This weeks blog is all about sport drinks.  Both Gatorade and Powerade sell different products and label different depending where you live. I am basing this information on the US websites for both since they are the easiest to understand.  I will end this post with the links to other countries so you can research on your own if you choose.

Powerade

Powerade has three lines of drinks; zero drinks, sports drink and energy drink.  Since I cannot find the energy drink on the US website I am assuming it is not sold there.  Looks like energy drinks can be found in Australia. The zero drinks have no sugar.  Well not enough sugar that they need to list it anyways.  Sucralose is listed as an ingredient.  The regular Powerade has sugar in the form of high crustose corn syrup.  The energy drink has caffeine and is competing in the energy drink category like Red Bull.

Powerade Zero (no sugar)

Regular Powerade

There are differences in each country so please take the time to research. For example in Australia, Powerade Zero has no sugar, but also no potassium.

Gatorade

Gatorade seems to have even more products.  They have their original gatorade which is comparable to the regular Powerade.  Gatorade has a low calorie drink and endurance drinks. Some of the endurance products are labelled as an energy drink so read your products carefully because energy drinks are not suggested for consumption by children or adolescents. My understanding is that if a drink is labelled an energy drink it contains caffeine.  If you are interested in more information on energy drinks please message me on Facebook and I will send you a document I found on it.

Original Gatorade (thirst quencher orange)

Gatorade G2 Low Calorie (orange)

Gatorade Endurance Formula Thirst Quencher (orange)

Here is a chart to summarize my findings and my understanding of reading the labels. Remember I am not a dietician and am not claiming to be one either.  If you see any errors let me know.

Sodium intake for Australia is suggested at 1600mg/day and 2800mg(for women/day) of potassium.  I could only find 2400mg of sodium daily for Great Britain for 11 years and up. Every country I researched, the first articles that appeared all said that most people consume double or more than the daily requirements for sodium each day.

The reason for the asterisk is that if you read the label it states there is less than 1g of sugar per serving.  So there could be up to 0.99g of sugar.  The serving size Powerade uses keeps sugar to less than 1g per serving. I believe there is a rule stating that anything less than 1g of sugar does not need to be listed on a label.  If you look at the ingredients, one of the ingredients is sugar. Sugar still has calories.

Something else to be aware of is that sugar can have several names and be listed separately on an ingredient list.  Often you will see two sugar ingredients as two and three on the list.  If they were combined into one sugar they would probably be the first ingredient.  The predominate ingredient on a food label is listed first.

Claims by sports drink producers is that it helps people drink water that would not normally drink water.  That’s true, but organizations like the Mayo Clinic suggest that water is good enough to replenish you.  You can always add lemon slices or just about any kind of fruit slice to water for additional flavour.  Have you tried cucumber slices? There are even homemade sports drinks you can make.

There are sports and activities that demand increased electrolytes and calories during training and competition, but most of us do not participate in those events.

Next time you reach for a sports drink think about the calories, the sugar, and the sodium. Does your workout warrant that kind of nourishment?  Does a child really need to be consuming more sugar, more calories and more sodium?  Consult a dietician to find out what is best for you.

I would love to hear from you.  Comment below or on my Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TheOnlineSynchroCoach

Gatorade

From this link you can select the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, and United States.

http://www.gatorade.com/products/all-products

Powerade

Australia- https://www.powerade.com.au/home.html

United Kingdom and many other European countries(total of 16 to choose from).  http://www.poweradegb.com

United States- http://www.us.powerade.com

New Zealand- http://www.powerade.co.nz/hydration/products/powerade-isotonic-range