Is Gatorade Good for You? (+ The Nutritional Breakdown)

Unfortunately, many people feel that Gatorade has some nutritional benefit. The first thing we notice about Gatorade is how colorful they are. These colors are from artificial food dyes, which can be problematic for some people who are allergic or sensitive to them. Additionally, the sugar and calories in 1 serving of Gatorade are comparable to a regular serving of soda. There is no protein, fat, or beneficial vitamins/minerals in Gatorade either. The nutrients in Gatorade are sugar, potassium, and sodium. The larger bottles of Gatorade provide 2.5 servings per bottle which provides you with over 200 calories, all from sugar. The sodium and potassium in Gatorade are there as an electrolyte replacement after you sweat or work out.
However, you can get these same electrolytes from coconut water, without the added sugar and calories. In addition, you can get these electrolytes from whole fresh fruit and stay hydrated with some bottled water. Overall, Gatorade gives us a ton of unwanted calories and sugar, which can also lead to some tooth decay and weight gain. The healthier option would be water or coconut water with some fresh whole fruit.

Read this next: How to Make a Homemade Electrolyte Drink (healthyhints.com/gatorade)

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Hey, it’s Vanessa, the registered dietician from Healthy Hints, here today to talk about Gatorade. Is Gatorade healthy? The first thing we need to do to figure out if Gatorade is healthy, is look at the nutrition label. The first thing we do is we notice that this is 80 calories per serving, and this is about 140 calories per serving. This whole bottle has 140 calories, which is about the same as if you were to drink a soda. So, right there, probably not the best option. Then we look at this one, and it’s got 80 calories per serving. There are 2 and a half servings in this bottle, which means that this whole bottle is over 200 calories, for this whole bottle.

The other very important thing to look at, when you look at the nutrition label of Gatorade, is that the calories are coming from sugar. They’re not coming from protein. They’re not coming from fat. They’re not coming from anything else other than sugar. Drinking one of these is going to be very similar to if you were to drink a soda. The other thing with Gatorade, the reason why it might not be the healthiest option, is because it has food dyes in it. For some reason, Gatorade feels like we need to have all these food dyes and these bright colors in our drinks, and it’s just really not doing any kind of benefit for us, and some people can be very sensitive to food dye. It’s really important to try to eliminate these, if you can, from your diet.

The other thing about Gatorade is that it has sodium and potassium in it. These are these electrolytes that we lose in our sweat. It is good to replace them, right, from something we’re drinking, but we can do those in other ways. And a better option, other than Gatorade that’s filled with sugar, filled with food dye, is going to be something like Coconut Water, which you can get at any of your stores that you’re getting your Gatorade at and your bottled water. Coconut Water is going to not have those sugars and those food dyes, but it is gonna replace the sodium and potassium that you’re losing in your sweat, which you do want to replace.

The better, option other than Gatorade, is going to be Coconut Water. And the other alternative to Coconut Water is just straight up, good old bottled water or, if you live in a place where you can have tap water and drink it straight from the tap, that’s gonna be your best bet for rehydrating and not getting all those unwanted calories from something like Gatorade and all the unwanted sugar and again food dye.

So, stick to water if you can. Grab some Coconut Water. Learn to love it. And thanks so much for watching, and we’ll see you next time.