Sports Drinks

Sports Drinks
The University of Florida football team was often troubled with illness caused by excessive heat.

In 1965, one of the coaches approached another kind of team – four scientists – to come up with a solution to the problem.

Their answer actually was “solution”; a mixture of water, carbohydrates and electrolytes (sodium and potassium salts) that was intended to replace the key ingredients players lost through exercise and subsequent perspiration.

They added a citrus like flavor, to make it easier for players to drink in sufficient quantities, and named it after the university’s team.

Gatorade was born. By 1983, it was the official drinks of the National Football League.

Robert Cade, who had obtained a patent for the greenish-yellow drink, agreed to have it produced and marketed by Stokely-Van Camp. However, the university sued Cade in 1973, claiming it owned the rights to Gatorade; as a result of the settlement, it currently received royalties on the dunk’s sales.

Stokely-Van Camp was sold to Quaker Oats in 1983, which in turn licensed the Gatorade line to PepsiCo.

In 2001, Pepsi bought out Quaker.

Powerade, an early Gatorade competitor, began distribution, by Coca-Cola, in 1992. Within two years it added several fruit flavors, and in 1996 (to add to its appeal to aspiring – and perspiring – athletes), it began to be sold in plastic sports bottles.

Powerade distinguished itself from Gatorade by adding vitamins B3, B6, and B12, which were said to be involved in the metabolism of carbohydrate energy.

In 1980 in Japan, Otsuka Pharmaceutical developed another sports drink (Pocari Sweat).

Originally a chemical company, Otsuka had been in the pharmaceutical business since 1946, an Pocari Sweat was an extension of its nutraceuticals line.

Related products include Amino-Value and Calorie Mate.

Pocari Sweat is sold mostly to Asian customers (and interestingly in the United Arab Emirates), but like Powerade, its added vitamin content signal the arrival of another class of “health drink”.
Sports Drinks