Does Anyone Make Their Own "sports Drink"

[derekliz]

Happy Healthy New Year!!

So I am supposed to drink 3 liters of powerade/gatorade a day and read the ingredients last nite.....the 2nd ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup!!! Does anyone have a recipe for a sports drink?

Thanks!

Liz

[kmichaelson]

Hi Derekilz,

I don't know if this is exactly what you'd be looking for, but I recently started mixing condensed cherry juice with water, and it tastes a bit like a less sugary sports drink. The main reason I do it though is because cherry juice has anti-inflammatory qualities (like COX-2 inhibitors) so I'm hoping it will help with joint pain and some inflammation issues I have from endometriosis too. I use Mount Morenci cherry juice, by the way, if you're looking for something with anti-inflammatory benefits. I figure drinking a little cherry juice won't hurt anything at least.

[songcanary]

I put 1 teaspoon iodized table salt into two liters of water. But I have also used diluted apricot nectar and also pomegranate juice. They both have decent potassium. There is also an natural electrolyte drink called Recharge and it is excellent. Just like Gatorade without all the crap added. I can't tolerate corn in any form--it's horrible.

[kclynn]

Crystal Light Pure (with stevia) mixed with a G2 elctrolyte packet (I get them at GNC but you can probably find them at other places, they are black). The packets have 400 mg potassium and 780 mg of sodium. Makes 16 oz. Also, sometimes would just use 1 packet and add a little into other drinks all day long

[janiedelite]

I take 1 gallon of water, add 6-8 teaspoons of pink himalayan sea salt, 4 EmergenC packets, and one packet of Crystal Light. My cardiologist suggested the pink himalayan sea salt and EmergenC because they supplement the drink with minerals you won't get from table salt. Once gallons lasts me for 3-4 days.

[peregrine]

I use a fairly standard recipe for rehydration formula: in 1 liter of water (or about a quart) dissolve 6 teaspoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I personally add about a teaspoon of citric acid (which you can get at spice stores and sometimes at Asian markets) to make it taste a little more like lemonade. The one thing to note is that this does not replace potassium, so eating oranges/adding orange juice to the mix or eating bananas/adding a blended banana will help with that.

The WHO put out a new recipe for oral rehydration salts, which I've copied here (add these to a liter/quart of water):

sodium chloride (table salt) 2.6 grams, which is about 1/2 teaspoon

sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) 2.5 grams, which is about 1/2 teaspoon

potassium chloride 1.5 grams (not sure how you would go about getting some), which is about 1/4 teaspoon

glucose (you could use sucrose, or table sugar) 13.5 grams, which is about 2.5 teaspoons

[Whisper]

I was reading that coconut water is supposed to be high in potassium, would that be any good as an ingredient for a sports drink?

[MightyMouse]

You might want to search the archives because I know this topic has come up before.

[fiona-jane]

i was told to avoid any pre-made 'sports' drinks by my PoTS doctor, she said they're pretty much just sugar & sweetners and the salts are not in high enough amounts to do anything useful for me... i now buy the salt tablets that you pop into water. they've got enough sweeteners to mask the taste of the salts but plenty of the various salts. they're designed for runner etc doing endurance events that will deplete them of salts and cause them to get cramps etc.. i get these ones: http://www.nuun.com/#/?exn=whatisnuun

i used to just eat more salt and drink more water but it wasnt working as well as it needed to, so i switched to these. so far they're working and the drink tastes ok.

fi

[JennaC]

I love nuun! I use 2 tablets to 1L of water and use that as 1 of my 3 daily liters.

[fiona-jane]

me too! seems to keep me better hydrated than just drinking water or squash, i guess the salts help me absorb the water properly

[Maiysa]

I love the coconut water. IT has more potassium than most of the drinks and it's all natural. AM I allowed to put the name brand I like?.... because it's delicious and I've had some yucky coconut water. But let me know if you want the name. I can't drink too much of it, since it does have some natural sugars, but not very much.

[janiedelite]

Maiysa,

Thanks for checking but yes, you can say the name of products you use as long as you aren't telling someone else they need to use them (but just saying that you like this certain product).

[Maiysa]

Thank you Janie.

I love Real Coconut Water by Taste Nirvana. It seriously tastes like a cookie. 16 oz. has 5 essential electrolytes and 1000mg of potassium. 12% magnesium. 6% Calcium. 6% Iron. 8% Vitamin C but 15 g of sugar, it's naturally occurring and 0 fat. In the summer this drink is so nice with a squeeze of lime. Only ingredient is coconut water. Because of sugar I only drink it after my blood sugar is stable in the late morning.

[ramakentesh]

I tend to find the very high salt ones made me feel worse rather than better, whereas a subtler formula like gatorade can bring on an improvement. One but of advice my doc told me was to drink cold never hot. Cold = stomach vasoconstriction - hot = splanchnic vasodilation.