The 4 Most Wasteful Drinks
Make no mistake, popular brand names do not mean the healthy ones. Please check below what the 4 familiar drinks bring to your diet.
1. Gatorade is NOT an electrolyte. A product of PepsiCo, Gatorade is marketed as an electrolyte and a sport beverage. The first Gatorade has been created in 1965 by researchers at the University of Florida to help “The Gators,” the university’s athletic team to perform better and recover faster from the competitions. Maybe the original Gatorade did contain reasonable amounts of minerals and sugars but the Gatorade you buy today gives you next to nothing. You will have to drink unrealistic 9.5 gallons of the beverage to get your daily potassium and 1.5 gallons to replenish your daily sodium. In fact, even pure water may kill you if too much and too quickly was drunk. 2 Gallons of Coca-Cola a day kills even quicker! And Gatorade is far from being innocent: it supplies a chlorinated sugar, acesulfame potassium and a bunch of artificial colorants into your bloodstream.
Better choices. VitaminWater or One Coconut Water, a true electrolyte and V8 juices are much healthier choices that provide 19 to 29 times the amount of dietary potassium present in Gatorade, the fake electrolyte!
2. Powerade is NOT a healthy drink. This is just the Gatorade’s rival introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in 1988. Different flavors are designed to camouflage unhealthy concoction of this another parody on a sport drink: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), brominated vegetable oil, artificial colorants and, again, chlorinated sugar and acesulfame potassium. Added Vitamins of B group is the major difference from Gatorade.
Better choices. If you work hard and want to stay in a good healthy shape, drink pure water and freshly made vegetable juices for your electrolytes. VitaminWater, One Coconut Water or V8 Original are good choices too.
3. Don’t be fooled by Pedialyte! This is the most wasteful “electrolyte” designed by a respectful pharmaceutical and health care company, Abbott Laboratories, to trick parents into paying 5 times the price of Gatorade when the two are almost identical! It contains the same stuff: artificial colorants, chlorinated sugar, acesulfame potassium, etc., with NO indication of how much electrolytes are added. Can your child benefit from drinking this overpriced Gatorade-mimicking liquid?
Better choices. Instead of poisoning your child with Pedialyte you can make green tea with some honey, add some raspberries and a tiny pinch of sea salt to help your child to recover. See above for the other better choices.
4. Kool-Aid is chemically polluted water. It is the same toxic stuff as Powerade minus Vitamins B. So it is even worse than Powerade and it is designed especially for children: HFCS, chlorinated sugar and a bunch of artificial colorants and flavors. Drink Kool-Aid only if you aren’t afraid one day to turn diabetic, blind, impotent and incontinent. (See Food marketing to children). Otherwise, drink pure water like I do or the above mentioned better choices. I stay away from all wasteful drinks including these 4. Thank you for reading!
Category: Food Dyes Exposure, Soft drinks, Sports drinks, Zero calories
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I’ll never drink Gatorade again.
I am happy for your informed decision!
As a cyclist that regularly does 30-50 miles rides in the humidity of East Tennessee I’ve learned the hard way how important REAL electrolyte replacement during exercise really is. Staying well hydrated is the first step meaning don’t just hydrate before and during workouts but throughout the day as well. I drink anywhere from 1/2 to 1 gallon of water a day along with 1 to 2 cups of unsweetened vanilla, almond milk daily and on ride days I start the day with 1 cup V-8 FULL sodium then 1 cup ten or twenty prior to my ride. V-8 is a wonder food in my humble opinion with regards to hydration and athletic endeavors. On really long rides in the heat of summer I always plan a stop at a store to get a V-8 from the cooler and some salted almonds or cashews many times along with a Snickers bar (dark if they have it!) for the sugar and a Mountain Dew for the sugar and caffeine. I also take along two 20oz bottles of filtered water which I refill if needed, most really hot days I need to refill both.
Again, drink plenty of water, stay away from sugar laden ‘fruit’ juices such as apple, orange, grape and grapefruit. You may as well just eat hard sugar candy as a cup of orange juice. ALWAYS opt for the whole fruit itself, healthy fiber rich pulp and all!
Excellent, Doug! Thank you for sharing. Not all V8 drinks are equally healthy, however, in this profit, profit, and profit driven “economy.”
Please check http://www.dyediet.com/?s=v+8 for more details.
I was strictly speaking of the full sodium original and that’s only when I’m out on a ride.
At home I make my own with Kosher or high quality sea salt.
I REALLY like the RW Knudsen veggie juice. As with pre-made foods and drinks READ THE LABEL!!!!!!!
Oh and I drink ‘soft drinks’ only on these VERY long and strenuous rides.
Or at the movies once a month or so…….I mean, what’s a movie without popcorn and a Cherry Coke?
Yeah… Just remember, there is NO cherry in Cherry Coke: http://www.dyediet.com/2011/07/30/soft-drinks/coca-cola-cherry-risk-and-nutrition/
Damn it tastes good though…….