Gatorade and Its Ingredients

                                      The Chemical Structure of Monopotassium Phosphate Monopotassium phosphate is a compound commonly used as a food additive in sports drinks such as gatorade and powerade. Its chemical formula is KH2PO4 and it is made of potassium, hydrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen. The chemical name of monopotassium phosphate is potassium dihydrogen phosphate. It's created through a reaction including phosphoric acid and potassium carbonate. It's a white solid at room temperature, is soluble in water, and converts to dipotassium phosphate when reacting with one mole of potassium hydroxide. In high amounts, monopotassium phosphate can cause nausea, joint pain, increased thirst, and headaches among other symptoms.

                                                           Structure of Sodium Citrate Sodium citrate is the sodium salt of citric acid, and acts as an umbrella term for the three different types of citric acid derived from sodium salt, being monosodium citrate, disodium citrate, and trisodium citrate, which are the chemical names for these specific salts. It's commonly used in food products for numerous purposes, such as flavoring, preserving, regulating acidity, and acting as an antioxidant. The chemical formula for sodium citrate is Na3C6H5O7, and it is made up of sodium, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. By itself, it's a white powdery substance that's soluble in water and has a melting point of 300C. Sodium citrate is made through citric acid being extracted from fruits and other foods through yeast fermentation and solvent extraction, which is then filtered to isolate the sodium citrate. In high amounts, sodium citrate can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, among o

                                                           Chemical Structure of Dextrose Dextrose is an artificial sweetener used in Gatorade and other products. As a type of glucose, it fittingly has the chemical name of d-glucose. The suffix "-ose" at the end of its name classifies it as a sugar. It has a chemical formula of C6H12O6, and is made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It's solid at room temperature, soluble in water, and can oxidize. Dextrose is made through the hydrolysis, the chemical breakdown of a compound through reacting with water, of corn starch and is then refined and crystallized for commercial use as a sweetener for many products. Being a sugar, dextrose can cause an increase in blood sugar, even to a dangerous extent if too much is consumed. Because of this, it also has a medical purpose, being used to increase someone's blood sugar if it's dangerously low.

Christian Petraitis 5/23/20 Period 2 Gatorade: Arctic Blitz is a sports drink released by PepsiCo in March of 2016 under the Gatorade Frost line of drinks. Though the flavor of the beverage is listed as Arctic Blitz, its taste has been described as something similar to watermelon or honeydew. I chose to research this product as it is both widely consumed and unnatural enough in its composition that I likely wouldn't have heard of many of its ingredients beforehand.