Skateboarding Articles
Water Is Refreshing » Energy drinks don't contain energy
I sometimes wake up feeling as though a highway was routed through my home and several vehicles have driven over my body in the night. Finding no evidence to support my routing theory, I discover my next symptom - dehydration. Not the kind you get from wandering for days in the desert, but the sort of dehydration you get from drinking too much alcohol. Then reality dawns on me...
Oh yeah - my wife and I drank two bottles of wine last night.
So, after an asprin, what's the next logical step we all take?
I don't want to endorse excessive (or any) consumption of alcohol, but you know the feeling.
Yes, a nice big glass of water. Not an energy beverage. Not a jolt of pure caffeine. Not a can of sticky-sweet soda. Not a scalding (or iced) cup of coffee. Water! Just water!
Water is refreshing, natural, good for you and cures thirst with avid aggression. I keep a pitcher of water in the fridge for just such emergencies. My wife prefers bottled water - much the same thing, but lacking the added chlorine and assorted polutants provided by town water systems.
Now picture yourself in a similarly dehydrating situation - skating your local park under the sweltering sun. As your body drips sweat and you realize you haven't needed to use the bathroom in hours, you start to feel thirst. We've all been there. In this condition, would you want to choke down a syrupy soft drink? No, your body needs water!
I can't begin to count the number of times I see kids at the skate park chugging sodas when the onset of thirst hits them. I'll admit I'm partial to Mt. Dew (especially that Code Red stuff), but not when I'm dying of thirst. You need to replenish what your body has lost due to sweating. Your body has not lost any Mt. Dew. No green sugar-saturated fluids have left your body from exercising in the hot sun. So, don't try tricking your body - it's smarter than you are.
Energy Drinks
Need more energy?
- Take a break.
- Get out of the sun.
- Stretch out.
- Get more sleep at night.
- Drink water.
My first inclination wouldn't be to super charge my system with a bizarre marketing ploy disguised as a beverage. Everyone seemingly wants to pop a pill to remedy whatever ails them - even if it's just some made up thing in their head (or a made up thing planted in their head by savvy marketing wonks). The bottom line is that energy drinks are unnecessary. Take a multi-vitamin and drink a lot of water. You'll be just fine.
I can't knock companies for trying to introduce energy drink products into the marketplace, but I will knock mindless lemmings who buy them thinking it will be a magical cure. Freedom to create businesses, products and the like are part of what makes up life, but you don't have to heed the aleged benefits of these products. If marketing organizations didn't make their ads look like out-takes from the X-games, they probably wouldn't even have a market.
Conclusion
Forget energy drinks. Go skate and bring a bottle of water!
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