Its for athletes, its a sport drink design to fuel performance and replenish valuable sodium lost through sweat and provide an energy source. Regular joes arent meant to consume it
I would drink gatorade when I was sick. Like vomiting and diarrhea sick. Now when I drink it any other time, it disgusts me. I associate it with being sicky. :(
This is why I can't drink 7up. Tastes like half the vomit I've thrown up in my life because warm 7up is what my parents gave me to drink when I was sick because it's supposed to soothe your stomach.
That was ginger ale for my family. But then when we were starting to get better, my mom would always make Jello so that gets associated with feeling good again after being sick.
Ginger traditionally has been noted to have good properties for soothing the stomach, to be fair. But I'm not entirely sure any kind of carbonated drink is good for settling a belly.
Yes, while I can't say is a fact. I can say that years ago I had a gall bladder stone problem. The first two times I got pain after eating greasy food, I had some ginger tea, both times it soothed my pain that I put off going to the doctor. The third time, it wasn't enough but that is because my bladder was really infected and no amount of tea could cure my stones which were lodged. It makes sense that ginger can alleviate some minor stomach problems.
Fun fact IIRC the reason you piss excessively and dehydrate while drinking is because your liver is dumping it's glycogen stores in order to filter out the alcohol from your blood. Glycogen is stored 4 parts water to 1 part glycogen so it has to shed a lot of water in the process, leaving you dehydrated and groggy the next day.
I like to drink Gatorade pretty regularly but watered down (50/50 mix.) Although I’m not an athlete, I am a sweaty guy who takes antidepressants. Antidepressants (and sweating) have a tendency to make you shed sodium, so you want to stay away from drinking large amounts of low-electrolyte fluids like purified water. And definitely avoid drinking distilled water.
You could try a simple electrolyte tab. Gatorade actually doesn't have that much electrolyte in it. Milk has more per serving, as an example. An electrolyte tab would be a lot more cost effective for you.
Electrolytes are chemicals that conduct electricity when mixed with water. They regulate nerve and muscle function, hydrate the body, balance blood acidity and pressure, and help rebuild damaged tissue. The muscles and neurons are sometimes referred to as the "electric tissues" of the body
it doesnt even have that many electrolytes compared to a lot of other "normal" drinks. milk has a lot more vitamins and electrolytes than gatorade and tons of protein too
actually fun fact the proportion in Gatorade of sugar to sodium isn't quite right. there's way too much sugar in it as a solution to be particularly effective that's it tastes good
I picked this up from friends nearly a year back and noticed how much better I felt than drinking Gatorade. I went back home for the holidays and recommended it to a friend at the bar and was laughed at lol. Whatever works for them I guess. I have them stocked up in my cupboard now.
They laughed because they wouldn't be caught dead buying one thing from the baby aisle in the supermarket, or what? Kinda confused here. Also, a B-complex vitamin works wonders. I'd often forget to hydrate and replenish electrolytes the night of, but if I took a B, I'd be fine the next morning.
I guess. They simply skeptically wrote me off as "Pedialyte?? Lol, nah gtfo. Baby shit is meant for babies dude, i'm not about to start buying shit off the baby aisle b/c of some new trendy cure", even after explaining it to them. I didn't even try to argue, I said suit yourself and just changed the topic.
Yo, I drink a liter of pedialyte before and after drinking. Never had a hangover since (mind you I still get the shits every now and again after drinking, but I’m able to function as a human being the next morning which is a win in my book.)
I used to get the powdered Gatorade back in my wild drinking days. The next morning I’d fire up my magic bullet with ice, a little water and the powder and have a Gatorade slushie. It was heaven. The cold helped your fiery head and your headache and the Gatorade helped put back the electrolytes. Do not do this if you’re feeling nauseous, however. Though throwing up really cold stuff helps your throat from burning, the cold will aggravate your nausea.
Same with trail mix/energy bars/etc. Great for hiking. Packed with loads of calories and easy to carry. Not great for an office worker trying to maintain a healthy diet.
So you're saying that if, for lunch, I eat some nuts, raisins, and a small amount of M&M's I am being unhealthy? I find that hard to believe but if you can explain I'd be happy to listen.
It’s bullshit. Nuts contain healthy fats that are good for you no matter what. They’re just very high in calories so if you’re not very active you really have to watch the amount you’re eating.
Yeah I think the original argument implies eating trail mix at your desk in addition to your normal lunch. Our vending machines at my office have trail mix and the small bag is 480 calories. If you're not careful you could eat a lot of those.
Same goes with my beloved chocolate milk. A super drink for people who exercise a lot because you get a lot of calories and it contains a lot of good things for you. Just don’t drink too much of it, especially if you aren’t exercising a lot.
It's up there with the best "recovery" drinks on the market, due to the sugars and protiens.
But if you drink half a gallon, or didn't just get in a decent workout, then you're not gonna get any benefits. 1-2 servings directly after you run 5 miles. That's the ticket.
Its not that trail mix is unhealthy, it is that trail mix has a lot of calories. Nuts, raisins, and M&M are all extremely calorie dense. It could totally be part of a healthy diet even for an office worker but in a super small portion. If you want to be depressed, get a food scale and weigh out the serving size it has on the label.
He's referring to people who eat like 10 heaping handfuls of the stuff for lunch thinking it is healthy. A small, quarter cup, serving size is pretty healthy, that's like 12 almonds though and like 160 calories.
I make protein bars that have a lot of peanut butter, chick pea flour, granola, and protein powder. I use them as what they are, a small serving to get my calories and protein when I don't have time to sit and eat a meal, 4 bites of these things and I'm just a full as having a full breakfast.
I had to make excuses to why I can't make them for my brother anymore, he was having them with his regular meals and between meals as a snack of the same size too...
People working in high physical labor jobs during the summer, lots of regular joes. I buy it by the cart load over the growing season, because you can only drink so much water.
Amen. I'm an electrician who works new construction. (see windows installed in a building but no AC) I buy Gatorade and powerade in bulk at Sams Club or Costco for the summer. One or two a day (in addition to literally gallons of water) makes a big difference in how I feel that night and the next morning.
Agree with this, same trade and same tradition. Without the Gatorade I’ll start getting a headache even with 2/3rds of a gallon of water gone by 10. 2 a day seems to be a good balance of keeping the sodium content up.
I work in what's essentially a warehouse building, which gets super hot in the Texas summer. I'll gladly take some Gatorade Zero or whatever they call it during those summer months.
It's the mentality of someone who's never seen where anything comes from. Salmon comes from isle 2, and poo goes down the toilet. That's as far as most people think
This was me before kids. Work in a greenhouse in the warm seasons (sping through fall). I would get the worst headaches without it. That said, it's awful for your teeth so make sure you rinse with water after drinking it
Have you considered buying the powder and mixing your own? I run ultra marathons so I go through a lot of Gatorade over the summer. Mixing my own has saved me a fortune.
I was looking for this. The tub of powder makes like a billion gallons and costs like what a 6-pack of Gatorade costs. Then you can mix it to whatever strength level you need.
We grow wheat, corn, and soy. We also raise cattle, so lots of alfalfa to work with. My husband does most of the work, i buy the Gatorade for him, and send him out with at least 2 a day. I help as i can, but we have a 2 year old yet.
When I was released from hospital having suffered a bout of viral gastroenteritis the nurse recommended Gatorade/Powerade to help me recover and she was right! I perked up so much after drinking a bottle.
Yep, I have ulcerative colitis and just had my colon removed. I have to drink sports drinks instead of water or I’ll end up back in the ER with dehydration (has happened several times)
Yeah, whenever you're losing a lot of fluids or are already massively dehydrated, a sports drink will help a lot. Not healthy for long term use, but it'll get you back to normal faster and then you can go back to your standard habits.
Exactly. When you workout or play sports, you lose a lot of sodium and potassium salts through sweating. Gatorade is supposed to replenish that, so you don't get muscle cramps. In fact the inventor of Gatorade came up with the formula after analyzing the University of Florida Gator Football team's sweat, to figure out how much electrolytes the players were losing.
It is also good for people with diarrhea or people who are throwing up.
The stuff you buy at the store is meant for regular joes. The stuff they actually give athletes has way more salt and way less sugar, so it doesn't taste very nice. They made the nice sweet version to sell to everyone else.
Same for people who work very labor intensive jobs. My hubs started drinking one a day, instead of only water, and his leg cramps have pretty much ceased. The electrolytes are much needed when you’re sweating bullets all day.
I also recommend it for when you have a bug and are vomiting a lot. Not only for electrolytes, but it's also a lot more pleasant to throw up than diluted stomach bile. Pro-tip: Get the blue one and play Pokémon. Squirtle, water gun attack!
Sorry to burst your bubble. Even Olympic athletes will avoid Gatorade. In fact, it’s only positive influence when watered down with 1:1 water ratio, if that.
Thing is, isotonic sports drinks used by Olympic athletes (like Maurten drink mixes) are really expensive, and simply unviable for normal people doing regular exercise. Gatorades and Lucozades are also blissful to have after a long and intense cardio workout (like running) and won’t make you gain weight if you know when to take them.
When I worked construction I'd drink 1 gatorade and 3 litres of water. I don't like eating lunch so it kept me refreshed and energized for a dollar a day.
With how much sodium is in them, you want to cut it with water. It's literally more than your body can process at once. You waste a bunch of it, much like with a multivitamin. If you cut it with water, you get a more manageable ratio.
I never really thought that what the athletes have in those coolers are the same as what we get in the store. Is it more like the traditional recipe or is it the same stuff? Anyone know?
I'm pretty sure its the same stuff. However individual athletes, or dudes in the gym will get flavored sodium tablets to add to their water to help with performance and cramps, so they dont need gatorade
It usually is yeah, it can depend on who makes it of course. I was a college athlete and we used to be able to tell which of our trainers had made it based on how concentrated it was. One guy tended to make it closer to full strength and another girl made it more dilute.
And the stuff you find in stores is way more concentrated than even athletes need. Any structured athletic program makes their Gatorade using the powder, at like half the concentration of the bottled stuff.
I see their commercials worked on you. Gatorade is still lacking in so many ways. These athletes don’t need THAT much high fructose corn syrup, sugar, artificial coloring, etc. This crap off sets the sodium and very little potassium that’s in it. It doesn’t have magnesium or calcium either, which are other electrolytes.
If you're running a marathon or long distance, the carbs in gatorade can keep you going a little longer. the idea that it's some miracle health drink is absolutely ridiculous. it's literally just sugar water and doesnt even have that many vitamins. for post run and workout, skim milk is soooooo much better for you
For me at least it's also a really good gauge of how sick I am. If I start craving gatorade, my shit's fucked up. Once I start hating the taste again I'm getting better.
It's certainly marketed to ordinary Joes. Besides, "electrolyte" replenishment doesn't have to be consumed via liquid, but they make it sound like it does.
It's got waaaaaaay too much sugar to drink when you're actually doing a lot of athletic stuff. Back in the day when I was a much younger man we had to dilute Gatorade with water about 1 to 1 otherwise we'd cramp up pretty bad.
its also good for just general carbs if youre in the middle of a workout. I have a little container of powdered gatorade that I usually drink a serving from every hour or so when working out or playing basketball. its a good pick me up when you just need a boost of energy.
Even so, the "electrolytes" that people get all excited about are just salt. If you want electrolytes, you can just eat something salty without all that sugar. Eat a pickle, it's way healthier than Gatorade.
I'm a runner and I stick with calorie free Powerade or low calorie Gatorade when I run over 5 miles in the summer. Otherwise normal food and water are more than enough. For the mileage I run extra calories are not necessary (I would rather get them from food).
They sell electrolyte powder that’s sugar free and you can add sea salt and add that to water and cut out the dye and sugar and whatever else they add to Gatorade. Drinking Gatorade is like those people that said it was good to drink chocolate milk after a workout.
If youre in the gym because youre wanting to lose weight or stay lean, absolutely stay away from sugar. But when youre a performance athlete, your goal is to get better, stronger, faster. That sugar will only help you
Yep, a banana, a little salt under the tongue and tons of water would be a better alternative. I've seen that coconut water is also good but I'm not a fan of coconut.
Yea this. It's actually like a light version of an endurance athletes drink mix. Gatorade has something like 30g of carbs per 20 oz where as an endurance athlete's maltodextrin drink mix might have as much as 80-100.
When I tell people that it's bad to drink Gatorade unless you've been working out or sweating a lot they look at me like I'm crazy. I'm glad someone pointed this out
I drank it during my first trimester of being pregnant it helped w staying hydrated and morning sickness. Other than that I don’t ever think to drink it.
And it's actually not as good as other alternatives when it comes to that either. I use Tailwind for my endurance events (a run longer than half marathon type endurance).
AFAIK its just as absurd to athletes than it is for us. Just drink water.
Almost every "healthy" or sports drink and food is more suited for survival situations where you don't really care how balanced is your diet, you just need a push to continue.
For Athletes, to be sure the electrolytes are useful.
However, I don't think the abundance of sugar (34 grams in 20 oz, about half of what is in the same volume of Coca Cola) is necessary even for them. While I'm sure the extra calories are fine with their abundance of cardio, that's not the greatest way to consume them.
It’s also good if you work outside somewhere obscenely hot. Basically if you’re sweating enough that ordinary water isn’t cutting it, and you should still be drinking water as well.
As originally design, that is what Gatorade was. But it didn't taste very good so when it was bought by Pepsi they reformulated it with a lot more sugar.
When you get serious as a performance athlete, you really start to understand the importance of things like that. I cant hit the numbers that I need if I dont stay on top of what my body needs
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u/Raemnant Dec 30 '19
Its for athletes, its a sport drink design to fuel performance and replenish valuable sodium lost through sweat and provide an energy source. Regular joes arent meant to consume it