The Beverage Hydration Index of enterade® in Comparison to Gatorade® and Pedialyte®

The Beverage Hydration Index of enterade® in Comparison to Gatorade® and Pedialyte® Thesis by Matthew Tsurumoto, BS ABSTRACT Purpose of the Study: To examine the beverage hydration index (BHI) of enterade®, Gatorade® and Pedialyte® compared to water (control). Procedure: Using a repeated-measures format, 40 euhydrated subjects (17M, 23F; first morning void with urine specific gravity 1.025) were studied in a fasted state. During four separate trials, subjects ingested 1 Liter of each beverage. Urine output was measured immediately and each hour following fluid ingestion for four hours. BHI was calculated as a ratio of cumulative urine production at two hours for the test beverage relative to water. Findings: The calculated BHI of the beverages were as follows: water (1.0 ± 0.0), enterade® (1.15 ± 0.28), Pedialyte® (1.21 ± 0.28), and Gatorade® (1.09 ± 0.26). Importantly, both enterade® and Pedialyte® performed better than water (P0.05). Lastly, our results demonstrated excellent repeatability based upon statistical modeling. Conclusions A carbohydrate-free enterade® and traditional glucose based ORS Pedialyte® are superior to water to optimize hydration, while Gatorade® was not.