of both you and your baby. Compared to sports drinks, water has no sugar and added chemicals that can negatively impact your health.
In addition, it can help minimize excess calorie intake and manage healthy weight in pregnancy. These are the benefits you derive from drinking sufficient water in pregnancy;
- Improving digestion,
- Helps nutrient circulation
- Helps reduce swelling of feet and hands in pregnancy
- Healthy growth of baby
- Prevents UTIS
- Prevents haemorrhoids in pregnancy
- Keeps body in balance
- Keeps you fully hydrated
- Minimizes constipation
- Preventing preterm labor
To make sure you’re getting enough of it, try to drink at least 8-12 cups or about 2 to 3 liters daily. Need help remembering to drink water? Keep a water bottle with you all the time or use a phone app that helps you track your water intake.
Fruit juices
Fruit juices that are all fruit don’t have added sugars like some sports drinks do. They are excellent choice for their vitamins, minerals and antioxidants contents. These help you stay healthy and help your baby grow.
Coconut water
Comes from coconut, it has no added sugars or chemicals like sports drink. Coconut water is full of potassium, magnesium, and sodium, making up enough electrolytes to help you stay hydrated.
It isn’t only yummy, it is also makes a great if you’re looking for a fun and sweet drink.
Drinks with ginger
These drinks are made from natural ingredients. They don’t have a lot of extra sugar or other chemicals you might find in sport drinks.
It’s been used for ages to treat nausea. If treating dehydration is why you resort to sports drinks, then you could equally give it a try with these brands.
- Fever-tree ginger beer
- Buandaberg Ginger beer
- Canada Dry Ginger Ale
For a home made option, make your ginger tea by soaking grated ginger root in hot water. You can add few drops of natural sweeteners like honey and take it warm.
Milk
Low fat or skim milk are also good for pregnant women, and even better substitutes for sports drink. Milk is cramped with calcium and proteins, which are helpful for both you and your baby for healthier bones and muscles.
Because it is mostly water, it can help you stay fully hydrated, just like a sports drink, without the extra sugar.
Precautions to safely drinking sports drinks
When considering sports drinks, there are a few caveats to keep in mind.
- Caffeine is will keep you awake all night. And most of these sport drinks contain it. Taking it in larger doses, as part of overdrinking sports drinks, you can harm your baby. So you should be cautious.
- Lots of sugar: Sport drinks are full of sugar. Regardless of how sugar quickly restores energy levels, too much is simply not healthy. It’ll rather cause you to put on some weight and increase your risk of gestational diabetes.
- Artificial ingredients: Much of the ingredients of these drinks are unnatural. They are added to suit the flavor and taste. While it’s still safe to have them, you don’t want to take in too much because it could put your health at risk.
- Not enough nutrition: Of course sport drinks will offer the water and electrolytes, but they do not have those essential minerals and nutrients your body requires in pregnancy. They lack proteins, vitamins, calcium, etc, and your body needs these the most.
CONCLUSION
Sports drink like Gatorade and Powerades might seem like a quick way for pregnant women to replenish lost fluids and energy. Well, you can safely take them but do not drink to excess.
While you can still have sports drinks during pregnancy, it’s rather best to resort to the natural alternatives like water, fruit juices, pasteurized and ginger drinks. These drinks not only helps in rehydration, but contain the nutrients needed for a healthy pregnancy.
Nonetheless, the best advice in pregnancy will always come from your doctor who knows you and your specific needs than any other person, not even me. So don’t lose communication with them.
References:
Drinksurely (Top 16 Drinks for Pregnant Women + What Drinks To Avoid), All about women Obstetrics and Gynecology (Best & Worst Drink Choices During Pregnancy: What’s Safe?)
