The only good thing I can say about this study is all the foods they studied, if you can call them foods, are all devoid of natural nutrition.  I wonder what would have happened if they compared raw milk, either cow or goat's to chocolate milk, Gatorade and Endurox 4.  I think the raw milk would have had the best benefit.

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I've found a great alternative to Gatorade: coconut juice. It's touted as a natural source of electrolytes. Honestly, I don't know how much electrolytes it has, but it is very healthy, and I think absolutely delicious. I was reading a coconut book, and it says there's a phrase: "A coconut juice a day keeps the urologist away." It's great for kidney health.

Coconut milk is the meat of the coconut compressed and squeezed. Coconut water or juice is the actually juice when you open a coconut. If you've ever seen the large white coconuts at the grocery store, those are young coconuts. Absolutely delicious. I'd recommend searching the Internet to find how to open them. Also, you can try just the juice. You can get it at ethnic stores, but I don't recommend that, because most brands are stuffed with sugar and even those that aren't don't taste so good. The two best brands I've found (and I've tried everything at the ethnic stores and health food stores around me) are O.N.E. and Zico. They're both at Whole Foods by me.

Try it if you want electrolytes without the sugar, but with a whole bunch of other health benefits. My mom hates coconut but doesn't mind coconut juice.

Felix raises some interesting points and questions. Clean raw milk is healthier because it contains more nutrients that have not been destroyed/degraded/denatured by the high temperatures of pasteurization, and its fat has not been pulverized into miniscule globules by homogenization. But what of pasteurized milk? Do the denatured parts of it pose a health threat, or does the body just get rid of them as it does other wastes?

Also, it's a valid argument that not everyone can access raw dairy products. I had to really work at it. You have to either live relatively close to the farm, or have a lot of disposable income and time, place a high value on raw dairy, and have a high degree of trust in where your product is coming from. Also the infrastructure is just not there if everyone woke up tomorrow and demanded raw dairy.

The same goes for organic foods and grass-fed beef. The infrastructure is not in place to provide it for the whole world, everyone does not live within 15 minutes of sources of these items, so only those who see the value, can afford the premium, and have the means to seek them out can fully enjoy them.

As to the article's argument, chocolate milk vs. processed sports drinks, I think neither is a good choice. Chocolate milk is too sweet, contains too many things that your body doesn't need (especially while exercising), and I think it could cause gastric distress if consumed while on a run. The processed drinks also contain too many things that you don't need (food colouring, preservatives, etc.).

So what would make a good sports drink? Well I think less is more. If you are sweating, you will obviously need water to re-hydrate. If you are sweating a lot, you will likely want to replace electrolytes. And if you are exercising long enough, you will likely need/want to refuel, and the fastest, cleanest burning fuels for the body are simple carbohydrates. So that could be a home-made concoction of water, a simple carb (glucose for example), some salt, and you might take a banana, (unless someone can tell me how to get potassium into a bottle). Just don't stuff it in your shorts if you're a runner (and male).