GATORADE - FAR FROM HOMEMADE™

Information updated March 2024

Gatorade is a ubiquitous presence on the professional sports scenes and the playing fields of our neighborhood schools. Some people drink Gatorade when playing football and some people drink it when playing video games or even eating lunch or driving to work. This product has gone beyond its genesis as a sports drink and has entered iconic status in the American culture. 

Gatorade is a multi-billion dollar brand owned by PepsiCo which is one of the largest food companies in this country and the world. Based on data from Statista 2024, the sports drink category is over $8 billion in sales with Gatorade having the lion's share of the volume.  We're going to start by looking at what ingredients are in Gatorade Lemon-Lime. (Source for ingredients: PepsiCo Gatorade Web site 3/24)

GATORADE HAS NO FRUIT JUICE BUT CONTAINS ARTIFICIAL COLOR. The product comes in a clear container and it is artificially colored yellowish green to connote lemon-lime flavor in our brains and on our tongues.  

WHAT’S IN PEPSICO’S GATORADE LEMON-LIME? Almost every ingredient in Gatorade Lemon-Lime is Not In Kitchen™ >> commercial ingredients we don’t have in our home kitchens.

WATER IS THE FIRST INGREDIENT, SUGAR IS THE SECOND INGREDIENT AND DEXTROSE IS THE THIRD. Ingredients are always listed in descending order of amount, so Gatorade is primarily Water + Sugars. Aside from Water + Sugar + Salt, Gatorade also has added man-made chemicals, saccharides, colorings, flavorings, preservatives and stabilizers.

GATORADE HAS FAR FROM HOMEMADE INGREDIENTS >> Glycerol Ester of Rosin (shown below) is purchased from large chemical suppliers:

PEPSICO’S GATORADE ALSO CONTAINS THE FDA-RECOGNIZED CHEMICAL PRESERVATIVE, CITRIC ACID. (Source: U.S. FDA 2024) Historically, Citric Acid was made from Citrus. Today, unless specifically noted as “Naturally Derived”, Citric Acid is made using Aspergillus Niger, a.k.a. Black Mold. (Source: National Library of Medicine)

Read more here about Manufactured Citric Acid:

GATORADE HAS BEEN BANNED BY WHOLE FOODS MARKET. Whole Foods has a list of ingredients which they deem "Unacceptable in food"; items with ingredients on this list are not allowed in Whole Foods Market. (Source for banned ingredients: Whole Foods Web site 3/24)

GATORADE ORANGE HAS A "HIGH" GLYCEMIC INDEX WHICH IS EVEN HIGHER THAN SODA: The Glycemic Index for Gatorade Orange is designated as High at 89. (Source: The University of Sydney) The GI for a soft drink/soda is between 56-62. (Source: American Diabetes Association) The higher the GI, the greater the (potentially harmful) reaction by our bodies. 

A 28 oz. BOTTLE OF GATORADE BLUE CHERRY CONTAINS 48 GRAMS OF ADDED SUGAR >> AS MUCH ADDED SUGAR AS THERE IS IN 21 HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE KISSES. (Sources: PepsiCo Gatorade Web site 3/24 and Hersheyland Store Web site 3/24)

ADDED SUGAR VS. NATURALLY-OCCURRING SUGAR:

Gatorade contains no real juice >> the sugar content is all Added Sugar.

The American Heart Association recommends that children consume less than 25 grams of Added Sugar in one day. (Source: AHA 2024)

Added Sugars are those sugars which do not occur naturally in any of the ingredients vs. the sugars in fruit juice which are considered Naturally-occurring Sugars because they are naturally inside the real fruit.

PEPSICO STATES THAT THE SUGAR IN GATORADE HELPS “FUEL YOUR GAME”

Shown below, SPORTS DRINK INGREDIENT COMPARISON: Here's a comparison of Gatorade Strawberry Lemonade with 14 ingredients to Non-GMO Project Verified Recharge Orange by R.W. Knudsen. Recharge has seven ingredients and is sweetened exclusively with naturally-occurring sugars from fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates; there is no Added Sugar, Artificial Color or Artificial Flavor and no Chemical Preservatives. The only thing that keeps Recharge from being certified as Closest To Homemade® is the inclusion of commercial Natural Flavors. (Source for Recharge ingredients: Nexus Capital Knudsen Web site 11/24; Source for Gatorade ingredients: PepsiCo Gatorade Web site 3/24)

Following is a Lyte Sports Drink Comparison:

Discover food + beverages whose ingredients are Closest To Homemade in 275+ categories. Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list.

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DECADES AGO, GATORADE WAS ADVERTISED TO CHILDREN ON TELEVISION, UTILIZING ASPIRATIONAL, FAMOUS SPORTS CELEBRITIES LIKE MICHAEL JORDAN >> AND SO THE APPEAL OF GATORADE AMONG CHILDREN AND THE FLAVOR + THE INTENSE COLORS AS CONSIDERATION OF THE BRAND WAS IGNITED. Moms of kids were targeted with promotional print ads for Gatorade for their children:

GATORADE’S HISTORICAL ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION WITH FAMOUS ATHLETES HAS SHAPED THE BRAND’S ELITE ATHLETE IMAGE. Creating their brand identity via associations with famous athletes + professional sports teams, here’s an old ad for Gatorade featuring Mr. Michael Jordan:

And here’s a look at some older ads when the product was still part of Stokely-Van Camp with indications of the strategy to take the product beyond professional sports and into the mainstream: