I guess I need to clarify on the Gatorade thing. (Getting Away From the Gatorade, April 28th.) Will drinks Gatorade -- and Chip does too, (on occasion). I sometimes drink something similar on long rides. Still, I'm concerned with the ingredients in what is supposed to be a (healthy) sports drink. (Brominated vegetable oil, red dye, blue dye, etc... ) My teenagers are not endurance athletes. Playing lacrosse or rugby or football for an hour does not work up enough sweat or loss of electrolytes to make a drink like Gatorade necessary. Water and a banana would suffice. But since they want a brightly colored sports drink in their hands on the sidelines, herbal tea and fruit juice will do just fine. (I'm sure they're guzzling down shocking blue gatorade when I'm not looking anyway.)It's not just Gatorade I'm wary of -- it's the other "health" drinks too. Will grabbed a drink called "Sparkling Ice" from the cooler at the Y last month that claimed to be "Natural sparkling mountain water and fruit juice". I asked him to read the label to me -- and of course he rolled his eyes before reading, "...sparkling water, fruit juice, potassium benzoate, citric acid, yellow dye #6, yellow dye #5..." (Terrific. Benzoate and citric acid = benzene. Way to be carcinogenic.)
I asked out loud, "And why would they put food dye in water? Isn't the natural color of the fruit juice enough?!" Will just took a swig of the drink and winked at me and said, "So I can taste the rainbow."
