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Food

Gatorade Wants to Make “Night Yogurt” the New Bedtime Snack of Champions

How many times have you found yourself listlessly tossing and turning at night, all the while lamenting the fact that there is simply no yogurt on the market that is specifically engineered for athletes to eat at night?
Photo via Flickr user JeepersMedia

If you had to guess, how many times have you found yourself listlessly tossing and turning at night, all the while lamenting the fact that there is simply no yogurt on the market that is specifically engineered for athletes to eat at night? If you just so happen to be the twisted sort of person who answered anything higher than zero, the answer to your nocturnal prayers may have just been answered and you have Gatorade to thank for it

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Although sports drinks currently constitute 95 percent of Gatorade's sales, the company has big plans in its so-called "innovation pipeline." Gatorade is convinced that its new smart hydration water bottle and a 2.5-ounce nitrate shot will help boost sales and their reputation as a brand for competitors. But what may be Gatorade's strangest stake in the future of performance foods is this: night yogurt. According to the company, it's the answer to the vexing problem of overnight muscle repair.

A few studies have found that casein, a protein found in Greek yogurt among other foods, is great for rebuilding muscle during sleep. Gatorade is hoping to make night yogurt a thing and is testing it in their labs in anticipation of a rollout of the Gatorade-branded stuff within the next two years. They hope night yogurt will be the late-night snack of choice for athletes.

Xavi Cortadellas, Gatorade's senior director of global innovation and design says, "What will make you a better athlete is not just what you drink on the field. We want to help athletes better fuel themselves, to have better health and nutrition. The more regimented they are on what they are eating and what they are drinking, the better athletes they'll be."

The move seems to indicate that Gatorade is attempting to cement itself as a health-conscious brand. Although some claim that the sports drink has too much sugar and sodium and too many calories to be called truly healthy, Gatorade insists that the stuff was "born in a lab" and that it can literally help athletes win. In fact, the company runs the "Gatorade Sports Science Institute," which is dedicated to "helping athletes optimize their health and performance through research and education in hydration and nutrition science."

A serving of a typical Greek yogurt contains between 15 and 20 grams of proteinlargely casein—and should, according to the studies, act as a building block for lean-muscle growth while you sleep. The only problem is that plenty of Greek yogurts on the market are packed to the brim with sugar.

Will Gatorade's new night yogurt avoid this problem? Who knows? Their sports drinks generally contain less sugar than soda does, but that's not to say they don't contain lots of sugar. And then there are the studies that say that eating before bed can cause insomnia, heartburn, and weight gain.

What is an athlete to do?