Wow - I knew these sugary sports drinks were bad for you, but this is really scary. It proves to know what the ingredients are in anything we eat or drink. I think this is a perfect example...
When Sarah Kavanagh, now 16, wanted to have a cool drink after spending time outside on a hot day in Mississippi last year, she reached for a Gatorade. But before she took a sip, Sarah, who's a vegan, checked the ingredient label. One item in particular caught her eye: brominated vegetable oil, or BVO.
Curious, she Googled it and discovered an eye-popping list of negative side effects. Forgoing the Gatorade, Sarah instead headed to Change.org to start a petition in the hopes that she could persuade PepsiCo, the company that makes Gatorade, to remove the BVO"I started the petition on Change.org because I found out brominated vegetable oil is linked to lots of health problems, and it's banned in Europe and Japan," she told SHAPE. "It's just shocking to know that some of the biggest, most trusted companies would use something like that."
She's in luck: Last Friday PepsiCo announced that it will be removing BVO from its Gatorade products, although Molly Carter, a Gatorade spokesperson, told the New York Times, that the company had been testing alternatives for about a year, due in part to customer feedback the company had received, but that the decision was not made in response to the teen's petition. Regardless, Sarah says she's happy that PepsiCo heard and listened to its customers' pleas.
"It's really inspiring to know that anybody can make a difference," she says. "We need to believe in ourselves. Companies listen to consumers because they wouldn't exist without us!"
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