About Pocari sweat
 

Hi All,

We live in China and I recently discovered the drink of pocari sweat. My 3-year-old daughter loves it and she hates to drink plain water. So I did a little research about the drink. Still couple of questions remains in my head. That's why I want to ask you guys here.

- Is it really very porpular in Japan? Is it true that doctors suggest the drink to patients?

- Can a 3-year-old child drink it?

Thanks!

This year was particularly hot. Most middle schools had their Undokai (sports day) last week, so I think a lot of schools were worried about the health and safety of their kids. Schools in my area were suggesting their students drink "sports drinks". In Japan the two big "sports drinks" are Pocari Sweat and Aquarius. By sports drinks, I mean drinks that include sodium to replenish what is lost by sweating. I was curious myself, so I asked a lot of my students which they liked better, Pocari or Aquarius. Everyone I asked said they liked Aquarius better. When I asked why, they didn't really have a reason other than it's more popular. Personally speaking, I usually buy Aquarius because it tends to be cheaper (at least in my area).

As far as I know, those two drinks basically consist of water, sodium, and citrus fruit (or their flavors). Japan has like thousands of citrus fruit so I don't really know off hand which are included.

Looking at the wikipedia article on Pocari Sweat, it says that it was created by what appears to be a Pharmaceutical company. The article says the ingredients listed are "water, sugar, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium lactate, magnesium carbonate and flavor" and quotes the Pocari website for that. It says that it has a mild grapefruit flavor-- I think that is pretty accurate.

Personally, I don't see why it wouldn't be safe for a 3 year old. Then again, I'm not a doctor so I wouldn't be listening to me if I were you. I'd ask an actual doctor about it if you're concerned.

I think it is fine for a 3 year old, but like anything else, as long as it is done in moderation.

Sports drinks are not a replacement for water. People drink sports drinks after heavy exercise to replenish their electrolytes. Here's a piece from Columbia University's Health Q&A:

I wouldn't drink water when I was a kid. But trust me that when I got thirsty enough and was not given any other options, I drank the water.

I agree with most of what that article says. What I got from it is that most kids don't need this stuff because they are sitting around all day and they already get plenty of salty high calorie food. I also doubt that a 3 year old is doing enough strenuous activity to warrant drinking a ton of this stuff- however, like MMM said, moderation is key. If it's a hot & humid summer day, I'm sure the kid will appreciate it.

However, for kids who play a lot of sports and are outside in the sun for a long time during the day (like kids in Japan during sports day when it is extremely hot and humid), not drinking sports drinks is dangerous. Just drinking water doesn't it, even for people who are well fed. If you've ever seen a kid collapse in the heat, you know what I mean. Busting your chin open in the dirt (or asphault) is painful, embarassing, and permanent. With that said a sports drink is a great idea. Given the other options, it's also something portable and easy. You could eat a bowl of ramen or eat a bag of potato chips, I suppose... but I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice doing something like that before doing sports. Calorie wise it seems like a better idea than soda! it could be a way to ween your kid off of too much soda I guess.

It makes me wonder what people used to do though... back in the "olden" days, you know? Were people just passing out left and right or did they have an alternative to gatorade/pocari back then?

Pocari is actually recommended as a way to keep people hydrated without using an IV. This goes for anyone - from babies though adulthood. It was basically designed as "drinkable IV fluid".

The key point there is that it`s usually for situations where you need the extra hydration - other times and it`s about the same as any other drink. If you don`t need the extra hydration, it just gets washed out of the body.

It is safe for kids as there isn`t really anything that could be harmful in it - I have heard that it can be a bit overly sweet for small children, so it`s fairly common to thin it with water for them. (Obviously not when it`s being used for quick hydration.)

I would say that for children though, it`s most popular as a drink for when they are sick. If your child is vomiting or has diarrhea - the doctor will usually suggest that you give them Pocari as it`s easy to keep down and helps replenish the lost fluid.

I guess mother knows best! I wonder if drinking a bottle of Pocari/Aquarius would help reduce a hangover? I might try that the next time I have an enkai.

Pocari and Aquarius are different than Gatorade and PowerAde in the US. You can just tell by looking at them.

(As was stated before) during this especially hot summer in Japan, Pocari was recommended by health officials as the best way to keep healthy and hydrated. I thought that was surprising, as in the US, water is always the #1 recommended drink. But we don't have the same sports drinks in the US as they do in Japan.



No need to wonder. It is a wonder-drug that works wonders ... without drugs.

DO NOT DO THIS.
If you do, be sure to tell everyone about the results afterward so they can laugh at you. :D

Pocari raises the speed of absorption and can slow the processing of alcohol. Drinking Pocari tends to make you hold onto the alcohol longer (longer hangover), and any remaining in your stomach will be quickly absorbed making things worse. It`s goal is to make you more hydrated, and will push you to hold onto stuff you probably want out after a long drinking session.

I imagine it is fine if you no longer have any alcohol in your system - but by that point, you`re probably not going to need to reduce a hangover.

By the way - for children, avoid Aquarius at all costs. Aquarius is an artificially sweetened drink. It contains sweetener chemicals that are not safe for children (and probably not adults, really, which is why I will not drink it).

----------------
ETA; Pocari is supposedly a good way to "refresh" an alcohol "buzz" though. It`s the number one worst thing you can drink though if you`ve had too much to drink, even if that was hours ago. This is a big reason why you will see people offering *water* but never anything like Pocari.

NNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I like Aquarius way more than Pocari Sweat...

Checking the ingredients list, it does look like it`s better than it was. Now it only uses Sucralose. At one point, it used a mixture of Sucralose, Aspartame, and Acesulfame.

Still wouldn`t give it to a child though, as they have only done short term studies on the effects - and only on adults. It is known that the artificial sweeteners accumulate in brain tissue... But apparently they couldn`t find any negative effects over a 2 year study.

I would rather not take any risks with my brain or with the developing brain of a child.

Well I'm not a kid, and I don't have any kids as far as I know, so it's Aquarius all the way!

Hahaha, I'm glad I got a good warning. The explanation makes pretty good sense too! Sounds like you saved me from a hell of a morning

That's interesting about Aquarius... maybe I'll get pocari next time I'm in the mood.

And I`ll keep avoiding it whenever possible. A 2 year study on it`s effects in the brain is not good enough to assure me that it won`t do something unpleasant to mine after 10 or 20 years.

But your brain is your brain. Do to it what you wish. :)

Just a tip. I metabolize very quickly, and if I drink sports drinks I can notice the difference within a few minutes, sometimes seconds.

Pocari is one of the better mixes, aquarius a close second. the powdered versions including top value are not good.

In the worst case I can drink a few mouthfuls of powdered mix and within seconds break into a sweat. It really goes in the mouth and straight out of my skin, My urine also shows a marked issue in dealing with the ingredients.

I would have an issue giving these drinks to a child undiluted as you may be putting undue stress on the internal organs to metabolize it.
I would suggest trying a 50% dilution with water to see if she likes that, and would not try to exceed 350ml per day.

Also you should see the case of the kids who drunk so much "sunny d" they turned yellow.
BBC News | WALES | Soft drink turned toddler 'yellow'

I am not a doctor, but the hangover is the pain you feel after the numbing effects of the alcohol have worn off. Meaning the alcohol is out of your system (usually after a night's sleep).

But you are right, I would not drink it as a hangover prevention medicine, as you might wake up with alcohol still in your system.


That's interesting, as I always felt that Pocari tasted sweeter than Aquarius.

Any thoughts on Citric Amino that the young handsome golfer endorses? It doesn't taste as good as Pocari, but supposedly is better in terms of rehydration.

Just to be clear, Sunny D is not a sports drink, or even a Juice, but an orange colored soft drink.

I don't recommend your daughter to drink it. Pocari Sweat is sport drink so that means it contains mineral (electrolyte). For small kids, drinking this kind of drink is not good, you know, It's the same why you don't recommend pregnant women to drink mineral water. You don't like to see electrolyte level in this kind of sensitive people swinging. I think it's more harm than good.

(I don't read any research or know the ingredients of Pocari. I just guess from the information I see on this topic with my knowledge as a pharmacist. It may not be accurated)

Aside from water, Pocari Sweat also contains electrolyte minerals such as, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium and Calcium. These electrolytes are lost by the body during perspiration. It is not enough to drink water alone because these electrolytes should be replenished to prevent spontaneous dehydration.

Welcome to Pocari Sweat Website

Why are these bad for children?

Considering the way the OP phrased her question and mentioned her child won't drink water my concern is not so much that the drinks are "bad" for children if treated like a soda/juice/other beverage but that she may be hoping for a water substitute. In that regard, there is no decent replacement for water.

To my way of thinking, children have quite enough extra sugars, food additives, food colorings, etc. being introduced into their developing internal systems. The needless extra processing of waste in their kidneys should be reduced if possible. Why add another dose of chemicals from a source that is not essential? I'm not talking about a dehydrated child who is ill or playing active sports and sweating, just a three year old sitting around the house or out shopping with mom. Why more chemicals when there are other natural options?

Ethanol becomes ethanal in your body - the ethanal is what makes you feel like crap. Pocari makes it harder for your body to get rid of the ethanal as it tends to be distributed throughout the body more quickly. Water isn`t absorbed as quickly so while it doesn`t hydrate you as efficiently it washes the ethanal out of your system.

So basically the alcohol is still in your system. It`s just been changed into a form that makes you feel horrible and that you want to get rid of ASAP. Pocari isn`t a good choice for getting rid of anything.

Aquarius has changed their formula about 10 times in the past 5 years. Almost every time I look it`s different...

I will be honest and say I don`t really know. I haven`t tried it and probably won`t as it`s expensive. I just find it a bit fascinating how incredibly hard it was for Pocari to make it on to the market because it tasted too medical and unpleasant (how it was described at the time in scathing customer reviews) but is now considered the sweeter one and other far more "medical" and bitter ones are fairly popular.

Actually, from reading the article it appears that the child turned orange because of a natural component of it... Sort of the same reason you get people stained orange from eating too many みかん in the winter in Japan.

Off topic, but I could never drink Sunny D when I was little because for some reason it gave me incredible circles under my eyes. Drink some and then an hour or so later it would look as if I had huge bruises under my eyes. A bit of a mystery.

I guess I was specifically asking why electrolytes would be bad for kids.

I think that assuming that all children are given extra sugars, food additives, etc etc is jumping to conclusions - particularly when talking about Asia. There is a huge culture of processed foods for children in the US and I assume also in the UK, but not nearly as much in Japan and the rest of Asia. Kids tend to eat the same things as adults, and those things are generally cooked from the raw ingredients.

I am willing to be a bit more lax on the water issue as there really are children who will not drink something they dislike no matter how thirsty they are. And before anyone jumps to say that if they really do get thirsty enough they will drink it and love it.... Just wait until your kid has to have an IV for dehydration like mine did. (Although in our case it wasn`t simply a refusal to drink water, it was a refusal to drink or eat anything at all.)

The thing I would be most concerned about with Pocari is the sugar - but there are children`s versions with very little sugar. Saying that Pocari is adding chemicals is a bit like saying you shouldn`t eat vegetables because of the "chemicals" they contain - they`re all naturally occurring things that your body needs. If you don`t need them, they leave your body in your urine.

Even inactive children sweat quite a lot - I believe 2 to 3 times as much as adults - so keeping them hydrated is a big deal. Heat stroke and dehydration aren`t things that only happen to people outside doing strenuous activities... If you are in a hot climate without AC you can easily become dehydrated just sitting inside your house.

They had sweet commercials though! I remember I went for like half a year... if that of drinking that stuff. Even as a kid I got sick of it because of how sweet and unnatural it tasted. My older brother used to love that stuff.

Given the alternatives, I'd think Pocari would be pretty good for young kids.

Although the young handsome golfer, Ishikawa Ryo, endorses Citric Amino I haven't really heard about it or seen anyone drink it.

I have noticed an influx of "health drinks" lately which I suppose could be due to me winning about 8 bottles in a game of bingo. The health drinks are supposed to be good to drink before you work out. I didn't really notice any of their effects... but I remember they didn't taste very good. I think they contain caffeine and other substances that would give you an energy boost and change certain proccesses making your workouts more worthwhile. I wouldn't give those to my kid for sure.

Straying a little bit from pocari, what's the deal with all these "elixers" and things I see in Japan. I know Ribotan D has been around for a while, so that seems like it could be safe, but some of these other ones make some crazy claims and go for quite a bit of dough. I'm always wondering about the long term effects of those things. I've noticed a lot of them seem to be targeting women these days too... some of them claim to increase certain hormones that would increase bust size. That all sounds awfully suspicious to me.

They`re pretty much always infusions of 漢方薬 (Chinese herbal medication? I don`t really know what it would be called in English...) combined with vitamin supplements and caffeine or something similar.
I would actually say they`re actually surprisingly safe, all in all. Some of the herbal claims are true, some are traditional (like snapping turtle as an aphrodisiac), but in the end they generally fall back on vitamins. The "hormone" ones are really just herbal drinks using herbs with naturally occurring components that either (supposedly) boost hormone production or are similar to those in the human body.

--------
ETA; You probably haven`t heard much about Citric Amino as I believe it only comes in powdered form, which kind of blocks it from the combini scene and makes it something that isn`t a casual drink. It`s the type of thing sold in sports goods stores, not with the normal drinks.

That kind of clears up the "elixer" mystery for me I guess. I always wanted to know where they were coming from with these claims. Thanks for the info.

Yea I checked out the Citric Amino website and all I could find are powders which does explain why I don't usually see them. I feel like I've seen them somewhere... but it's one of those things. I might not've and just thought I did. I certainly haven't heard people talking about it so as far as what I've seen it's not really popular. Although I don't know how much people like to talk about that kind of thing haha.

I'm sure the increase in alcohol consumption hasn't helped... but I've decidedly become more unhealthy since I came here. I hardly ever drink any more and am still a bit heavier than I'd like to be and my cholestorol rose since last year. I'm starting to really not buy the whole "Japanese food is healthy" argument (I'm aware that there is a lot of unhealthy stuff... but it's not like I eat Tonkatsu and Yakiniku every day). So I've become a little bit weary of all these products available that have to do with health in Japan lately. I can't even remember what it was... but my wife had heard about some new product and we went to check it out at the drug store... it was like a powder you put in a pill and drink or something (if I remember correctly it was like a glorified garlic pill). I remember it was like 6000 for a month's supply. Some of it just seems like a ripoff to me.

There seem to be a lot of Japanese people who get away with sitting at a desk all day, who drink and smoke and don't really concern themselves about what they eat and they are like super skinny. It amazes me to be honest. Getting health advice because I'm "fat" from people like that is sometimes frustrating. I'm about 155lbs at 5'11". I guess I should look at the bright side by knowing that I'll be forced to take care of myself because apparently everyone is staring at me all day... lol.

From what I understand from your posting here I would assume that you take extra health precautions with your child. You are well informed and cautious. You also have a child with different needs. Not knowing anything else about the OP I can't say the same thing.

Given some of the food scares happening in China I can't assume every food item being produced in Asia is automatically healthier than everything in the U.S. Even in Asia there are parents who do not pay attention to the ingredients in packaged foods. Or they can rely too much on food companies wanting to provide nutrition more than they want to make a buck. I think it is best to be cautious.

I was raised on a fairly unhealthy diet. My mom really trusted food companies, didn't really understand labels and didn't watch our sugar and chemical intake. I had a slow metabolism and rotten baby teeth. I stopped eating things with non-naturally occurring sugars three years ago and I lost 20 pounds in six months, so perhaps I am sensitive to the subject.

I am not saying you should never give a kid an electrolyte boosting drink. I think juice or milk is a healthier alternative but that water is best. I am certainly not condemning anyone who has ever given a sports drink to a kid. But what is the healthy restriction? One a day? One a week?

Just checking, but nobody here is actually saying that they would prefer to give a kid a sports drink rather than water in normal circumstances?

If you didn`t grow up eating tons of rice every day... Then it`s most likely the rice. Rice isn`t really all that healthy - it`s just an efficient way of taking in calories. It converts very quickly to sugar in the body and adds on the weight.
I gained an incredible amount of weight after coming to Japan and couldn`t figure it out for the longest time... I don`t eat very much and hate fatty/oily food. Then I tried cutting rice out of my diet for a week - weight loss was pretty immediate.

However, I still weigh quite a lot more than I should as I`m sure you can imagine how easy it is to cut rice out of your diet in Japan...

For price, yes, I think it`s a ripoff too. But if you`re talking about the garlic and egg yolk ones, then apparently they do have incredibly benefits. Grandmother-in-law makes her own and swears by it. And having watched her make it and then gag it down in non-capsule form made me think that if you really do find it invaluable - a month`s supply for 5000 or 6000 would be worth it to not have to go through that.

A note about the weight thing - for Japanese people, apparently even being a little bit overweight has very dire health consequences. I guess that the Asian body just isn`t good at dealing with extra weight so usually doesn`t put it on, but when it does it`s VERY bad. I recall reading that a BMI of 25 in someone of Asian background (just borderline "overweight" on the regular BMI charts) is equivalent to a BMI of 35 in someone of northern European background when it comes to the health issues. So even a little bit of extra weight is a big deal.
Knowing this has allowed me to be a lot more forgiving of people being concerned about weight in Japan - 20 extra pounds isn`t just an irritation as it is to someone of European background, it`s literally cutting your life expectancy by a third.

Other than paying attention to the artificial sweeteners thing - which started mainly because I have a severe allergic reaction to one of the common ones - I don`t think I do anything all that much differently than the average parent in Japan. And I was talking about the average parent here. You just don`t get the levels of prepackaged foods as in the US - they simply don`t exist.
What I am trying to say is that you are pointing out food companies and their ingredients... but in reality, most people make their own food from raw ingredients so this isn`t the issue you see it as. You would be VERY hard pressed to find a parent who was feeding their kid any amount of prepackaged food. The parents who don`t really care just make whatever and feed it to their kids without thinking about balance or nutrition - but the raw ingredients thing is pretty much true even then.

I think it is really hard to try to grasp this if you`ve lived in the US your entire life as the food culture really is different. There are no TV dinners. There are very few of the "time saving" prepackaged foods, and those that do exist tend to be of the freshly made deli style. Artificial colors are generally pretty sparse, particularly in things for children.
Home cooked meals (from raw ingredients, not packaged things) are the norm for families, and eating out comes after - fast food as anything other than an occasional thing is pretty much unthinkable.
You can make poor choices in balance and nutrition with a home cooked meal but it is very hard to load it with chemicals, processed fats, sugars, etc, like you find in processed foods.
I have been to Korea and to China, and things struck me as being the same in those countries - food is mostly freshly cooked from raw ingredients.

Of course not. But you started against it because of "more chemicals" - which is what I was commenting on.

According to a friend in Japan that's exactly what doctors on TV in Japan said. It was because of this year's record heatwave.

But "It was because of this year's record heatwave." It`s not "normal circumstances".

I believe that was said in regard to children playing outdoors - instead of the typical mugicha it would be better to give them pocari and make sure they stay hydrated.

The local elementary school has posted that they will allow pocari in the thermos bottles of children coming to school because of dehydration concerns. But this is because all the kids walk to school.

Wow! I guess there are a lot of differences between different races. Since I came to Japan I've come to understand a few of these differences, which I think helps to understand where people are coming from. I think you've helped me out by teaching me about that.

It could be the reliance of cars and the good food in this area, but I have noticed a lot of semi to completely overweight people around here. What you said makes me think about the future around here.

The weight thing was such a shocker for me! I used to eat some rice in America, but I suppose not as much as now. It's funny because one of my coworkers mentioned what you said about rice to me the other day almost word for word. I remember I started drinking more sake than beer for a while in hopes of seeing that make a difference... it ended up having adverse affects :o . I think another thing, which is a bit ironic, is that I think I eat more bread in Japan than I did in America. It could be those extra carbohyrdates just doing their job on me I suppose. When I came to Japan I was around 130lbs! At my fattest, I was at 160... which was in like a little more than half a year. I don't particularly think 130 is healthy either though so at first the weight gain was welcome, until one day I got curious and converted the kilograms on my scale to pounds!

About the egg yolk and garlic thing... that really does sound gnarly. I'm not so certain I'd be able to drink that down. I'd imagine making some kind of soup out of it and putting some udon in there might be a way to get it down though. Is it some kind of secret recipe or do you know the ingredients? There's no way I'm gonna pay 6000 a month for something like that. If I were to get something like that, I'd just go for regular garlic pills, which I'm assuming are cheaper... but I've never looked at their price in Japan before.

Another thing I've started doing-- although I admit I slacked off yesterday and this morning, is the Rajio Taiso on NHK at 6:25AM. My wife and I usually crack up at each other because we're always really groggy and... shoboi while doing it. About 20 minutes after I'm done though I usually feel quite awake and ready for the day. I notice it has taken some stress away too. I guess it just depends on the person, but I think doing that kind of stuff every morning has some benefits.

I've also read that drinking green tea before bed helps increase your metabolism while you sleep or something like that... I've drank it before bed and felt fine, but could that be the effects of caffeine? When I read that I was a little confused. Do you know anything about that? Also, are there anythings you've changed in your routine to help you feel better during the day?

Asian people tend to have more carbohydrate/staple food. Beware of it.

Carbohydrate = Energy = kcal = obesity

Consume more protein and less carbohydrate. (but not so much that make you fat you know, protein can be converted to fat like carbohydrate too)

sorry to make another post.

But you know, I don't said that it's whether good or bad for health, but electrolyte level is a bit critical in body functioning. I know that electrolyte's level in soft drink like Pocari Sweat is not that much like a medical nutrient.

BUT

Consider her small body weight (she is a small child right?) when children consume A LOT it means she got more concentration of the drink in her body than that of the adult right? And consider what the other said about there are not much clinical research of this in small children, It makes me a bit concerned.

I don't know whether it's good or bad either, but in case it's bad it could bring more harm to the children more than the adult.

I don't think they said she should drink gallons of it. Of course, anything in excess can be bad for you... even water.

The guidance I once got from my doctor regarding "sports drinks" (which I don't like and don't drink) was to drink them if (1) you are sweating to the point that your clothes are soaked, or (2) if your are ill in a manner that inhibits intake of food and drink (vomiting, diarrhea, high fever).

Both of those indicate that your body is using fluid at a rate higher than it can be replenished so you need two things....water and salt (potassium or sodium). The salt in either form is to replace the salt that is being washed out of the system to maintain the salinity of the fluid in the body (blood, etc.).

As for what was done before the days of these specialized formulations - salt tablets. Before that you rested during hot weather and made sure you drank water and most food was salted to preserve it, so you got the salt from the food.

I don't like the taste of Pokari Sweat. Gatorade taste better.

Actually, people don't need sports drinks. Plain water is best.

Some doctors in Japan recommended that during the heat wave this summer Pocari Sweat could be better for you than water.

Yeah? Maybe for the sodium.

My favorite drink on a HOT summer day is mugicha.

Thanks for your response. I kind of figured that was the case... although I do find it hard to believe that Japanese people would've rest every single day during the heat wave that happened recently if it were to have occured 100+ years ago. The thing I've been noticing is that there seems to be this feeling of you have to "gaman" the weather / "children are so weak these days" style of thinking as far as Japanese teachers are concerned. I think stuff like that is easier to say when you have an airconditioned room to go back to in the middle and the end of the day. I wonder how conditions were 30-50 years ago for that matter... how much "gaman" was going on back then and how much cooler can the weather have been (as most people in Japan seem to believe in global warming). I'm very interested in this... if anyone knows or has experience I'd love to hear about it.

Sorry to be a little off topic but oh my gosh! My mother would NOT let me touch Sunny D and it was really really popular back when I was a kid, I always felt so left out! Haha.

I've never tried Pocari Sweat but it sounds... sweaty haha. The name puts me off!