Gatorade Real Ingredients & Effects on the Body
Whether you participate in sports or simply exercise for recreation, you are familiar with sports drinks. Sports drinks provide energy for activity and ensure proper hydration. Athletes use them during activity to enhance performance. Gatorade is one of the most popular sports drinks on the market, consumed by many. Although Gatorade reformulates its beverages from time to time, some of the ingredients remain the same.
While Gatorade provides some of the essential nutrients needed for sports recovery, the downside of Gatorade is the fact that it contains added sweetener in the form of high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose syrup. All of its carbohydrates come from sugar, meaning that it provides quick energy, but this can also lead to an energy crash later. In addition, consuming excess sugar and refined carbohydrates on a regular basis can be hazardous to your health, leading to weight gain, insulin resistance (which can ultimately result in diabetes), high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other problems.
BioGenix designed Optimal Minerals & Electrolytes, a product that works with the systems in the body to optimize the body’s ability to utilize water.
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Gatorade ingredients include:
Filtered Water
Filtered water is simply water that has been passed through a filtering system to remove impurities. The process selectively removes dangerous contaminants from drinking water while retaining healthy mineral deposits that balance the pH of drinking water.
Brominated Vegetable Oil
BMV or brominated vegetable oil is added to certain beverages that contain citrus oils. BMV helps prevent the oils from rising to the surface. It also ensures the stability of the flavor mixture. It is derived from soybean.
Sucrose syrup
Beverages made with sweeteners, such as sucrose syrup, otherwise known as liquefied table sugar, are high in empty calories, low in nutritional value and cause tooth decay. “Regularly including these products in your diet has the potential to promote obesity–which, in turn, promotes conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease,” according to the Mayo Clinic. An 8 oz. serving of Gatorade contains 14g sugar, which is equivalent to 3.3 tsp. of sugar. If you drink the whole 20 oz. bottle, you’ll be getting a whopping 8 tsp. of sugar.
Sucralose
Sucralose adds sweetness to foods and beverages without adding calories or carbohydrates. As an alternative to sugar and other calorie-containing sweeteners, it can play a role in weight management programs that combine sensible nutrition and physical activity.
Unlike sugar, the body does not break down sucralose into calories for energy. Yet, both sugar and sucralose activate the same taste buds on your tongue. Most of the sucralose people consume is not absorbed and passes through the body. The little that is absorbed is excreted in the urine, and doesn’t accumulate in the body. . Sucralose is sold as Splenda.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/12/03/sucralose-dangers.aspx
High Fructose Corn Syrup
The high fructose corn syrup in Gatorade is a combination of two to three carbohydrates. The high fructose corn syrup contributes glucose, sucrose and fructose to the sports drink. Each is added according to results of scientific data to ensure fluid absorption, energy delivery and desirable taste. It is also a preservative, used to extend the shelf-life of processed foods and it tops the list of items to be eliminated from your diet for numerous reasons.
http://fitbottomedgirls.com/2011/09/is-high-fructose-corn-syrup-bad-for-you-yes-says-dr-oz/
Citric Acid
Citric acid is an organic acid found in citrus fruits, particularly lemons and limes, that acts as a natural preservative with a tart flavor that balances out all the sticky sweetness of all the sugar in Gatorade, leaving your mouth feeling clean, according to its website. It may leave your mouth feeling clean, but it doesn’t do much for your teeth.
Natural flavors
Natural and artificial flavors are added to enhance the flavor that cannot be supplied if fruit juice or certain spices were to be used.
Sodium
Salt, also known as potassium chloride, is used to enhance taste. It is present in Gatorade to help regulate fluid balance in the body.
Sodium Citrate
Sodium citrate is the sodium salt of citric acid. In this sense, it is similar to calcium citrate. Like citric acid, sodium citrate has a sour taste, as well as having a salty taste, like other salts. For this reason, citrates such as sodium and calcium citrate are commonly known as sour salt (sometimes, people refer to citric acid as sour salt). It is chiefly used as a food additive, usually for flavor or as a preservative. Sodium citrate is added to Gatorade to enhance flavor and maintain the stability of active ingredients.
Monopotassium Phosphate
Monopotassium phosphate is added as a source of phosphate and has been approved by the FDA as a heart healthy food.
Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin
Glycerol ester of wood rosin is used in products that contain citric oils. It prevents the oils from floating to the surface of beverages. It is harvested from the stumps of pine and purified to beverage grade gum. The National Institute of Public Health has declared glycerol ester of wood rosin safe for human consumption.
Artificial Colors
Artificial colors are listed in the ingredients as various dyes or a color with a number. According to Gatorade.com, the colors in Gatorade are present to help consumers differentiate the different flavors. Colors and dyes used in Gatorade are suitable for human consumption as directed by the FDA. The least amount of dye is used to achieve the desired color.
Can something like Gatorade and other Sports Drinks that contain these ingredients really be the answer to provide your body with the hydration and replenishment to fuel your body before, during and after training and competition?
The BioGenix Mission Statement is “to provide athletes of all levels with cutting edge formulations that promote optimal performance and injury prevention.” BioGenix formulations are designed to optimize the physiology that drives performance by nourishing your body at cellular and intracellular levels and contain none of the ingredients that Sports drinks need to provide support. Learn more about BioGenix and its Sports Recovery products here.
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