A Sports Drink for Children Is Jangling Some Nerves

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A Sports Drink for Children Is Jangling Some Nerves

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:41:43 -0700

 

 

 

 

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/092605HA.shtml

 

A Sports Drink for Children Is Jangling Some Nerves

By Duff Wilson

The New York Times

 

Sunday 25 September 2005

 

The company's marketing materials describe the drink as a way to

kick-start the morning for children as young as 4. The company Web

site, adorned with a picture of an elementary school wrestler and a

gymnast, says its drink can help a child " develop fully as a

high-performance athlete " and fill nutritional gaps " in a sport that

is physically and mentally demanding. "

 

The drink, called Spark, contains several stimulants and is sold

in two formulations: one for children 4 to 11 years old that includes

roughly the amount of caffeine found in a cup and a half of coffee,

and one containing twice that amount for teenagers and adults.

 

Despite the promotional materials, Sidney Stohs and Rick Loy,

executives with AdvoCare International of Texas, which makes the

products, said Spark was not devised or marketed for children's

athletic performance but rather for their overall good health.

 

" It's not just a caffeine delivery system; it has many more

nutritional properties, " said Stohs, senior vice president for

research and development at AdvoCare, the nation's leading company in

direct marketing of dietary supplements for athletes.

 

Many of AdvoCare's customers say they love the products, but

pediatricians, medical experts and others involved in youth sports

express strong concern about the levels of caffeine and the idea of

encouraging children to use performance-enhancing products, especially

at a time when professional athletes are under scrutiny for using

stimulants and muscle builders.

 

" That's scary, " said Dr. Mary L. Gavin, a pediatrician and medical

editor of the KidsHealth Web site for the Nemours Center for

Children's Health Media at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in

Wilmington, Del. " The effects of caffeine have never been tested on

kids. Marketing to kids is a major concern. "

 

Elisa Odabashian, a senior policy analyst with Consumers Union,

said in a separate interview: " What are we coming to? What kind of

society are we spawning here where everybody has to be artificially

stimulated? "

 

Frank Uryasz, president of the National Center for Drug Free Sport

and administrator of college drug testing programs, said young

athletes should avoid caffeine and other stimulants.

 

" I am concerned that they are gateway substances, " Uryasz said in

a telephone interview. " I think it develops a mind-set especially

among young athletes that they have to take something - a powder, a

pill, a liquid - to improve their performance, when actually study

after study shows that almost all of these products add no value to a

young person's athletic performance. "

 

Although many companies sell highly caffeinated drinks - Jolt and

Red Bull are examples - for adults and children, Uryasz said AdvoCare

concentrates on child and teenage athletes more than the other companies.

 

AdvoCare began carving a niche in youth sports with the

introduction of Spark for children in 2001. The KickStart line for

children now has five products. Loy, AdvoCare's senior vice president

for field operations, said that those five products accounted for 1

percent of company sales.

 

Loy said the company's goal was to inform parents about products

they could give to their children as diet supplements. He said Spark

was a proven, safe way to improve energy and focus and to fill

nutritional gaps.

 

In an advertisement on its Web site for youth products, AdvoCare

described an elementary school wrestler as a " high-performance

athlete " and quoted him as saying: " I feel the products are helping me

grow stronger, and my focus when I'm wrestling is better. I take them

before and after games and practices, even if I'm just playing

football for fun with my friends. "

 

AdvoCare directs its 91,000 distributors - most of them working

part-time from home and including many parents with school-age

children and coaches - to what it calls a nutrition timeline that

promotes KickStart Spark, with 60 milligrams of caffeine, for children

4 to 11, and AdvoCare Spark, with 120 milligrams of caffeine, for

athletes 12 and up.

 

An 8-ounce cup of coffee or a 12-ounce cola contains about 45

milligrams of caffeine. A typical child 6 to 11 years old consumes 26

milligrams of caffeine a day, according to surveys by the United

States Department of Agriculture.

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages caffeine

consumption by children. Canadian health authorities in 2003

recommended limiting daily intake of caffeine by children to 2.5

milligrams per kilogram of body weight, or roughly 45 milligrams for a

typical 4- to 6-year-old. The recommendation was based on caffeine's

adverse behavioral effects on adults. The effects include insomnia,

headaches and nervousness.

 

Spark comes in powder form to mix into liquids. Other AdvoCare

suggestions include making Spark popsicles and gelatin jigglers. Spark

also contains taurine, the key ingredient in Red Bull energy drinks.

 

Robert McIntosh of Mitchell, Ind., whose racecar-driving teenage

daughter has endorsed Spark, said she had tried it " a time or two. " He

said in a telephone interview that he had taken the stimulant ephedra

but that he did not believe young people should take

performance-enhancing drugs. " I don't think it's good for any

athlete, " he said.

 

But Angela B. Foster, whose 12-year-old daughter, Taylor, is

featured in another endorsement for AdvoCare products, said in a

telephone interview that Spark was safe and helpful for not only

Taylor, who practices 20 hours a week and is hoping for a college

scholarship in gymnastics, but also for her 11-year-old brother, who

plays soccer and runs track, and her 7-year-old sister. " We use Spark

for all of them, " Foster said.

 

The Foster children use the teenage and adult version, with 120

milligrams of caffeine, even though it is labeled as not for use by

children. " They don't use the kids' stuff, " Foster said. " They said it

tastes too much like Kool-Aid. "

 

In her endorsement for AdvoCare's children's products, Taylor

said: " I have more energy and I like them a lot. I would suggest that

anyone try them! "

 

AdvoCare, based in suburban Dallas, sells its products by

person-to-person multilevel marketing, not in stores. The company

gives about $500 a year in free products to the families of children

who endorse its products, said Allison Levy, the director of legal and

governmental affairs for the company.

 

Foster said she stopped selling AdvoCare products last year when

she grew too busy at Aspire Gymnastics and Dance in Bentonville, Ark.,

which she co-founded. But she said she still tells other parents, if

asked, to try Spark and the AdvoCare's vitamins and rehydrating drink

for their children.

 

" They are really good products, " Foster said.

 

Asked about the caffeine, she said, " I think you would get more

caffeine in a chocolate bar. "

 

Dark chocolate has about 20 milligrams of caffeine per ounce.

 

Gavin, the pediatrician, said that research on caffeine in

children is based on small numbers of subjects, but that it shows high

doses can make children more emotionally unstable, hyperactive and

irritable, and less attentive in school.

 

" Their little bodies handle it differently, and they don't need

it, " Gavin said. " It's a stimulant. The likelihood that a child is

going to have side effects is much higher at that age. " She added,

" Once you get into that attitude of performance-enhancing, it becomes

win at all costs, and I can see it pushing kids to other supplements. "

 

Andrew Shao, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs

at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington trade group for

the supplements industry, said in a telephone interview: " Our policy

is we're not aware of any safety issues with sports nutrition products

in kids. However, other than, say, a multivitamin, it's really not a

good idea for prepubescent kids to use sports nutrition products,

especially stimulant-containing products like caffeine-containing

products. "

 

Shao, who holds a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry, added: " Do we

really need kids using performance-enhancing products? Kids should be

kids. "

 

Pharmaceutical drugs containing caffeine are required to have

warnings saying, " Do not give to children under 12 years of age " and

" Limit the use of caffeine-containing medications, foods or beverages

while taking this product because too much caffeine may cause

nervousness, irritability, sleeplessness and, occasionally, rapid

heartbeat. "

 

No such caffeine warnings are required of dietary supplements,

which are considered foods, not drugs, under federal law.

 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is the only major

sports organization to ban caffeine supplements. The International

Olympic Committee banned caffeine from 1984 to 2004, then removed the

ban " in order to be pragmatic " about coffee drinkers, the spokeswoman

Giselle Davies said.

 

The Nutrition Business Journal says AdvoCare is one of the largest

companies in the industry, with annual revenues of $125 million to

$150 million, including about $29 million in sports or athletic

dietary supplements in 2004, more than any other direct-channel

supplement company in America. Loy declined to discuss revenues or

profits.

 

AdvoCare was founded by Charles E. Ragus of Dallas, a

direct-marketing veteran, in 1993. Ragus died in 2001; the company

presidency is vacant. Stohs joined the company full time in 2003 after

retiring as dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions at

Creighton University.

 

AdvoCare has about 60 other products that it says help users with

nutrition, energy, weight loss, muscle-building and skin care. It has

175 adult athlete endorsers, including Drew Brees of the San Diego

Chargers and Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans. Some of its

products contain synephrine, a stimulant regarded as safe by the Food

and Drug Administration but banned by the NCAA and the World

Anti-Doping Agency, and creatine, a muscle builder banned by the NCAA.

Both chemicals are legal and marketed by many companies. Stohs said

such products were not for children.

 

AdvoCare has drawn criticism for its marketing at youth athletic

events. Earlier this year, it paid $5,000 to sponsor a high school

wrestling tournament in Sacramento. After negative publicity, AdvoCare

officials said they would not sponsor any more school events.

 

AdvoCare has also sponsored World of Wrestling national

championship tournaments attended by several thousand children 4 to 18

years old. Loy said these were not school events. The company's

full-page advertisements in the tournament programs say: " World

champion athletes use AdvoCare nutritional products. Do you? "

 

Jack Roller, owner of the World of Wrestling youth tournaments,

said, " AdvoCare is one of our big sponsors, has been for some time,

and AdvoCare has some wonderful products. " He added: " But I don't

think all their products are for kids. If you've got something with

caffeine in it, you've got a huge concern. "

 

Roller sells caffeine-free supplements from Mannatech, a company

based in Coppell, Tex., and is also a sponsor of the youth wrestling

events.

 

AdvoCare's sponsorship cost the company about $1,000 and included

the right to hand out samples, Roller said. " Very gently I try to ask

them just not to give them to kids, " he said.

 

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