Powerade vs gatorade stand out in the market as the most popular sports drinks. Sports drinks are functional beverages defined by these primary ingredients: Carbohydrates and electrolytes, generally with the sole aim of helping athletes replace water, electrolytes, and energy before, during, and after their training, exercise or sports. These drinks are also known as electrolyte water.
We lost electrolytes when we carry out physical activities, especially strenuous ones, and without electrolytes, the body can’t carry out muscular functions, or regulate pH levels and hydration levels also. Some of the common electrolytes the body uses are calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and phosphorus. So when picking sports drinks you must pick one that is rich in these electrolytes.
Powerade and gatorade have got to be rich in these electrolytes, else why do they stand out? Although there have been a lot of comparisons between the two, some people claim that powerade is better than gatorade, and vice versa. What really is the difference between the both of them? This article aims to review the differences between Powerade and Gatorade to see if one is better than the other.
POWERADE VS GATORADE
Both Powerade and Gatorade differ in so many ways, to begin with, powerade is manufactured and marketed by the Coca-Cola company, while Gatorade is owned by Pepsico. Both drinks taste different, contain different ingredients, and have different nutritional values. A common similarity between the two is that they aim to improve athletic performance, no matter your level of fitness and activity.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: IMPORTANT INGREDIENT
Powerade and Gatorade came in a variety of different flavors and are both made with different ingredients. For instance, while Powerade is sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, Gatorade uses dextrose. However, both powergrade and gatorade are made with water, citric acid, and salt as their main ingredients. Also, studies show that high-fructose corn syrup and dextrose are nutritionally similar, therefore, it could be said that Powerade and Gatorade provide similar amounts of carbs and nutrients.
Powerade original ingredients include water, high-fructose corn syrup, salt, potassium citrate, phenylalanine, sucrose acetoisobutyrate, sodium citrate, malic acid, potassium phosphate, sugar, magnesium, calcium chlorides, gum acacia, natural flavors, glycerol esters from wood rosin, colors and vitamins (B2, B3, B6, B12). Whereas, whereas Gatorade is made up of water, sugar, dextrose, citric acid, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, potassium, gum Arabic, glycerol esters, flavor, and color.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: NUTRITIONAL FACTS
In a 946ml bottle of Powerade, you’ll find:
- Calorie: 210
- Carbohydrate, all of which is sugar: 55g
- Sodium: 395mg
- Potassium: 92mg
- Vitamins (B2, B3, B6, B12): 15% of the DV
While in a 581ml of Gatorade, you’ll find:
- Calorie: 140
- Total carbohydrate: 36g
- Carbohydrate of which sugar: 34g
- Sodium: 270mg
- Potassium: 75mg
From the information above, we see that Powerade is rich in micronutrients, that is the vitamins (B2, B3, B6, B12), which are essential to carry out normal functions in the body.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: TASTE
We see that both sports drinks use a different kinds of sweeteners, so it is just right that they taste differently. Although a large-scale taste test has not been done, some people claim that Powerade tastes sweeter than Gatorade. This could be attributed to the high-fructose corn syrup used as a sweetener in Powerade because high-fructose corn syrup tastes sweeter than dextrose which is used in Gatorade. Another factor that could contribute to the sweeter taste of Powerade could be the number of vitamins it contains. However, the difference in Powerade and Gatorade taste may vary from person to person.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: PRICE
When considering the difference between both drinks, the pricing is another factor to look at. Since they are not produced by the same company, it is understandable that they have different pricing. On Walmart.com, you could get 8 packs of Powerade for $11.48, and a single bottle for $0.75, while for Gatorade, 8 packs of the rink could go for $4.98, and a single bottle goes for about $1.68.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: When Sick
Sports drinks like Powerade and Gatorade are mainly used to help athletes improve their physical performance, however, when you are suffering from certain sicknesses your doctor may encourage drinking sports drinks.
When you have diarrhea or vomiting, you tend to lose electrolytes. You don’t only lose electrolytes by sweating. In such cases as diarrhea or vomiting, you’ll need to stay hydrated and you also need to replenish the lost electrolytes.
Often doctors recommend Gatorade to people suffering mild dehydration due to diarrhea or flu because it contains a significant amount of electrolytes: Sodium and Potassium. Also, a new study shows that Gatorade is effective in rehydrating and easing viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu) – a type of diarrhea or vomiting triggered by a virus in children and usually improves by itself within a week.
Gatorade is considered a better option for a sports drink to take when sick, but that is if you’re not considering Powerade Electrolyte Complex “ION4”, one of the verities of Powerade products that contains the major electrolytes found in the body: Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, and Magnesium.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: Flavors
Apparently, Gatorade has more flavors than Powerade.
Here’s a list of some of the different flavors of Powerade and Gatorade:
Powerade
- Powerade citrus passionfruit
- Powerade fruit punch
- Powerade kiwi pineapple
- Powerade lemon
- Powerade lemon lime
- Powerade lemonade
- Powerade mountain berry blast
- Powerade orange
- Powerade punch
- Powerade strawberry lemonade
- Powerade tropical mango
- Powerade twisted blackberry
- Powerade watermelon strawberry wave
- Powerade white cherry
Gatorade
- Cool blue
- Fierce blue cherry
- Fierce fruit punch + berry
- Fierce grape
- Fierce green apple
- Fierce melon
- Fierce strawberry
- Flow Kiwi strawberry
- Frost arctic blitz
- Frost glacier cherry
- Frost glacier freeze
- Frost icy charge
- Fruit punch
- Lemonade
- Lemon-lime
- Lime cucumber
- Orange
- Passion fruit
- Riptide rush
- Strawberry lemonade
- Strawberry watermelon
- Summer fruits
POWERADE VS GATORADE: Effect On Athletic Performance
Just as we had said earlier, a common feature between Powerade and Gatorade is that they are designed to rehydrate the body and replenish lost electrolytes and other nutrients you may lose while exercising.
Various studies note that Powerade and Gatorade help improve performance in prolonged exercises like cycling, and running. Whereas, very little evidence is provided on the benefits of drinking sports drinks for short-duration exercises like sprinting and jumping.
BODYARMOR
Bodyarmor is a subsidiary sports drink of The Coca-Cola Company. It is made with filtered water, pure cane sugar, coconut water concentrate, citric acid, maltodextrin, pure carrot juice concentrate, dipotassium phosphate, green tea catechins, and natural flavors. Like Powerade and Gatorade, Bodyarmor also offers a variety of different flavors and variations for their beverages.
Comparing the ingredients of Powerade, Gatorade, and Bodyarmor, we see that Bodyarmor is a more natural drink as it uses coconut water as its base. It uses natural flavors, is gluten-free, and is also free of preservatives and caffeine.
Bodyarmor also has 300mg potassium and 15mg of sugar which makes it richer in electrolytes, with lower calorie content. Bodyarmor is thicker than Powerade and Gatorade, hence it is recommended to be taken in smaller amounts as it can offer similar results as a larger amount of Powerade or Gatorade would offer.
POWERADE VS GATORADE: SIDE EFFRECTS
Although powerade and gatorade like all sports drinks aim to rehydrate and replenish lost electrolytes, there are side effects, especially when not taken as recommended. According to Healthline, most people who take Powerade or Gatorade are not athletes, and originally, these drinks were made for athletes who engage in extreme sports daily, and whose bodies need both carbohydrates and sodium.
For mildly active individuals, especially those seeking to lose weight, you might want to replace sports drinks with water because they are so packed with calories and if you burn about 100 calories while working out and follow up your workout immediately with a sports drink, there will be little calorie deficit made.
Also, the sodium content of these sports drinks is higher than the daily recommendation. People should not take sodium greater than 1500mg per day and a single bottle of Gatorade could have 270mg of sodium, which is about 11% of the daily maximum amount. While in a bottle of Powerade, you could have 150mg of sodium which would be 6% of the daily maximum amount.
CONCLUSION
There isn’t so much difference between Powerade and Gatorade. They are both rich in sugar, and carbohydrates, even though the source of the carbohydrate differs. However, Powerade is richer in minerals such as vitamins, which gives it a nudge over Gatorade. Gatorade on the other hand has a lot of different flavors of their brand you may want to check out. Overall, these drinks are made for athletes who perform extreme sports, it would be safer if you consider taking just water if you perform mild to moderate sports.