The man who invented Gatorade (and arguably the entire sports drink market) died earlier today of kidney failure.

Dr. Robert Cade invented the drink in 1965 at The University of Florida. I didn't even know that this was actually a product invented at the school to help the football players (that's where the "Gator" in the name comes from) until that commercial a few years ago that explained how Gatorade came about. It all began with the question, "Doctor, why don't football players wee-wee after a game?"

I don't use sports drinks when I exercise. I'm a water guy, and it's incredible that this drink had so much impact on the performance of top-level athletes. Which probably explains why I'm not a top level athlete (one of many reasons...).

Cade was 80.

Cadbury Schweppes is preparing to launch their largest marketing campaign to date in a market clearly dominated by PepsiCo's Gatorade. Though the product itself isn't exactly new, Accelerade was purchased by Cadbury Schweppes last year and is now backed by a reported $50 million campaign scheduled to begin on May 28.

Accelerade will be joining Gatorade and Coke's Powerade (seriously, who names these things?) in the fight to become your sports drink of choice. Their ads will tell you to "Sweat Smarter," and will feature a team of athletes including Derek Jeter and Mia Hamm pitching the product.

If you are interested in seeing what makes them any different than the others, Accelerade features a product comparison chart on their website which breaks down the carbs, calories, and various other stats between the different brands of drinks.

Naturally, water gives you the most bang for your buck when it comes to hydration (unless you're spending a lot of bucks on fancy bottled waters), but what about the rest of the beverages out there?

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has just published Healthy Beverage Guidelines, and while they urge 20 to 50 ounces of water per day, the rest of the guidelines are limitations, so that we're not drinking too much. Tea and coffee? Not more than 40 oz of tea and 32 oz coffee because the caffeine dehydrates you. Lowfat and soy milks are good for hydration, but make sure that you're not relying solely on them for calcium. The guidelines say that up to 32 oz of sugar-free drinks are acceptable, and that juice and sports drinks are next, limited to 8 oz a day. Last on the list? Starbucks Frappuccino and Red Bull. Really now, no one should be depending on those for hydration.

To fill the caloric void between plain water and regular sports drinkers, a few years ago, the makers of Gatorade created Propel Fitness Water. The drink was a huge success. With carb-phobes trying to avoid excess sugars, the vitamin-enhanced beverage caught on with a health conscientious market. Then in January of this year, Gatorade introduced Propel Calcium into the exercise beverage market. Like the original Propel Fitness Water, Propel Calcium is a low-calorie, vitamin-enhanced thirst quencher. Each serving provides the equivalent of 9% of the Dietary Reference Intake. (Wahoo! I love Calcium!)

Conceivably more successful than the original due to its huge celebrity following, Propel Calcium comes in three tasty flavors: Mango, Mandarin Orange and Mixed Berry. If you haven't tried Propel with Calcium, just remember: if it's good enough for Jennifer Aniston, it's good enough for you.

New from Jelly Belly -- the company that got Ronald Reagan through all those cabinet meetings during the Iran-Contra affair -- is the sweet tooth's answer to Gatorade: Sport Beans.

The company has been sponsoring a professional bike racing team for the last few years, and working with those athletes, Jelly Belly has developed a jelly bean that's certifiably good for you. It's fortified with electrolytes, carbohydrates and Vitamins B and C.

The idea, apparently, is to provide athletes an alternative to the nutrition products that bike racers and other endurance types use: sports drinks, like Gatorade, which are sticky; and energy gels, like Gu, which seem just plain gross.

A cool idea, to be sure. But when is somebody going to make an athletic version of Snickers? 

A new study from researchers at the University of Iowa School of Dentistry found that Gatorade eroded tooth enamel faster than Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Red Bull or apple juice. Researchers took extracted teeth and coated all but a few spots of each with nail polish. The teeth were then soaked in the sugary drinks for 25 hours, with the liquid being changed every five hours. In the end, Gatorade was the most corrosive on the spots without nail polish. A dental expert cited in a recent WebMD article says that so far, no data shows that sports drinks are actually any worse than sodas on teeth. He added that sipping sodas or other sugary drinks all day is far worse than having one with a meal, as the other foods in the mouth buffer the effects of the drinks. Another expert, quoted in a Forbes article, says that the acidity of these beverages is also to blame. Others critiqued the study, saying that a 25-hour period of exposure to sugary drinks had little to do with real-world situations.

Some of you may recall the posts that Nicole and I did about a recently released study comparing the restorative effects of chocolate milk, Gatorade and another sports drink. Interpretations of the Indiana University study have since been challenged by Gatorade and embraced by The Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPep) a dairy industry information group. According to DairyReporter.com, Gatorade has released a statement attempting to clarify the results of the study. Gatorade claims that many media outlets have misconstrued the study's results and insists that their product fared just as well as chocolate milk in physical endurance trials. The sports drink maker claims that many quotes from the study have been taken out of context. According to the articles that I've read concerning the study, Gatorade and chocolate milk just about broke even.

A study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism revealed that chocolate milk is at least as good as popular sports drinks for helping the body recover after exercise. As Nick pointed out, athletes who drank the chocolate milk and the Gatorade performed equally well when asked to exercise again. Athletes who drank Endurox R4, a sports drink with protein added in the same ratio as milk, only performed half as well, indicating that perhaps some property of milk - say, the chocolate - might be helping the performance of the athletes as well.

Could it be the antioxidants in the chocolate that are helping? An 8-ounce glass of low-fat chocolate milk will have about 200 calories and 3 grams of fat, while an 8-ounce glass of Gatorade has only 55 calories. Though some people worry about the seemingly high number of calories in the milk, the extra calories are not only healthy, but can provide extra energy to athletes in the long run.