Professional athletes are consistently endorsing foods and drinks that are lacking nutrition, and the ironic promotion of such brands need to be eradicated as it sends the wrong message.

It’s unfortunate that some athletes refuse to take the higher ground and not resort to a moral approach to things and not accept the offer from Sprite to be in its latest commercial.

As professionals, athletes around the world, like LeBron James or Peyton Manning, know what one’s body requires for a well rounded and balanced development of nutrition.

Having the greatest athletes on the planet promote a substance that doesn’t truly exemplify what they induce on a daily basis is a confusing message for most people and could be misleading.

Having an aspiring youth watching an advertisement with the likes of James can cause him or her to associate a product, such as McDonalds, with being successful and athletic.

It’s not only misleading as aforementioned, but it’s pretty close to a straight-up lie.

It’s far too common to see younglings dress a particular way just because Justin Bieber or Selena Gomez is wearing a certain outfit or donning some sort of new hairstyle.

People, kids in particular, are easily influenced and susceptible by individuals they look up to.

We live in a world where celebrities are those people one looks up to.

So when an athlete starts promoting Coke or Pepsi, then it instantly attaches the character or image that is associated with that particular athlete to the product they are endorsing.

This can only further alienate people from nutrition and a healthier lifestyle.

It’s difficult to ask athletes to resist such lucrative offers from these brands that ask one to endorse products like Pizza Hut, but when people like James already make millions of dollars a year, then the extra money isn’t much of a loss.

It’s time to get that celery endorsement, folks.