TAGS
I’ll admit I’m a little bit excited in that someone at Gatorade reads my blog and sent me a couple of their new products to test. (I almost feel like a real journalist!) Gatorade G Natural and G2 Natural are two sports drinks that Gatorade is marketing as a natural alternative to their regular sports drinks. Both drinks are part of Gatorade’s Perform line of drinks. This means they’re designed to be drunk during a workout or competition. (Pre-competition/workout and post-competition/workout drinks are also available.) G Natural is a full-calorie drink with 50 calories per serving while G2 Natural is a low-calorie drink with 2o calories per serving. The G Natural I got was orange flavored. G2 Natural was berry flavored.
I drank the G Natural on a tough, quick bike ride up Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO. It was warm and the road was steep. A sports drink was definitely in order. I drank the G2 Natural after a five mile run. I found it refreshing and adequate to the task.
Flavor is probably the most important factor as to whether or not someone likes a sports drink. (Research has shown people will drink more if a drink is flavored as opposed to an unflavored drink like water.) My personal preference is for a light-flavored drink but this is a rare find among sports drinks. I found the G Natural flavor to be a bit strong, but it was nothing severe. I’d be perfectly happy to find this drink at rest stops during a bike tour or a running event.
The always popular is next on the list. The as such:
“The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in §§182.10, 182.20, 182.40, and 182.50 and part 184 of this chapter, and the substances listed in §172.510 of this chapter.”
So is natural flavor natural? You be the judge.
follows natural flavor on the ingredient list. I’d call this some fairly natural stuff. It comes by way of evaporating sea water thus leaving sea salt.
is next on the list. (One of three types of sodium citrate, trisodium citrate is the only food additive.) This is a tart flavoring and preservative used in various drinks as well as an anticoagulant in order to help preserve blood in blood banks.. It’s a relative of citric acid. ? If you’ve got a chemistry background, it shouldn’t be too tough. Can you find it in what most of us would call “nature?” Unlikely.
Finally we’ve got (for color). (Can’t have a natural drink without color right?) Well, it’s fairly natural stuff. It’s what gives carrots and other orange veggies and fruits their orange color. (Wouldn’t it be ironic if the beta carotene in orange flavored Gatorade Natural came from carrots instead of oranges?) Beta carotene is quite possibly very healthy for you so long as it’s consumed in it’s natural state; that is as a whole food along with the thousands of other compounds found in carrots, oranges, pumpkins, sweet potato, orange peppers, etc. In contrast, if you’re a smoker and you consume enough beta carotene in isolation, your chances of lung cancer go up.
What’s my point here? The term “natural” can be applied to almost any food. There are no specific regulations concerning its use. We’re starting to learn that highly processed foods are unhealthy for us. Organic foods are becoming more popular and many of us recognize the health benefits of eating non-processed or minimally processed foods (i.e. stuff that’s simply pulled out of the ground or yanked off a tree branch.) Thus there is profit to be made by way of foods we might generally consider natural. Is Gatorade Natural actually natural? It depends on your definition. Almost anything on earth or in the universe might be considered natural. (Supernatural probably isn’t the correct term for Gatorade Natural either.) Does it contain some naturally found substances? Yes. Does it also contain some highly processed substances? Also yes.
Am I calling Gatorade Natural a bad or unhealthy product? No. I truly have no idea of the overall health effects of Gatorade Natural. I personally have no fear of consuming the product. It may well be the ideal thirst quenching fuel for many athletes. At the same time, it’s not quite what I consider to be a natural product.
.
