WEBVTT - Who Invented Sports Drinks?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brainstud a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogebam. Here, A stroll down the beverage aisle in

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<v Speaker 1>any American supermarket will present you with a wall of

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<v Speaker 1>veritably glowing sports drinks and a rainbow of colors and flavors,

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<v Speaker 1>with options from major soft drink companies like Pepsi and

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<v Speaker 1>Coca Cola, jockeying for your attention, all promising to improve

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<v Speaker 1>your performance or quench your thirst in some superior way.

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<v Speaker 1>It's an industry worth some thirty billion dollars a year.

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<v Speaker 1>But how did all of this get started? And does

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<v Speaker 1>your average exerciser need sports drinks to replenish during or

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<v Speaker 1>after a workout. In the United States, Gatorade gets credited

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<v Speaker 1>as the first sports drink, but there was one on

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<v Speaker 1>the market in the United Kingdom decades before Gatorade got

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<v Speaker 1>its start. It's now called lucas Aid. A chemist named

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<v Speaker 1>William Owen developed what would become Luca's Aid in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty seven, and the initial purpose of the glucose in

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<v Speaker 1>water mixture was to provide an easy source of calories

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<v Speaker 1>and energy for people who were ill. Because of its

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<v Speaker 1>inclusion of glucose. The drink was originally called glucoseade. Glucose

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<v Speaker 1>is a form of sugar used by all living organisms

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<v Speaker 1>that we know of to produce a denisine triphosphate, or ATP,

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<v Speaker 1>which is what cells use as energy to get stuff done.

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<v Speaker 1>Everything that a cell does, it uses ATP to do.

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<v Speaker 1>During the first couple decades of the nineteen hundreds, researchers

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<v Speaker 1>were learning about glucose and its link to energy in

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<v Speaker 1>our bodies. There were a bunch of Nobel Prizes given

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<v Speaker 1>about these discoveries, so it was a savvy marketing move

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<v Speaker 1>at the time. The name of the drink switched over

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<v Speaker 1>to lucose Aid a couple decades later, as the brand

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<v Speaker 1>was sold to the pharma company Beacham Group. Through a

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<v Speaker 1>number of mergers over the years, that company became glaxosmith Klein,

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<v Speaker 1>which then sold the brand to Sumtory in the twenty teens.

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<v Speaker 1>The reason that lucas Aid doesn't get the first sports

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<v Speaker 1>drink cred it deserves falls almost entirely on a marketing problem.

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<v Speaker 1>It wasn't until the mid nineteen eighties that the manufacturer

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<v Speaker 1>realized that it could sell lucas Aid as more than

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<v Speaker 1>just a drink for sick people. The company repositioned the

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<v Speaker 1>brand as a drink to replace lost energy, developed new flavors,

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<v Speaker 1>and started pulling in millions in sales. It's still the

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<v Speaker 1>number one selling sports drink brand in the United Kingdom,

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<v Speaker 1>but Gatorade was the one that sparked the lucrative sports

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<v Speaker 1>drink market. It was also the first drink developed specifically

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<v Speaker 1>to support athletes in training. It was nineteen sixty five

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<v Speaker 1>at the University of Florida or UF. An assistant football

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<v Speaker 1>coach and campus hospital security chief by the name of

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<v Speaker 1>Dwayne Douglas noticed that his players were losing a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of weight during training and games. They weren't urinating despite

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<v Speaker 1>drinking a lot of water sometimes, and some even experienced heatstroke.

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<v Speaker 1>Douglas teamed up with a few doctors, led by doctor

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<v Speaker 1>Robert Caid, a kidney disease specialist at UF, to talk

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<v Speaker 1>the problem through. Caid worked with the UF's College of

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<v Speaker 1>Medicine to develop a drink to replenish what these athletes

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<v Speaker 1>were losing through their strain and sweat. Carbohydrates aka sugar

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<v Speaker 1>and electrolytes. Electrolytes are a set of minerals that your

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<v Speaker 1>body needs to maintain its fluid levels and regulate its

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<v Speaker 1>muscle function. A Caid and his research team formulated a

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<v Speaker 1>drink that was essentially water with sugar, salt, and potassium.

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<v Speaker 1>The only problem was the drink was disgusting, so Caide's

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<v Speaker 1>wife proposed adding lemon juice to make it a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit more palatable. Later that year, the football team the

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<v Speaker 1>Gators started drinking gatorade during practice games, and not only

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<v Speaker 1>did the weight loss problem improve, but they also saw

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<v Speaker 1>a significant drop in the number of players experiencing heat exhaustion.

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<v Speaker 1>It's hard to say whether it actually improved player's performance

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<v Speaker 1>during these games, but they did go on to achieve

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<v Speaker 1>an eight to two record that season. Part of the

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<v Speaker 1>reason for the players improved was that at the time,

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<v Speaker 1>there is something of a superstition that drinking water during

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<v Speaker 1>exercise would lead to debilitating stomach cramps, so the switch

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<v Speaker 1>from drinking nothing to literally anything water based probably would

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<v Speaker 1>have helped. Gatorade was originally made on campus, packaged in

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<v Speaker 1>individuals serving milk cartons on UF's dairy farm, but by

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<v Speaker 1>the fall of nineteen sixty seven, a company called Stokely

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<v Speaker 1>Van Camp bought the rights to the recipe and the

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<v Speaker 1>name and started expanding tremendously through acquisitions. PepsiCo now owns

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<v Speaker 1>the Gatorade brand, which has expanded to a number of

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<v Speaker 1>drink and snack products and earns Pepsi at least a

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<v Speaker 1>billion dollars in sales every year, and there are lots

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<v Speaker 1>of competitors in the industry, including Power Aid owned by Coke,

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<v Speaker 1>Body Armour, Vitamin Water, Propel, Prime Rain, Ghost, Roar, and

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<v Speaker 1>on and on. Most sports drinks or drink mixes are

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<v Speaker 1>a blend of carbohydrates and electrolytes. The car are generally sugar,

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<v Speaker 1>and the electrolytes are generally a mix of salt and potassium,

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<v Speaker 1>designed to replenish what you lose in sweat during an

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<v Speaker 1>intense workout. Most also have flavors and colors added, which

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<v Speaker 1>is how you end up with varieties like Fierce Green

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<v Speaker 1>and Frost Blue. The sugars in these products can add up.

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<v Speaker 1>Keep in mind that a single serving is usually only

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<v Speaker 1>eight ounces, and most bottles are two to four times

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<v Speaker 1>that size per serving. They contain around fifteen grams of

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<v Speaker 1>carbs equaling about fifty calories, so if you drink a

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<v Speaker 1>whole bottle that can pretty easily add more calories to

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<v Speaker 1>your diet than you'd actually burn during a thirty to

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<v Speaker 1>sixty minute workout session. If you're exercising for less than

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<v Speaker 1>forty five minutes, chances are that you don't need a

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<v Speaker 1>sports drink at all because you're not burning enough calories

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<v Speaker 1>or losing enough electrolytes to require that kind of hardcore

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<v Speaker 1>replacement strategy. You can switch to a sugar free formula,

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<v Speaker 1>but just drinking water should do the trick unless it's

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<v Speaker 1>super hot and you're sweating back. Some distance runners and

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<v Speaker 1>other endurance exercisers just add a pinch of salt to

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<v Speaker 1>their water instead of purchasing sports drinks. However, no matter

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<v Speaker 1>how much marketing plays up the athletic angle, sports drinks

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<v Speaker 1>really can help during certain kinds of illness. If you're

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<v Speaker 1>losing fluids through excessive sweat, diarrhea, or vomiting, the carbs

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<v Speaker 1>and minerals and sports drinks can help your body replace

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<v Speaker 1>its lost hydration, energy, and nutrients. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article who Invented Sports Drinks on HowStuffWorks dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Becky Strip. Brain Stuff is production of by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio and partnership with How Stuffworks. Dot com and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from My

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