In 1965, University of Florida researchers led by Dr. Robert Cade had a problem. Gators football players were wilting in the Florida heat, losing pounds of fluid and salt every game. Water alone wasn’t putting it back.

So they did what scientists do. They measured what the players lost and mixed it back: water, sodium, potassium, phosphate, sugar, and lemon juice so somebody would actually drink it. Watch it fill.

It worked well enough that the Gators credited it with their 1967 Orange Bowl win. Then the business started. Swipe through what happened to the bottle after the lab.

If you grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, you remember it. Gatorade showers on the sideline, “Be Like Mike,” a commercial every break. A whole generation learned that the colored bottle is what athletes drink.

Today the brand leans on science: a sports science institute, zero-sugar versions, new formulas. Some of that work is real. But the classic bottle on the shelf is still mostly sugar water with salt and dye, and it’s going to kids who sat in a dugout for most of the game, and to parents who think it’s the healthy choice.

Meanwhile, more serious athletes are quietly moving to cleaner electrolytes: real sodium, potassium, and magnesium, without the sugar and the dye.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says sports drinks are rarely needed for kids, and energy drinks never are. “Rarely” isn’t “never,” though. What decides it is how long they move, how hard, and how hot it is. Here are five days I see all the time. Swipe through them.

Now your kid. The same three questions, in the same order I ask them when I build a plan for an athlete.

For parents and coaches

The sideline playbook.

From someone who builds hydration plans for teen athletes working toward D1.