Gatorade Destroys Your Teeth Faster than Coke

Time for your unscheduled dose of random curiosity…this made me laugh. It seems that Gatorade is worse then coke…

It has been written in many sports blogs this week; that Florida stole the idea of Gatorade from FSU. Around 1962, The team doctor for the FSU football team, Dr. R.A. Johnson, began producing a sports drink that he called “Seminole Firewater” as early as 1962. Dr. Johnson blended sugar and lime flavoring with electrolytes (salts) to help keep the players hydrated and to prevent cramping. Who ever invented Gatorade is still left out in the open. Is gatorade even good for you?

Gatorade Bad For You?

The University of Iowa researchers covered extracted teeth with nail polish. They left bare two patches on each tooth, one on the enamel and one on the root. Then they dunked the teeth in test tubes filled with regular Coke, Diet Coke, Gatorade, Red Bull, or 100% apple juice.

Every five hours, the researchers refreshed the beverages. After 25 hours, they examined the teeth with a microscope. All of the beverages eroded the bare spots on the teeth. But different beverages had significantly different effects.

On the enamel, Gatorade was significantly more corrosive than Red Bull and Coke. Red Bull and Coke, in turn, were significantly more corrosive than Diet Coke and apple juice.

-Courtesy of Web MD

On the roots of the teeth, Gatorade was more corrosive than Red Bull. Coke, apple juice, and Diet Coke followed in that order.

The difference in the effect isn’t simply due to their sugar content. Gatorade is 6% carbohydrates, mostly sugars. Coke is about 10% sugar. Both are acidic beverages.

University of Michigan pediatric dental researcher Michael Ignelzi, DDS, PhD, has recently reviewed new research on the effects of beverages on children’s teeth. But he says there’s no evidence showing that sports drinks are any worse than other soft drinks.

Source

There is a growing concern in the medical and scientific communities about the harmful effects associated with carbonated soft drinks. Soft drinks have been around for over a hundred years, but many of their deleterious heath effects have not been studied or known.

The National Soft Drink Association says that the average American consumes over six hundred twelve-ounce servings per year. Children consume many more carbonated beverages than adults. The average young male between the ages of twelve and twenty-nine consumes over 160 gallons of soft drinks a year. Studies show that males of this age group are the largest consumers of soft drinks. Many of these males receive over ten percent of their total daily calories from soft drinks. One of the reasons for the emergence of so many soft drink related problems is the sheer number of carbonated beverages that are consumed.

Fifty years ago the average serving size for a soft drink was a six-ounce bottle. Today, soft drinks are sold in twenty ounce bottles and are consumed in much larger amounts courtesy of the large size of soda fountain drinks available at most stores and restaurants. This increase in consumption of soft drink is not a surprise because soft drink manufacturers have spent billions of dollars in advertising to attract more consumers and to increase consumption of their products. Scientific studies have shown how as few as one or two soft drinks a day can increase one’s risk for numerous health problems. Some of these health problems are obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, osteoporosis, nutritional deficiencies, heart disease, and many neurological disorders.