It was amazing, heart-warming, and deeply satisfying to see the joy on the faces of Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas and her family as they realized that her scores had made her the best gymnast in the entire world.  She worked for it, she sacrificed for it, and she earned it.  The medal, I mean.  

Now Gabby Douglas can look forward to millions of dollars in endorsements to support her training, both past and future, and to pay back her mother for the commitment she made to this extraordinary child’s extraordinary career.  Gabby worked, she sacrificed, and she earned it.  I have no objection to endorsements by athletes of cars, jewelry, hotel chains and, especially, sports equipment.  That is not the subject of this post.  The subject of this post is endorsements of manufactured calories.  

Usain Bolt’s (track & field, Jamaica) representatives have him endorsing Gatorade, and Jessica Ennis’s (track & field, England) have made similar deals with Powerade (owned by Coca-Cola).  These drinks, both of which contain large amounts of high fructose corn syrup, may or may not be an acceptable choice for people training at the Olympic level.  The answer is much more clear for the rest of us — no way.  

It’s been reported that Kellogg’s Corn Flakes has already printed up boxes that sport Gabby’s smiling face.  The rapidity with which Kellogg’s scooped up this endorsement makes me a little queasy.  Not for Gabby, but for the rest of us.  What’s the not-so-subliminal message?  “Eat the stuff in this box if you’d like to be healthy and fit and beautiful.”  What are the facts?  There’s no connection; if anything, it’s probably the opposite.

What do you suppose it costs to become an “exclusive partner” of the Olympics?  Of the three exclusive partners of the 2012 Olympics (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Visa), two are built on stripped carbohydrates.  They cause diabetes and obesity, not athleticism.  This is why it’s so important to Kellogg’s, McDonalds, and Coke to support the Olympics and to get those endorsements as fast as they can.  They are working to reinforce a set of assumptions that has become so deeply ingrained that we cannot see it.

For more information, check out The Controversial Science of Sports Drinks, published July 20, 2012, in the Atlantic.  This link was provided by the indomitable Judy Wilken, the energy and fire behind starchildscience.org. 

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