At Beverage Digest's Future Smarts conference on Monday, PepsiCo CEO Al Carey announced plans to launch an organic Gatorade offering — because as the saying goes, if you can't beat em . . .

At the conference, Carey said, "It's a consumer interest. I think they're very interested in non-GMO and organic, and to the degree you can make it meaningful to the consumer." While Carey didn't reveal any further details about the proposed organic sports drink, it could be part of a larger, company-wide initiative. For example, PepsiCo will also be rolling out Tropicana juices with specific non-GMO labels in 2016.

It's important to remember, however, that the use of organic ingredients won't make Gatorage healthy altogether — considering there are nine teaspoons [1] of sugar in an average 20-ounce bottle. In an interview with Forbes [2], executive director of the Institute for Healthy Food, Jim Krieger, stressed, "I doubt there are any health benefits to organic sugar, relative to conventional sugar, and even if there were, they'd be too small to counterbalance the negative health effects of the sugar itself."

So while this will certainly be an improvement for athletes in need of a quick electrolyte boost, water is enough for regular exercisers — or coconut water [3] if you're looking for an all-natural alternative!

Related: Rehydrate With This 145-Calorie Refreshing Strawberry-Watermelon Smoothie [4]