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]

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.

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]

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.