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THE ANSWER IS NOT IN THE INDUSTRY
The only way to cast your vote against a profit driven industry is to outsmart them. The industry is founded on the premise of profit and not providing the athlete (or consumer) with the best possible solution to his problem, in this case replenishing an exercise induced defecit. Why is Gatorade so popular? The answer is marketing. Most of what we think we know is not from reading valid academic sources such as peer reviewed journals or conducting experiments in our own laboratories. It simply comes from marketing, word of mouth, or old wives tales. The industry takes part of the truth, exploits it in the form of marketing, and vuala! One, then another, and another ad infinitum until the present cornucopia of worthless sports drinks exist. I find it amazing that the best sports drink comes with no processing, marketing, or lab intesive research. Rather, it comes straight from nature in the form of coconut water. The industry has gotten wind of this and, since it can so easily be marketed as a sports or health drink, beefed up the price in order to increase its profit margin (basic supply and demand). Since I'm smarter than them I decided to look outside the industry for the same product that wasn't marketed as a sports drink and sure enough found it at almost half the price. The Goya brand is marketed as coconut water whereas ZICO is twice the price because they've used a fitness model in a yoga pose on their website. This is a true indicator of exclusivity. O.N.E. and Vita Coco are also more expensive because of the trendy packaging and target audience marketing. When looking for something specific the industry is probably the last place you want to look. Don't be fooled by someone trying to fool you.