BodyArmor is a popular sports nutrition drink that positions itself as a healthier alternative to drinks like Gatorade. The brand highlights on its website that their products contain antioxidants, “potassium-packed electrolytes" and no artificial sweeteners, flavors or dyes.
But is BodyArmor good for you? Does it contain any unhealthy additives? What was our honest experience purchasing and testing it during cardio? And is BodyArmor healthier than Gatorade?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in BodyArmor original, BodyArmor Lyte (the no-added-sugar version) and BodyArmor SportWater to give our take on whether the drinks are healthy or not.
We'll also compare the healthiness of BodyArmor to Gatorade, and share our honest experience purchasing and testing this product.
Key takeaways:
- Contains several ingredients we consider unhealthy
- We tried BodyArmor and disliked the taste
- We do not consider BodyArmor to be good for you
BodyArmor Ingredient Review
The ingredients in BodyArmor Blue Raspberry drink are shown below:
image source: https://www.drinkbodyarmor.com/
Cane sugar is included at a relatively high dose of 48 grams (g) per 28 ounce (oz) bottle.
Medical research suggests that excessive intake of added sugar is associated with negative health outcomes like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Americans already consume a significant amount of added sugar daily, so we typically recommend avoiding foods and drinks containing added sugar.
While a sweet drink can theoretically provide athletic performance benefits, we don’t believe that sugar-sweetened drinks are a good choice for most consumers.
Coconut water concentrate is a healthy, whole food ingredient which is rich in potassium.
Fruit and vegetable juice is a much healthier food coloring option than artificial dye.
Citric acid is a preservative and flavor enhancer that’s found in citrus fruit, but over 90% of its production for manufacturing comes from a fungus called Aspergillus niger.
According to a medical review published in the Toxicology Reports journal, manufactured citric acid can cause whole-body inflammatory reactions in some people.
Natural flavors is a broad categorization that fails to define the specific chemical compounds used as the flavoring agents.
As we explained in our Isagenix reviews article, it seems illogical to consume anything without knowing exactly what it is. We recommend avoiding all food and drink products with "natural flavors" as a listed ingredient.
Overall, we do not consider BodyArmor to be good for you due to the high dose of refined, added sugar and the inactive ingredients highlighted above.
We Tested BodyArmor
As the author of this article, I wanted to try BodyArmor myself to share my thoughts on its taste and the overall product experience:
I purchased the Orange Mango flavor at Walmart and drank it while I played basketball for nearly two hours with minimal breaks.
I typically only hydrate with regular water, but I did notice a slight performance boost from the sugars and electrolytes. I was sweating heavily and felt somewhat more sustained energy than usual towards the end of the games.
But while there may have been some perceived performance benefits (or it may have been placebo), I wasn't a fan of the taste.
This drink tasted too sweet and "artificial" for my liking, and I didn't enjoy feeling like I was drinking something "processed" with so many ingredients I personally consider unnecessary.
Perhaps if I were an elite athlete I'd have a need for this drink, but I'm content with just water moving forward.
Overall, I'd rate this product a 5/10 and do not plan to buy it again.
BodyArmor Lyte Ingredient Review
The ingredients in the Blueberry Pomegranate flavor of BodyArmor Lyte (the low-calorie version) are shown below:
image source: https://www.drinkbodyarmor.com/
Citric acid and natural flavors are included, and we already explained in the previous Ingredient Analysis section why we recommend avoiding them.
Stevia leaf has anti-inflammatory and potentially anti-hypertensive (blood pressure lowering) effects according to a medical review.
BodyArmor significantly improved the healthiness of this formulation since our most recent article update, removing sugar alcohol erythritol which is clinically shown to be associated with significantly increased a stroke risk in some individuals.
Overall, we consider BodyArmor Lyte to be healthier than BodyArmor due to the lack of added sugar, but we don't currently recommend it due to the inclusion of citric acid and natural flavors.
BodyArmor vs. Popular Sports Drinks
Here's how BodyArmor compares to other popular sports nutrition drinks in terms of healthiness, in our opinion:
Gatorade
Like the sugar-sweetened version of BodyArmor, original Gatorade contains a high dose of refined, added sugar.
However, it also contains Red 40, which is clinically shown to be contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals in some cases.
We consider BodyArmor to be the healthier option given its natural colorants.
Winner: BodyArmor
Gatorlyte
Gatorlyte is the low-sugar alternative to Gatorade, so we'll compare it from a health perspective to BodyArmor Lyte.
This drink contains artificial flavor and over 10 g of added sugar, as we documented in our is Gatorlyte good for you article.
BodyArmor is the winner from a health perspective.
Winner: BodyArmor
Powerade Zero
Contains artificial colors and artificial sweeteners.
BodyArmor Lyte is significantly healthier than Powerade Zero.
Winner: BodyArmor Lyte
SportWater Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in BodyArmor SportWater are shown below:
image source: https://www.drinkbodyarmor.com/
The brand advertises that this water is alkaline, with a pH level greater than 9.
There is actually some legitimate medical research suggesting that alkaline water may provide health and exercise benefits.
A clinical trial published in the Journal of Human Kinetics found that alkaline water consumption improved anaerobic exercise performance compared to tap water.
There are no questionable additives in this formulation.
We consider SportWater to be BodyArmor’s healthiest formulation.
