Dedicated blog reader and healthful living advocate Casey Hinds sent this my way. It's a lesson from her 10 year old daughter's Junior Achievement (JA) program.
For those of you who aren't aware, JA provides in-school and after-school programming for kids in kindergarten through Grade 12 in an aim to improve their work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. According to a recent press release, JA programs reach 4 million American children and an additional 5.8 million in 127 countries worldwide.
The lesson in question was teaching 5th graders about "resources" and to illustrate their points they used the story of Dr. Robert Cole, the inventor of Gatorade.
Looking through the scans among other things this JA lesson on "Resources" taught Grade 5 students were,
"water wasn't enough to keep his players healthy and capable of playing in the hot weather",So perhaps it wasn't then all that surprising that when Casey asked her 10 year old daughter what she learned from the lesson her daughter answered,
"when athletes lose fluid by sweating they also experience changes in body temperature and blood pressure. These changes can cause serious damage and even death",
"To replace what pours from the body during exercise, the research group created a drink that would get these fluids, salts and minerals back into the athletes' bodies quickly",
"As the Florida football team began to win national games, the word spread that their secret weapon was Gatorade"
"Gatorade is good for athletes".Wanna know what's in a sport drink?
Here's a video I made a few months ago, and yes, while elite athletes and those who are truly killing themselves exercising for truly lengthy periods of time may find sport drinks useful, those descriptors don't fit many Grade 5 students.
Lastly Casey found it rather ironic that Junior Achievement recently accepted $300,000 from Coca-Cola. Ironic in that it's Pepsi-Co that makes Gatorade.
Personally I wonder whether this Gatorade advertisement occurred consequent to a back in the day Pepsi donation around the time this lesson plan was created or whether it is simply consequent to the incredible job sport drink makers have done in convincing the world their products are essential despite less than robust scientific consensus.
So while a parent may not be promoting the consumption of sugary sport drinks to their children, that doesn't mean their childrens' schools, institutions that children (and parents) implicitly trust, aren't.
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