Statistical Deceptions in Gatorade

Hey guys! This is Patrick and Katrina. This is our first blog ever. This will serve as our Statistics project about Statistical Deception.

We chose to be sports coaches and find the statistical deceptions in the product Gatorade. Just a little history about Gatorade: Gatorade was created in the 1960s by the researchers of the University of Florida to help the Gators football team prevent dehydration when they played in the swamp-like heat. So, we guess that's where the name came from. After winning a championship, Gatorade became an essential equipment in sports. Gatorade has proven that it is a better hydrant than water. Since then, no other sports drink company has matched its expertise. After reading this article we found, we had a totally different perspective about Gatorade. Go to this link to read the full article: http://doesitreallywork.org/gatorade

According to the said article,“Gatorade replaces the electrolytes that your body loses when you exercise, allowing you to last longer on the playing field, or on the court.” This is what Gatorade claims, but this is not well understood by its mainstream consumers. In comparison to its history in the 1960s, they claimed that it was a better hydrant than water. Most ads state that it a thirst quencher even though its real purpose is to replace the electrolytes. Almost every ad we have seen, emphasizes the 'quenching of thirst' though it contains a high amount of Sodium. Water has no Sodium. Meaning, water has a bigger chance of hydrating you than water. Gatorade also claims that it is a healthy drink with vitamins, but after this video we found, it showed that Gatorade is very acidic and too much acidity consumption is unhealthy. Video: http://alkalinewaterplus.info/blog/2010/06/10/gatorade-not-healthy/ . So, the consumers are gullible to believe it right away without investigating whether or not it is reliable. This is one way of statistically deceiving consumers to purchase their product. It is called playing with words. They use numbers and scientific words to make consumers automatically believe that it is true like, "Oh, this ad sounds so smart that it's true." So yeah, that's how we practically see it.

Gatorade also uses intense advertising to further promote and convince people to buy it. The most common form of doing this is by including product placement and celebrity endorsements, so that many more would purchase it. This type of advertisement can cause people to think that these professional athletes' performance is solely supplied by Gatorade, but the truth is that these athletes consume a lot of high quality foods and train intensely with their coaches and trainers to achieve their athletic status. It's a total hype. People seeing their idol drinking this sports drink will definitely persuade them to buy it. In most Gatorade commercials we've seen, the athlete states that Gatorade has helped them play better. Although, it's their training that made them better and Gatorade that made them play longer.

Back in the 60s, food products were mainly composed of real ingredients. Presently, many scientists have developed artificial solutions to financially save them money. In our mathematical study, we have discovered in a Gatorade Company Fact Sheet, that Gatorade uses artificial ingredients unlike before. According to Gatorade's nutrition facts, it contains 110mg of Sodium (5%), 30mg of Potassium (1%), 14g of Carbohydrates, which contains 14g of Sugars (5%). The Nutrition Facts (right) are applicable to the 20 oz bottle of Gatorade, which contains 2.5 servings. Meaning, if you consume a whole bottle of this, you will receive more than double the amount stated. As well as, double the sodium which makes you even thirstier. Consumers usually don't check the label before grabbing it off the rack. 

For the ingredients (left), the first ingredient is water. So, the drink that claims that it is a better hydrant than water, contains water, but almost all drinks contain water anyway. And as expected, sugar is the second most used ingredient. No wonder it gives you more energy. Just by reading a product's ingredients, you can verify if their claim is proven or not. With the help of Statistics, we can determine whether or not it is Statistically correct.

The image above is one of the most popular advertisements. It emphasizes the availability of Carbohydrates, Protein and Electrolytes. This is an example of Distorted Images in Statistical deceptions. It is inaccurate because of the fact that there are arrows randomly pointing at parts of the bottle and stating that these factors are contained in it. The purpose of Gatorade is to replace lost electrolytes in the body. The drink itself has the solution to replace the electrolytes, not the electrolytes itself. It is fooling consumers with this ad. This is another Statistical Deception found in Gatorade.

In conclusion, Gatorade is a very effective product mainly to athletes. It's just that Gatorade misleads its consumers that it is a better hydrant than water. The replacement of electrolytes done by Gatorade makes you play longer making you feel that you're not dehydrated at all. To get the best results, we recommend that you balance the consumption of Gatorade to keep you hydrated and energized. In our opinion, we think that you should prioritize the drinking of water rather than Gatorade because it contains sodium, so drinking more of it will make you even more dehydrated.

We hope that you guys found this useful. This is no way to offend Gatorade and we are not against Gatorade. We are merely stating our findings, observations and opinions. We are open to all your suggestions and comments in the comment box below. Thank you for reading our blog!