Hi all,

My boyfriend, who does first-aid stuff, recently gave me this down-and-dirty tip for drinking gatorade and other sports drinks, and I’d be interested in people’s opinions:

“If you’re feeling hot and dehydrated, drink some gatorade.  If it tastes good, keep drinking until it doesn’t taste good anymore.”

So, what do people think of this? 

Cheers,
Julie

Gatorade is garbage, it is basically Pedialite with more sugar, I posted some alternatives in Christina’s thread (chameleonofdeath)

Hi Shawn,

I’ll agree, in that I don’t drink it much.  In fact, the only time I drink anything resembling sports drinks is at a two-week camping event when I’m out in very hot weather (25-35C plus crazy amounts of humidity), doing lots of walking in direct sunlight.  I lose *so much* water and electrolytes that way.  The place I go has straight water and 50/50 diluted gatorade.  And sometimes, man, that gatorade tastes the drink of the gods.

Most times, though, yuck!  Which is, I guess, the point. *grin*

Cheers,
Julie

Shawn,
Did you post this in the 100 day forum for Christina or her Journal thread??  I would really like to reference this and so this would help to narrow down my search a little bit.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Scooby

Scooby I’ll post them in the food section.

If it tastes good, keep drinking until it doesn’t taste good anymore.

Listen to your body - we know more about what we need than we give ourselves credit for. 

Gatorade has lots of stuff in it and it would not be good as an every day drink, but there are times when it provides what you need.  I prefer diluting it at least in half with water too.

When I’m in training I’ll drink whatever sports drink they are going to have at the event. Since I’m planning on running the San Antonio Marathon in November I’ve already emailed the race director and learned they are going to be handing out yellow Gatorade every 1.5 miles up until mile 22 in which it will be every mile.

So, guess what I’ll be drinking for the next 3 months. Yellow Gatorade every 1.5 miles. And when I cross the finish line in November I’ll be so sick of yellow Gatorade. But it beats having stomach issues 15 miles into the race because I’m not used to drinking yellow Gatorade.

Julie maybe you can try accelerade instead of gatorade. Gatorade is just packed with sugar and it’s so sticky (diluting really helps). Fruit juice works too. Hey that homemade stuff Shawn gave me is pretty tasty!

I don’t like gatorade because of the high fructose corn syrup, and am too lazy to try Shawn’s recipes yet. I really like Propel, and love vitamin water. Accelerade actually gave me a boost and I didn’t feel totally wiped when I drank that, but it has an odd taste. Though if I plan another full body weight routine with running right after, I’ll be having an accelerade with me. Anything super sweet doesn’t do much for my thirst, so I also have water with me, or drink from the fountain.

Bree

Thanks for all your input, everyone.  I was really just hunting around for opinions, and that’s what I got. 

So, thanks!

Cheers,
Julie

Julie - 27 August 2007 08:26 PM

Hi all,
“If you’re feeling hot and dehydrated, drink some gatorade.  If it tastes good, keep drinking until it doesn’t taste good anymore.”

Hmm to me it doesn’t taste good at any time so i don’t think that would work

It tastes like dirt to me, I don’t know if I’m just the one getting that or what, but yeah, mud puddle, dug my hand into the earth and stuffed it in my mouth, dirt. I could go on for hours about how yucky I think Gatorade is, and that it’s dirt water with sugar and nasty coloring agents. But! I think it’s okay to have once in a while.

Thank you all, I’ll be here all week!

But, to be serious for a moment. If there are more healthy alternatives, that’s probably the way I myself would go. I find that there are a lot of cons to Gatorade that just make it not the absolute best option for me, personally. But hey, if it works for you and you aren’t drinking it by the gallon, a Gatorade here or there isn’t so terrible. But can’t you get the electrolytes somewhere else anyway? I mean, Gatorade is expensive.

Here is my 2 cents -

When you work out in hot weather and perspire a lot (as the Florida Gators do when they practice outside in Gainesville) you lose not only water in your sweat, but also salt and electrolytes like potassium.  This contributes to fatigue (or can make you feel even worse or die in extreme cases).  Also if you are working out really hard you are burning up a lot of glucose.  You could eat a banana with a pinch or two of salt, wash it down with a big glass of water and head back out on the field.  Or you could just drink some Gatorade.

I think Julie’s bf is spot on.  It tastes nasty because of the extra stuff that is in there.  Unless you need that extra stuff, and then it tastes great.  Like when Julie does her two-week outdoor hiking trip, or when I have a hangover.  I think that it is helpful if it is being used for what it is intended, a quick way to replace necessary fluid and other things, but is really just like soda if you don’t need it. 

The difference between Pedialyte and Gatorade is that Pedialyte’s sugar is mostly glucose (d-glucose, aka dextrose) so it doesn’t have to be processed by the body before use like sucrose and fructose.  Little kids who have a bad stomach bug are losing a lot of electrolytes and probably not keeping any food down so Pedialyte can be really helpful.

There is also a drink from Japan called Pocari Sweat and havery little sugar in it and does the same thing as Gatorade.

I love sports drinks when training on a hot day. It’s the only thing that I let my team have at halftime.

I just got hooked on the new Crystal Light add ins.  I love the one with electrolytes and lemon flavor!  Only 5 calories added to a big bottle of water!