The other day my niece was working with me painting one of my apartments, and I noticed that she drank Gatorade in great quantities all day long. All told I think she drank 3 32-oz. bottles in a 3-hour period. So, I asked her why she drank so much Gatorade…and was surprised by her answer.

She said, “It’s a healthy drink. It’s got electrolytes and potassium in it and sports champions drink it, so it has to be healthy.” She also said she always makes sure to drink a lot of Gatorade whenever she’s working out or sweating a lot.

The reason this surprised me was how certain she was that this was a healthy drink! According to the bottle itself it had very little nutritional value, including almost no potassium. The advertising is obviously very good. People are willingly paying about $2.00 per bottle for pure flavored junk.

The store-keeper at the local “quick-shop” said he runs out of Gatorade all the time. He has “Power-Aid” in stock, but not Gatorade. I, not being educated in the differences between the two drinks, asked my niece if Power-Aid was as good to drink as Gatorade…and she said it was almost equal.  It’s interesting that Gatorade always sells out.

Anyway, when we got home my niece had a little Gatorade left in her bottle. I asked her if I could test it to see how acid it was. I was assuming it was around as acidic as Kool-aid [which is around a 4 pH]. I was truly shocked to see that Gatorade [supposedly a HEALTH DRINK] tested out at a 2.7 pH. That is extremely acidic and definitely an UNHEALTHY drink. Here’s the video:

Athletes who are fooled into drinking this as a power drink are going to end up with arthritis, heart disease, allergies, colds, cancer and many other diseases if they drink this like water [i.e., as much as my niece does…or I should say, “did”. My niece is going to cut down on Gatorade now that she knows how acidic it is.]

For athletes who really want a healthy drink full of electrolytes… mix up some fresh lemonade [use real lemons and ionized water]. Then go out and test your own performance. I guarantee you will see just as good a burst of power as you get with Gatorade [or better]…but the difference is that you won’t be risking your health with your “power-drink”. Plus it will be a heck of a lot cheaper.