Why Pickle Juice Could Legitimately Replace Gatorade for Athletes

Here's the thing about Pickle Juice -- it doesn't actually contain any real pickles.

We aren't talking about pickle juice, we're talking about Pickle Juice™, an electrolyte-loaded sports drink vying to knock brands like Gatorade and Powerade off the ath-liquid pedestal they've held for decades.

Oh -- and it's called Pickle Juice because "... it's a familiar flavor, a lot of people have heard anecdotal stories pertaining to pickle brine. It's a clean ingredient statement, it's a very functional product that doesn't buy into any hype," according to VP of global sales and marketing Filip Keuppens. I hope that makes sense to someone. 

While the name is semi-misleading, the vinegar-esque drink holds 10 times the amount of electrolytes found in competing sports drinks, and supposedly soothes muscle cramps more quickly than anything else on the market. 

According to a study on Pickle Juice's own website (which is admittedly pretty biased): "Those who downed the brine stopped complaining of cramping within 85 seconds -- about 37 percent faster than the water drinkers and 45 percent faster than when they didn't drink anything at all."

The science might not be totally bunk, as various other studies have shown the effectiveness of pickle juice (note, they mean actual pickle juice here) in athletic recovery. 

So, if you can tolerate being kind of lied to -- and the taste of pseudo-pickle juice -- you might want to swap your 'ade of choice for the briny stuff in a 5-hour ENERGY bottle. 

Or don't. Just don't complain to me when you blow the lead in the state championship and regret it for the rest of your life. 

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