It's colorful, tastes better than water and you can buy it just about anywhere.

An athletic playing field isn't the only place you'll find sports drinks. Many people drink them just to stay hydrated during the day. But they aren't designed for everyone.

During intense competition or a heated practice, athletes have to replenish their fluids. And more often than not, they reach for a sports drink.

“The main purpose of a sports drink is to replenish that lost sodium that you lose while you are sweating and so that's what it’s used for. So if you're not sweating excessively, then there's no real need to replete that sodium,” Avera Heart Hospital Dietitian Nikki Ver Steeg said.

That's why sipping on a sports drink throughout the entire day may not be a good idea.

“If you are just a regular person that's not necessarily doing any significant activity, it’s just basically replacing the calories that you just burned off if you're exercising for 15 minutes or a half hour," said Ver Steeg.

Nikki Ver Steeg, a dietitian at the Avera Heart Hospital and spokesperson for the South Dakota Dietetic Association, says sports drinks contain a lot of sugar that our bodies don't need.

Powerade, for example, has 200 calories, and 56 grams of sugar; that's the same as 14 cubes of sugar.

“Most of us run around a little bit dehydrated anyway and most of us do not think of water.  We drink more caffeine beverages or a minimal amount of fluids. We're always looking at ways to incorporate more water in," Ver Steeg said.

Ver Steeg says even though it may taste better, we should never substitute a sports drink for water.

“Water is necessary throughout your entire system because of the fact that we are made up mostly of water and so it’s essential to be able to flush out toxins, those types of things," said Ver Steeg.