Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition

For the longest time, I thought I was making the healthier switch from soda to sports drinks, and although my sugar consumption went down significantly, I didn't realize that the sports drinks weren't all that great for me either (when I wasn't exercising).

From there, I switched to the vitamin waters, which I later found to be well marketed sugar water with a multi vitamin inside, which ultimately led me to having just plain ol' water.

So, if I was to exercise, but not rigorously, for a half an hour or so, would it be better to hydrate with a Gatorade or would water be a better choice (in this case)?

Can't say what will work for you but I go mostly with water.

I will on occasion re-hydrate with Gatorade if I am looking for a little energy boost.

I stay away from the other "miracle" sports and energy drinks.

Water will be sufficient for a half-hour exercise. You're unlikely to lose an accountable measure of electrolytes, let alone sweat.

I've often been told by coaches and exercise phanatics that if you're thirsty, it's too late. Dehydration is already beginning.

I used to drink Propel, until I realized and started tasting the artificial sugar (sucralose I believe) that it has in it. No thank you... Now I'm strictly Gatorade and water.

I also like energy gels for long workouts and races on occasion, but they require a lot of water taken with them to be effective.

Now't wrong wi' a pint of bitter shandy.
Del

Gets my vote about 5 times a week. :)

Me too, but easy on the lemonade.

Ditto for the post-game soreness.

When I was a swimmer we used to make something called "Bug Juice". It was basically Gatorade mixed with water but I loved it because it cut some of the sweetness from the Gatorade. I couldn't drink straight Gatorade after a race because the sweetness would make me feel nauseous but the 1/2 and 1/2 mix worked perfectly! (I have no idea why it's called bug juice lol)

Was not going to mention it but as long as you brought up the 1/2 and 1/2 mix, we used to make "Bug Juice" with a mix of 1/2 Gatorade and 1/2 Grey Goose.

Not good to drink during work or a work out but sure was great at the end of the day

Sugary sweet Koo-laid left unattended on the picnic table. After a while every bug around will be there to get it's share of the sugar. Some not so lucky fall in.

Bug juice!

If it's mixed with Grey Goose the unlucky ones that fall in will be happy at least for a while

Like the worm in the bottom of a bottle of Mezcal. Too much of good thing will kill anything.

Sweat salt water, drink water- electrolyte imbalance and cramps.

Sweat salt water, drink electrolyte-balanced water, stay hydrated and balanced.

I swear by gatorade, and love to work up a good sweat on a run and guzzle a qt of gatorade, part before and part afterward.

Sports drinks have sugar in them because glucose is absolutely necessary to transport the salt from the gut into the blood stream. Without glucose all of the salt would stay in your gut, doing you no good at all.

Transport of sodium out of your gut into the intestinal cells is via the SGLT1 protein. It transports two sodium ions and one glucose or galactose molecule through the cell wall. Each cycle of the transport also moves several hundred water molecules into the cell. From there, the sodium is transported by 'active transport' via the 'sodium potassium pump' to the rest of your body via your blood. Without glucose, no sodium will be absorbed out of the intestine.

Sodium (20-30 grams per day) is excreted naturally from the body into the gut during digestion. During diarrhea the sodium is passed out so fast that there is no time for it to be reabsorbed, leading to dangerously low sodium levels. That is why prolonged diarrhea can be life threatening.

So: can you suggest an improvement to the "make your own sports drink" recipe? Would it just be to replace the sugar with glucose, or, something else?

Would you also replace some or all of the common salt with something else?

Common salt is the best supply for sodium, it's plentiful and very cheap.

Common sugar is fairly cheap and it is composed of 100% sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose. Both have the same formula, but are different structurally. You can buy glucose and fructose separately, but they are more expensive that way. They are broken apart by an enzyme in the cell wall of the intestine. Both glucose and fructose are transported into the blood stream, but by different methods. Fructose absorption is not completely understood, but it doesn't use the same path as glucose, and therefore isn't useful in the absorption of salt.

Different foods have different concentrations of the two sugars. Pears and apples, have twice as much fructose as glucose, while apricots go equally far in the opposite direction.

The two sugars are both used in the body to provide energy for the cells to use, however they take different paths. Glucose goes directly to the cells, while fructose must be processed in the liver first.

The two sugars have different perceived sweetness properties. When compared in taste tests, using a relative scale, glucose rates a 75, table sugar (sucrose) rates 100, and Fructose rates a whooping 173. That and the fact that it is cheaper, are the reasons that sodas are sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup. There is some controversy about the use of HFCS in soft drinks, however, the concentration normally used for soft drinks is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. I don't think that's really much of a change from the 50/50 mix found in common table sugar especially in light of the fact that some fruits have more than a 2:1 mix of the sugars, in both directions.

"But it has electrolytes". (ref. the movie IDIOCRACY)

I have been using a prodict called ElectroMix. It comes in little packets in powdered form but it is expensive. I wish I could get it in bulk. One packet is a bit strong for one of my bicycle bottles so I cut it in half.

Someone told me I could make sports water by adding a dash of sea salt.

When we were haying on the farm in 100 degree heat we never seemed to need anything but water and lots of it. Everytime we passed the hydrant we would drink all we could hold.

There's a lady in our bike club that's always chewing on a Power Bar.

When we're riding we're always hydrating and eating energy bars or trail mix. We also stop and eat at restaurants or coffee shops. Some of our favorite places to eat are twenty to thirty miles out of town.

I'll go for the chocolate milk as a recovery beverage. They've found it works better than the manufactured stuff and tastes better too. Chocolate is the new health food.

I though I would do one better by trying chocolate soy milk. So I went and bought one of every brand available. Pearl was the best with Vitasoy second. But the almond milk was pretty good. Then I saw a story in Bicycling magazine endorsing chocolate soy milk.

I write this blog for CR4 specifically because I love sports and have a decent history with nutrition.

I keep hearing how great chocolate milk is for recovery, but I don't see its benefits over something like Muscle Milk or another protein shake. Namely, you typically get a protein matrix (protein isolate, casein, etc.) and additional (albeit synthetic) vitamins from a supplement.

Perhaps another day I can do the chocomilk vs. protein shake debate...

On one bike tour we often took off early in the morning and I wouldn't get a chance to make my tea so I would throw a tea bag in one of my bottles and let it brew as I was riding along. It called them "regular" and "ethyl".

You should have a source of potassium as well as sodium. The ratio is important. One 500 Mg potassium salt pill is fine for many people. Hard sweat exercises will need more.

Salt is fine and you can find KCl also as a product called nosalt in the grocery store for people on low salt diets. It is cheaper at large grocery stores than Amazon

No-Salt-Substitute

Or buy some over the counter potassium salts.

low potassium treatment