Gatorade is marketed as a sports drink. You’ve seen the commercials, top level athlete’s promote the product saying they use it to reach their peak performance. However, should it actually be used as a sports drink? More importantly, is it actually hurting their athletic performance?
Firstly, Gatorade contains a high amount of sugar. A 12 oz. Gatorade contains approximately twenty one grams of added sugars. Added sugars are bad for you health, as they add extra calories to your daily intake. Basically that is saying that Gatorade can be held responsible for weight gain in obesity a person is drinking Gatorade on a consistent basis. The American Heart association says that no more than half your daily calorie intake should come from added sugars. Companies are becoming smart, they know that people have began to realize that people know added sugars are bad, so they try and “disguise” the fact they are using added sugars on the label. Fructose, glucose, isoglucose, and sucrose are commonly known added sugars put on nutrition labels.
Another reason Gatorade is unhealthy is because of food additives and colorings. Monopotassium phosphate is used as a food addictive within Gatorade. However, a few more common uses of monopotassium phosphate are being used as a fertilizer and a fungicide. Gatorade also contains brominated vegetable oil, which is also found in flame retardants. Research shows injecting these chemicals can lead to thyroid problems, memory loss, and skin problems. Gatorade also use food colorings such as blue 1 and red 40. There has been a link found between those specific food colorings and child hyperactivity.
High level athletes should not be putting this drink into their body. Gatorade contains too much added sugar and food additives for a high level athlete to be using. An athlete is much better off drinking water during a game or after a workout, as water helps energize muscles by hydrating the muscles during a workout. Like many tasty drinks today, Gatorade just has too many added sugars and food additives to be considered healthy in today’s society
This blog immediately caught my attention as I was active in almost every sport possible when I was little and went through my “gatorade phase.” I would drink a bottle at almost every practice and game until it started giving me cramps when I was running and I realized I should stop drinking it. I knew that gatorade contained a lot of sugar, but I didn’t know that it’s also unhealthy because of the food colorings, so I’m glad you pointed that out. I think the best healthy alternative is drinking water because it’s very important to stay hydrated during physical activity, but gatorade is not necessarily the best choice. I think many people are misled to believe gatorade is healthy because of the constant advertisements of famous sports players who claim to drink it, but in reality, it is pure sugar; it’s not helping your performance in any way.
This post is very interesting to me because I’ve never been the biggest fan of Gatorade, especially when I being active. It surprises me that a drink like Gatorade, which everyone sees as a healthy drink, could be so bad for your health! I’ve always preferred water when I’m being active because Gatorade had always made me sick. I do see now how bad it could be for someone who drinks it a lot and who drinks it when they normally are not being active because it adds all those extra sugar into your body as extra. I do think if you are being very active it wouldn’t hurt to drink it because it could replace your sugars and electrolytes right away unlike water. After reading this, I would be interested to see how healthy Powerade, Gatorade’s competitor, is for you. I would also like to see how the two compare to each other and with water in both active and inactive people. I think it would provide interesting results and insights! In the end, I’ll continue to drink my occasional Gatorade and then stick with water for the majority of the time especially while I’m active.
I never thought of gatorade being a drink that could be bad for you. I always knew that there was a lot of sugar, but never considered the actually consequences of all that sugar and the food additives. Whenever I would go to my tennis practices my mom would always remind me to take a Gatorade with me, and that is because of the electrolytes, but she never considered all of the sugar that I was apparently adding into my daily calorie intake. This argument is very logical, however I wonder if the sugar in Gatorade actually isn’t all that harmful because you’re burning all of those calories and sugars when you work out anyway, so the sugar isn’t really adding anything, but I think your argument does make sense in terms of people who drink Gatorade that aren’t exercising.
I agree that in the long run gatorade can have drastic health benefits, but I do see the positive effects of it while it’s being used in a sports setting. Though added sugars, etc. are horrible for ones health Gatorade is made to replenish someone in the moment. I know the body loses electrolytes when put through harsh conditions such as exercise or sickness so that’s why athletes drink it as it replenishes the electrolytes right away unlike water. But I do see where you are coming from, I personally wouldn’t choose to drink gatorade as it is very bad for ones health.