More Gatorade talk

I love comments, and yesterday's post on the response from Gatorade generated some interesting ones. I wanted to pull out one that I particularly liked from yesterday in case you didn't get to read it. Let me set the stage for you first...

I wrote the Gatorade post in large part because Lori at Fake Food Free wrote a post recently about the book First in Thirst - How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon. It jogged my memory about my interaction with Gatorade, and I decided it was time to write about it. Lori is a "realistic nutritionist with degrees in nutritional and exercise science." (She's also an ex-pat currently living in Brazil. You can read about her experiences in Brazil in her blog Blondie in Brazil.)

Here's her comment:

Where to start? Where to start? This might be long. :)

Okay, first let me be positive. I'm glad to hear they took the time to contact you. I'm glad to hear about their new web-site design.

Now some questions/comments in regards to a very beat-around-the-bush response you received. (Not that I'm surprise.)

When it comes to HFCS I don't think most of us are concerned about "total calorie intake and satiety". I’m sure much of the research being done is funded by some part of a corn growers association or a corporate co that uses HFCS anyway. I care about the fact that it is a highly processed food and about as far from natural as you can get.

When did you ever say your mission to eliminate HFCS had the purpose of reducing obesity? I'm going to come right out and say her comment "I wish it were as simple as..." incredibly condescending. Every health professional and advocate knows it is due to more than one factor and one of those factors is HFCS. Eliminating that is darn good place to start!

I'm glad they acknowledge the price thing on the web-site. They need to admit that using HFCS was basically a sellout move to save them money, not to help any exerciser out there. Not to mention their contribution to the corn surplus problem. Boo, boo, boo!

Man, the book I read actually made me start to like Gatorade as a company, but the HFCS move showed me that they aren't staying true to their original intent. Andrea at Off Her Cork said that the generic Meijer Brand of sport drink liquid doesn't have HFCS in it. I'm going to check that out when we get back to the States. We'll drink some of the powdered in moderation, but I'm still not as fond of them as I once was. Thanks for posting this!

Thanks for your comment, Lori. You make lots of great points!