"sports drinks" news and stories

Remember when the biggest beverage controversy to hit the lunchroom was chocolate vs. plain milk? These days, vending machines packed full of soda, sports drinks and sugary juice are the target: A new California bill banning sugar-sweetened sports drinks in middle schools and high schools passed last week. But some officials think the measure robs kids of choice.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sponsored the measure -- childhood obesity is one of his pet projects, and he succeeded in banning sodas from all California schools in 2007. Sports drinks were also banned in grade schools, but they remained an exception for older kids, hiding behind a guise of health and hydration.

But the neon-hued drinks are really just glorified sugar water with added salt, and they pack a lot of calories into that 20-oz bottle. For example, regular Gatorade has 50 calories and 14 grams of sugar per 8 oz serving. But really -- who drinks a cup of Gatorade? Nobody. Guzzling the whole bottle on a hot afternoon -- a more likely scenario -- means kids are actually getting about 125 calories and 35 grams of sugar. Drinking a 32-oz Powerade delivers 280 calories, 220 milligrams of sodium and 76 grams of sugar.

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.

Hey, if we can have cravings for sour cream and dill flavored chips, why not in a drink?

That's what Brandon Brooks thought back in the year 2000, when he hypothesized that people "sneak" a sip of the juice from a jar of pickles. He confirmed his hypothesis when Eagles players drank pickle juice to stay hydrated in the 120 degree heat at Texas Stadium against the Cowboys. Pickle juice was a sports drink? Apparently.

Now Pickle Juice is official as Pickle Juice Sport, made with natural dill, vinegar and salt. It's not caffeinated (now getting buzzed on pickle juice would just be weird), and thankfully, not carbonated.

[via: popgadget]

Source

Summer is coming and that means that more of us will need to hydrate during the long, hot months ahead. For many people this means knocking back a sports drink or a tall, cold glass of lemonade. But before you do, here is some food for thought that might make you think once or twice about that urge. Sports drinks and beverages containing citrus are quite hard on teeth enamel.

J. Anthony von Fraunhofer, director of biomaterials research at the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore, recently conducted a study of the hard effects these drinks have on teeth. Using extracted teeth, he simulated a 13 year exposure to a wide variety of beverages. He replicated what would be defined as normal exposure, weighing the teeth both before and afterwords. He found that the tooth enamel was harmed by all the tested drinks, but the ones inflicting the most harm were, in descending order, lemonade, energy drinks, sports drinks, fitness water (often with citrus flavors), iced tea and cola. His research indicates that the best way to consume the sports drinks is to chug them all at once rather than sip them continually throughout the day. After drinking them, the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed with water to prevent any enamel corrosion.

Of course, water is always a natural, sugar free thirst quencher.

Source

I remember going to the Expo West trade show in Anaheim the last few years. It's a giant trade show for natural, whole and organic products. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go this year, but I did pop over to Epicurious' Daily Dish to find out what kinds of new products are on the horizon. One of them is coconut water.

Coconut water, not to be confused with coconut milk or coconut cream, is the liquid inside young, green coconuts that eventually gets absorbed into the coconut's flesh as it matures into those hard hairy things. Coconut water isn't of course, new, as people in the tropics have been drinking the stuff for years, but it is now being bottled and marketed as the new sports drink. Coconut water is naturally fat free, is very low in calories, and is very high in potassium and other electrolytes (just like Gatorade!).

[photo: maria brazil]