The first sports drinks in this country, specifically
Gatorade, was actually developed by scientists
to help rehydrate athletes when they were
out there doing their thing on the field and
it worked.
It did a phenomenal job of replenishing the
body's electrolytes, gave them hydration and
ever since then, which I believe that might've
been back in the sixties energy drinks have
become common, not just for athletes but for
everyday people wanting to get that little
jolt of electrolytes or stay hydrated in a
world of coffee and caffeine.
And just as these drinks have expanded into
our daily lives, so to have the number of
people making these drinks, and of course
they're not quite using the same science that
those scientists did back when they developed
things like Gatorade.
Joining me now to talk about what's actually
happening is Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions,
and Scott, I don't even think Gatorade today,
just for clarification, it's not even what
it used to be.
But we've got a class action lawsuit now about
a particular energy drink that the plaintiff's
say is essentially a soda because it's nothing
but sugar.
Tell us about this one.
That's right.
I mean, Gatorade has tried to stay in front
of it.
They've rolled out G2 which has a much reduced
caloric intake, much reduced sugars.
They've got Propel, which also reduces the
calories.
And so then you have BodyArmor SuperDrink
and the BodyArmor drinks have come out really
in a grand fashion in the last couple of years,
doing a lot of advertising, pushing these
things out here, trying to make you think
that these are healthy drinks to give your
kids.
They're healthy drinks, they're using athletes
to go out there and, you know, you do your
workout, take your BodyArmor SuperDrink.
But unfortunately it appears that according
to this class action, these really should
be judged as soft drinks, just like soda because
there is so much sugar in it.
It is not a health drink as implied by the
products advertising.
In fact, you know, the BodyArmor actually
says these are more natural, better, more,
better, more natural, better, much better,
more natural, better.
But it's not, it's soft drinks.
It's, it's essentially soda and it's not good
to have that much sugar in your drink when
you're trying to recover, when you're trying
to keep your kids healthy and, you know, we,
we've seen that many times over.
So we'll have to see if BodyArmor actually
does change their marketing claims of more
natural, better because it should be more
sugar, not better, at least a quarter of this
class action.
Well, and the problem with these is obviously
people think if you're drinking an energy
drink, you're getting something that's better
for your body.
And they do have a tendency to say, well,
let me have two or three of these.
I just did a big workout.
Or, you know, my, my kids had the, had a cold,
they need more hydration.
Let me give them a couple of these.
That is also very common.
And then what you're doing is you're overloading
your body or, or their little bodies with
sugar and that can obviously be very dangerous
and that's part of the, one of the claims
in this lawsuit is not just, hey, you're giving
us too much sugar.
It's that, hey, you're giving us an amount
of sugar that if we have a couple of these
per day, this could be very dangerous for
us and you're not letting us know that this
is what you're doing.
And we honestly, we see that with a lot of
energy drinks now.
The sugar content in these energy drinks has
increased dramatically over the years, and
it's part of the claim, well it's full of
electrolytes.
Carbohydrates are an electrolyte and an easy
source and cheap source by the way of carbohydrates
is pure sugar.
So, you know, they're, they're sticking true
to their claims of electrolytes, but we're
getting it from worse sources and I think
that's part of the problem that we're seeing
here with this.
Exactly, you know, we're, we're trying to
keep our kids healthy.
We're trying to be healthier overall and so
we don't want to ingest all that sugar, even
if they're trying to give it to us through
cane sugar or other ways, but we know that
the sugar content can be harmful.
And, you know, this class action simply states
that, you know, the consumers wouldn't have
purchased this drink if they knew that it
could be harmful, if it actually wasn't so
good for their body.
And it's trying to make change those claims
around to make BodyArmor pull all of these
claims that it's healthy and good for nutrition
in order to attract all of those extra buyers.
Yeah, they, they took away our freedom of
choice here.
You know, if they had been honest with us
and if people wanted, wanted the sugar, they
could have said, well, I don't care.
I like the flavor.
I'm going to keep doing this.
But everybody else who said, well, actually
I was drinking this for the hydration and
the health benefits, so let me make a healthier
choice when I'm going to pick up one of these
drinks.
For more information about this issue, follow
the link in the description of this video
and head on over to Top Class Actions and
if you haven't already done so, I encourage
everyone to subscribe to their weekly newsletter.
Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions, always
a pleasure talking to you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks for your time, Farron.
