Children who follow a healthy lifestyle like eating fruits and vegetables and engaging in physical activity may mistakenly think sugar-loaded soft drinks are healthy beverages, a new study scheduled to appear in the October issue of Pediatrics suggests.

The study led by Nalini Ranjit, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston  and colleagues found these children tend to consume large amounts of flavored and sports drinks containing sugar.

Ranjit et al. analyzed data from 8th and 11th graders in Texas on their consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks, unhealthy, healthy foods and physical activity levels and found the association between drinking sugary soft drinks and healthy foods and physical activity.

Sugar-sweetened soft drinks considered in the study can be carbonated or noncarbonated, and can contain caloric sweeteners such as sucrose or high fructose corn syrup. Consumption of soft drinks has been linked with obesity.

Although children who had high intake of healthy food and engaged in high levels of physical activity tended to consume high amounts of flavored or sports drinks.

However, those who did not follow a healthy diet, that is, they had low intake of fruits, vegetables and did not engaged in much physical activity tended to consume high amounts of soda, the researchers found.

"Sports drinks have been successfully marketed as beverages consistent with a healthy lifestyle, which has set them apart from sodas," said Ranjit. "However, they have minimal fruit juice and contain unnecessary calories."

Sports drinks contain certain ingredients that are not present in other types of soft drinks like vitamins, amino acids, special chemicals, and minerals and they give consumers an impression that these products are healthy.

"High levels of consumption of these beverages has the potential to increase weight gain," said Ranjit, "Drinking just one can of soda or other sugary beverages a day could lead to more than a 10-pound weight gain in a year."

The UTHealth says in a press release issued on Sept 27 that nutritionists of the organization caution that "children should have no more than one glass of fruit juice, even 100 percent fruit juice, a day, because of the high calories. Sports drinks should be reserved only for extreme exercise. Otherwise, children should drink water to replenish lost fluids, they say, and whole fruit is a better nutritional choice than fruit juice."

Sports drinks are a type of beverage that help athletes rehydrate as well as restore electrolytes, carbohydrates and other nutrients which can be depleted quickly during training or competition. But critics say sports drinks don't hydrate any better than other drinks.

Sports drinks are now commonly used by non-athletes. The most commonly known sports drinks include Gatorade, Isostar, Powerade, Lucozade and FRS.