Scientific studies have shown that milk hydrates the body better than your traditional sports drink and water. That’s one of the reasons the Chicago-based company, GoodSport Nutrition, recently launched the first dairy-based sports drink called GoodSport. The drink is 97% dairy and aims to compete with drinks like Gatorade and Powerade. GoodSport says that it’s lactose-free, has three times the electrolytes, and 33% less sugar than most sports drinks.
The company’s Founder and CEO Michelle McBride came up with the idea for the drink after she was sick of the sports drink options that were out there. “I didn’t want my son drinking sports drinks filled with artificial ingredients that were being offered to him at his baseball games,” she said. “I gave him chocolate milk as a healthier alternative after his workouts and it provided the inspiration to look at milk as a source of hydration during physical activity.”
McBride didn’t come up with the product all on her own, she had some help from sports nutrition and dairy experts. For example, Dr. Bob Murray is the co-founder and former Director of the Gatorade Sports Science Insititute and he helped oversee the formulation of GoodSport. “Having spent my career in hydration and exercise performance research, I’ve known milk has the ingredients to provide superior hydration but never before has anyone found a way to transform milk into an extremely effective and refreshing sports drink,” Murray said. “It’s exciting to be part of the team that’s bringing something entirely new with superior hydration to the sports drink category.”
Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) helped her with category insights and gave her contacts to accelerate the product moving to market. The company’s Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Greg Miller is also from the National Dairy Council and McBride took part in a 90-day training program called the Dairy Farmers of America Co-Lab Accelerator for startups.
Furthermore, McBride worked with the Center for Dairy Research at UW-Madison. While she was there, Kimberlee (K.J.) Burrington who’s the dairy ingredient, cultured products, and beverages coordinator showed the company’s team how ultrafiltration could tackle milk’s electrolytes, vitamins, carbohydrates, and remove its protein to create a drink that looks similar to other sports drinks. “This is giving people a new way to talk about milk and that’s exciting for dairy farmers,” Pennsylvania dairy farmer Marilyn Hershey, who serves as chair of DMI said.
So far the company sells the beverage in four different flavors (lemon-lime, fruit punch, wild berry, and citrus) on their website as well as on Amazon this month and they’ll run you about $2.75 per bottle. The plan is to distribute the product to retail stores later this year.
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