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By: Chad Thurwell on Thu Mar 20, 2008

In 1958, Dr. Martin Broussard, an athletic trainer at the Louisiana State University created Bengal Punch, the world’s first sports drink, for the university’s football team, The LSU Tigers, or Bayou Bengals.

In 1965, Robert Cade, Harry James Free & Dana Shires of the University of Florida created a re-hydrating sports drink for the University of Florida’s football team, named “Gator-ade” after Gator Dan, the team’s mascot, and the team would officially adopt the drink in 1967, winning the Orange Bowl title that year.

Since that time, the University of Florida has received $150 million in royalties from the company they licensed the product’s manufacture to, and other sports drinks have been introduced to a market that’s incredibly popular, and shows no sign of dissipating.

The ingredients central to sports drinks that help to enhance performance by athletes are minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, and electrolytes. So, you’ve been sucking them back and dousing your coach with them for years, but what exactly do they do?

Replenish Electrolytes
Your body’s fluids naturally contain electrolytes, salts that are depleted when an athlete exerts him or herself, and lost through the sweat. If the electrolytes are lost too quickly, the body is unable to replenish them, which can lead to dehydration, a state which can rapidly become very serious, especially in sports involving a high degree of energy exertion where an athlete can become dehydrated in as little as 30 minutes. Electrolytes also assist in the absorption of fluids into the bloodstream. This is why it’s smart to drink in a sports drink in advance of physical activity, to prevent rapid dehydration.

Replenish Energy
Fatigue can occur very rapidly with any activity, as exertion increases the body’s metabolism, which causes carbohydrates to break down quickly. Carbohydrates are one of the body’s prime energy sources, and a sports drink’s ability to rapidly replace carbohydrates allows to the body to continue work with a high level of efficiency and maintain energy.

Replace Lost Minerals & Vitamins
The body requires minerals and vitamins that can only be obtained in very specific foods, beverages or supplements. Sports drinks fortified in these minerals and vitamins help the body replenish these minerals and vitamins and keep the body working efficiently.

Balanced Ingredients
Before Gatorade and others, many athletes made their own sports drinks, and in fact, some continue to do so. However, the commercially available sports drink with a proper balance of ingredients is much more effective, and if the mixture is even slightly off-balance, the drink could actually hinder and not enhance performance, by causing an upset stomach or the body to improperly absorb the drink.

Sports Drinks Don’t Run Through As Quickly As Water
Water quenches thirst, but fails to replenish the lost minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and electrolytes that sports drinks do. Sweating isn’t the only way to lose these – an athlete can also lose them through urination, and as water causes more frequent urination than sports drinks, sports drinks are the obvious bet. Not only do sports drinks replenish missing minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and electrolytes, they also allow the body to maintain them in the body for a lengthier period of time.

And the main ingredient, the hydrating ingredient, in a sports drink is, naturally, water, which hydrates the body. Additional ingredients in sports drinks make them a superior choice to water alone for athletes.