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Did Gatorade Change Their Formula? [Sugar & Caffeine Content]

Did Gatorade Change Their Formula

I drink Gatorade every so often and had seen some people on Reddit going on about their recipe formula changing and was really curious.

I’m not sure I noticed the change myself but did do some further research as people were referencing an Artificial Flavor, and id like to share my findings with you.

It’s rather interesting.

So, did Gatorade change its formula? Gatorade has changed its formula over the years.

One ingredient they used to add was Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) but stopped using it in 2013, as shown in this article.

The University of Florida also says that the original formula contained only sugar, salt, water, potassium, and lemon juice.

It had a more natural flavor or original flavor.

And the formula at the moment contains many other ingredients.

Gatorade also has a range of new flavors, some of which are low sugar or zero sugar.

As you may be aware too much sugar leads to health issues.

Below I’ll explain what Gatorade flavors have the least sugar, and other interesting facts about Gatorade such as which flavor is the best, and whether drinking too much of it is bad. Gatorade is used by many official sports drink beverage companies.

Which Gatorade has less sugar?

Which Gatorade has less sugar

Gatorade G Zero has zero sugar and comes in 6 flavors: Glacier cherry, Glacier freeze, grape, lemon-lime, berry, and orange.

And they also make a low-sugar Gatorade called G2.

According to data provided by the US Department of Agriculture, G2 has 1.3g of sugar per 3.4 oz bottle (100 mL).

The recommended daily sugar intake according to the Harvard School of Public Health is 24g, as explained in this article.

One cup of Gatorade G2 contains 3.25g of sugar which is equal to 14% of your recommended daily intake of sugar.

Standard Gatorade contains quite a bit more Form Of Sugars than Gatorade G2.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of standard Gatorade and Gatorade G2, so you can see the difference.

Nutrient per 3.4 oz (100 mL) Gatorade Gatorade G2
Calories (kcal) 26 8
Sugars (g) 5.24 1.3
Carbohydrate (g) 6.4 1.94
Iron (mg) 0.05 0
Potassium (mg) 10 13
Phosphorous (mg) 15 7
Sodium (mg) 39 45

This Data is provided by the USDA and is linked here

As you can see from the data Gatorade G2 has 20% of the sugar in sugary drinks that standard Gatorade has and around 70% fewer calories.

It has 25% grams of carbohydrates and half the phosphorus. All other nutrients are around the same.

An 8 oz bottle of the original Gatorade( used in energy drinks) contains only 37 milligrams of potassium.

This quantity of potassium chloride is quite small as per the standards set by the National Kidney Foundation.

The amount of sugar that Gatorade G2 has is small, compared to the recommended daily intake of sugar. doesn’t affect your health condition. It will also contribute less in Weight Gain.

But, you should be careful not to drink too much standard Gatorade – more on this below.

What was the original Gatorade color?

What was the original Gatorade color

The original Gatorade was colorless.

According to this article by the University of Florida, the original Gatorade formula contained white color sugar, salt, water, and potassium.

But, soon lemon juice was added to improve the taste, which would have given it a white color or very light yellow color.

The original Gatorade was invented by Robert Cade who was a qualified physician and kidney specialist.

The first batch he made was tried by his fellow scientists but they found that it tasted bad, and they couldn’t drink it.

Cade’s wife suggested adding lemon juice to improve the taste.

And it turned out to taste good enough that people could drink it. however, Gatorade may decrease the effects of exercise.

Interestingly, it was invented for the Florida Gators football team, when it was found that they were having a hard time training in the Florida summer because it was too hot.

What Was The Original Gatorade Flavor?

Gatorade tastes weird 2022

Gatorade’s first two flavors, Lemon-Lime and Orange, debuted in 1965.

Gatorade began with a single product category, Gatorade Thirst Quencher.

It was available in liquid and powder form in two flavor variants: Lemon Lime and Orange.

For nearly 20 years, these were the only two taste options, until the arrival of the fruit punch flavor in 1983.

What flavor is Gatorade Frost?

What flavor is Gatorade Frost

Gatorade Frost has 5 flavors – glacier cherry, icy charge, glacier freeze, arctic blitz, and tropical mango.

The Gatorade frost non-descriptive flavors taste as follows: 

  • Icy charge – Pineapple, and lime
  • Glacier freeze – Citrus/orange, strawberry, cranberry, strawberry watermelon, blue cherries, and berries
  • Arctic blitz – Honeydew melon, and watermelon. 

The Gatorade frost flavors with descriptive names – cherry and tropical mango – taste like the fruit that they’re named after.

Funnily enough, icy charge, glacier freeze, and arctic blitz are all very light blue to turquoise in color, so their flavors are unexpected.

Glacier cherry is also very light purple when you would expect it to be dark red.

Gatorade already has a red-colored flavor (artificial food color) which is reserved for fruit punch.

And Gatorade Frost tropical mango is the only flavor that looks like the color of the fruit that it tastes like and is orange. You can choose any of your favorite flavors from these amazing options. However, they used artificial colors.

Which Gatorade is the best?

Which Gatorade is the best

Delish.com rates the red Gatorade – fruit punch as the best Gatorade flavor, however, Thrillist.com and Esquire.com rate lemon lime as the best flavor.

Across all the flavors fruit punch, and lemon-lime were each rated the highest according to all 3 websites.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of how they ranked all Gatorade flavors:

Ranking Delish.com Thrillist.com Esquire.com
1 Fruit punch Lemon lime Lemon lime
2 Lime cucumber Cool blue, Glacier freeze, and Riptide rush Orange
3 Orange Citrus Cooler
4 Glacier freeze Fruit punch
5 Cool blue Orange Tangerine
6 Blackberry wave Fruit punch Cool blue
7 Raspberry Lemonade Tidal punch Mango Extremo
8 Lemon lime Citrus cooler Lemonade
9 Green apple Tropical cooler Rain berry
10 Icy charge Melon Glacier freeze

Orange also featured quite high according to all three opinions. Blue Cherry and Cool Blue were also popular among new flavors.

However, all the other flavors showed a bit of a mish-mash of different flavors that they thought were the best.

Why is Gatorade not good for you?

Why is Gatorade not good for you

Compared to Fructose Corn Syrup Gatorade is not bad for you among sports drinks.

But, if you drink too much of the standard Gatorade you will drink more than your recommended daily intake of sugar which is 24g, according to Harvard Medical School.

Two cups of standard Gatorade contain 24g of sugar.

Harvard Medical School states that if you drink more than your recommended daily intake it increases the risk of developing health issues such as diabetes, and cancer.

Other foods also contain sugar, so it can be worthwhile to look at how much sugar content is in each of the foods you eat before drinking standard Gatorade.

To give you an idea 1 teaspoon of sugar contains 4 grams of sugar. 

But, you can pretty much drink as much Gatorade G2 as you want because it will take around 10 cups of it to reach your recommended daily sugar intake. Although drinking plain water is the best option.

However, it’s a good idea to balance it out by drinking other liquids such as juice and water so that you’re not getting too much of any of the ingredients used to make Gatorade G2.

G Zero contains no sugar at all, so you can technically drink an official sports drink as much of it as you want.

But, it does contain artificial sweeteners.

What sweetener is in Gatorade Zero?

What sweetener is in Gatorade Zero

Gatorade Zero is sweetened with sucralose (Splenda), and Acesulfame potassium as per the Gatorade ingredients list.

Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

And Acesulfame potassium is 200 times sweeter than sugar, in the opinion of Healthline.com.

Both are certified safe by the FDA.

There have been some studies that have linked both of these sweeteners to potential health issues.

And some doctors have asked for more studies to be done.

At this stage, however, both are considered safe by the FDA. In my opinion, it’s a good idea not to drink too much Gatorade Zero to lessen the risk of any health issues.

And to balance out your diet with other liquids much like other foods after intense exercise as shown in the latest studies for example this one, done in 2020.

In Conclusion

Gatorade has changed its formula over the years, and the original recipe has changed to include a few different ingredients.

The original Gatorade recipe consisted of sugar, salt, water, potassium, and lemon juice.

Now, it contains a range of different chemicals like citric acid and sodium citrate.

There are also low sugar flavors of Gatorade such as Gatorade G2, and Gatorade Zero. Gatorade Zero contains the least amount of sugar content and has zero sugar.

It instead contains the artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda) and Acesulfame potassium in ingredient lists.

And lemon lime, fruit punch, and orange were rated as the best-tasting flavors.

are you going to grab a Gatorade?