Water Sports Drink Mix?

[divingmedic]

I would make it 50/50. There us way to much sodium and glucose in most "sports drinks". We are teaching in EMS bike classes and SWAT medic classes to do this.

[Bill22]

Originally Posted by Manny-R

Gatorade helps you retain liquid because of the amount of salt in it... but in turn... you end up thirsty again...
unless you are doing very strenuous amounts of exercising, you're almost always better off with plain water, and if you really need flavor, have some orange or apple juice or some natural juice. palmagranite is very good.

Gotta agree.... I usually stick with water. I spent 2 years/8 months(three summers) in the middle east and water is what I usually drank the most of. My "average" water intake was probably 3-6 liters a day, depending on how much time I was spending outside, the conditions that day, and what kind of activity I was engaged in. As long as your eating a balanced diet, most people should be fine. Besides water is much cheaper than gatorade :-)

I would think that if you're going to end up drinking Gatorade, cutting it would be best... just my two cents :-)

[TAH 73]

Alot of the sports drinks that come in the ready to drink bottles are now set to please the palatte of the consumers thats grabbing them and downing them.
If you mix up a bottle from the powder, and grab the same flavor "ready to drink" alnd look at the nutritional components they are completely different.
With Gatorade avoid the "Fierce" flavors, they are just more concentrated in taste.

[meesier42]

Gatorade was designed to be useful while working at a strenuous rate. anything less you should cut the stuff. For me, if I am working out hard, I might drink it straight, but normally cut it about 50% with water, or more normally ice in my camelbak. By the time I drink its watered down enough.

What TAH 73 said about the "new" flavors of gatorade are all true. The orignal flavors are designed for the althete and really only taste good when you need it. the Fierce flavors or Frost flavors were tuned to meet the taste of people that just want to drink the stuff like it were soda, so the flavors are stronger and they have more sugar in them.

[thesmoothdome]

Gatorade and other sports drink may help you retain water because of the salt involved, but as you saturate your body with salt, it draws water from your cells, leaving you even more dehydrated at the cellular level, which isn't nearly as easy to identify and can lead to serious issues.

I just read about this in this month's Scuba Diving magazine. (Well, I think it was this months).

[ScubaJenn81]

Drinks like that are great and all, but you have to factor in the calories as well as the salt and sugar like you all are saying. If you are exercising to loose weight and then drink a 200 plus drink, what are you really ending up with.

[Mtrewyn]

You really have to read the labels, they all have lots of things that you don't need, cutting is good, it improves the texture alot as well as the flavor,
If water is hard to drink there are drink mixes out there that you mix in bottled water, to help make it better, but again you need to read the label

[Capt Hook]

Been drinking straight Gatorade for years, hasn't bothered my diving or ball playing.

[greyzen]

the point isn't that it will harm you, but that you are not maximising on the benefits.

IE: You drink tons of vitamins and minerals and your body can't absorb them quick enough and you flush half of them.

Mix 50% water, you greatly reduce your pure mineral absortion rate and can now retain a lot more of them.

[johnbaggs]

Originally Posted by greyzen

the point isn't that it will harm you, but that you are not maximising on the benefits.

IE: You drink tons of vitamins and minerals and your body can't absorb them quick enough and you flush half of them.

Mix 50% water, you greatly reduce your pure mineral absorption rate and can now retain a lot more of them.

Agreed with the above, everything in moderation. I cut mine in half too (when I do drink it, which is usually after a real long run or bike ride.)