Nutrition

Homemade Sports Drink #2

Nutrition, Training

Homemade Sports Drink #2 by

David S. Hays, O.D.,dhays@davidhays.net

Sports drinks like Gatorade ™ can be very useful for longer runs and races. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive. I’ve found a couple of ways of making sports drinks that are effective and cheap. The ideas for the recipe, like most good running ideas, first came to me from The Dead Runners’ Society.

Gatorade ™ has worked hard to come up with what they feel is a good balance of carbohydrates and electrolytes for extended physical activity. Most researchers agree that the optimal concentration of carbohydrates in a sports drink is about 6%. This concentration actually allows the water to be absorbed more quickly in the body than plain water alone. I don’t think we need to use sports drinks. I don’t use them unless I’m doing a run that going to be over 90 minutes long. However, for long runs, the water, electrolytes, and carbohyrdates help a lot.

Gatorade has a formulation that gives the following for an 8oz serving:
14grams Carbohydrate (5.9%)
110 mg Sodium
30mg Potassium
52 calories

Assuming that is a pretty good formula, we can get close by using one of the following recipes:

Recipe #1

10 tbs. sugar (5/8 cups or 120 grams)
.75 tsp Morton Lite salt (4.2 grams)
1 package of unsweetened Coolade mix for flavor
Water to make 2 liters

The recipe will give a total of 124 grams of solute which in 2 liters water gives a total of 6.2% concentration. For an 8 oz serving this gives:
14.2 grams carbohydrate (6%)
53 calories
103 mg Sodium
121 mg Potassium

You’ll notice that the amount of potassium is quite a bit higher than Gatorade, but the rest is pretty close. If you wanted to reduce the potassium, another option would be to use 1/2 tsp. each of regular salt and the Morton Lite Salt. This would change it to:
104mg sodium
40mg potassium

Recipe #2

If you wanted to reduce the amount of potassium, or simply didn’t want to buy some Morton Lite Salt, here is another option.

1/2 cup orange juice
9 tbs. Sugar
3/8 tsp Salt
Water to 2 liters

This gives, per an 8 oz serving:
14.4 grams carb (6.1%)
104 mg sodium
28.4 mg Potassium

I believe that you could substitute 2 tbs. of lemon juice for the orange juice and it would come out the same (or at least close).

Remember, the exact proportions aren’t as important as just using it for your long runs.

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How To Make a Sports Drink

Nutrition, Training
An easy to follow recipe for making a sports drink that boosts your energy and helps replenish body fluids during and after strenuous activity.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 3 minutes

Here’s How:

  1. Get a clean glass or bottle to hold the ingredients.
  2. Add everything together.
  3. Stir in ice or use cool water.
  4. Mix thoroughly.
  5. Drink.

Tips:

  1. Use any fruit juice as a flavoring. Such as lemon or orange juice.
  2. Try unsweetened Kool-Aid as a flavoring.
  3. Never add more than 4 tsp of sugar to 8 ounces of water.

What You Need:

  • A Glass or Bottle
  • 4 tsp of Sugar
  • 1/4 tsp of Salt
  • 1 tsp of Flavoring
  • 8 ounces of Water

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Does a “raw” vegan diet really enhance health and weight loss?

1 Comment / Nutrition, Training
Q Does a “raw” vegan diet really enhance health and weight loss?
A The “raw” foods diet is a strict vegetarian (vegan) diet that excludes all animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) and processed foods. It is high in raw fruits and vegetables, but can also include some grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, sprouts, and dehydrated foods. Raw foodists believe that heating foods over 116 degrees Fahrenheit destroys health properties, enzymes, vitamins, etc. and makes food “toxic” to the body. Most raw food advocates also believe in eating only organically grown foods.

While adding more raw foods to your diet is healthy for most people, please keep in mind that the benefits that raw foodists tout about their diet are all claims that have NOT been backed up by scientific evidence.

Here are a few more of the myths and truths of the raw food diet:

Claim: A raw food diet will result in weight loss. Following a raw food diet will allow you to eat as much food as you want and still lose weight.
Fact: Too much of anything, raw food or not, will lead to weight gain.

Claim: Raw foods contain all the nutrients, protein, and vitamins you need.
Fact: When you limit your choices to only raw foods, you are eliminating a tremendous amount of other types of foods, some of which are healthy, and others that are not healthy. Yes, fruits and vegetables contain small amounts of protein, but it’s very difficult to meet your protein needs, let alone your needs for vitamins (such as B12, which only occurs naturally in animal products) and minerals like calcium and iron.

Claim: Heat can destroy health-enhancing properties of food.
Fact: While it’s true that heating can destroy some vitamins, heat can also ENHANCE certain properties. Clinical research shows, for example, that lycopene (the healthy phytochemical found in red foods like tomatoes that protects against certain cancers) is greater in processed foods and better absorbed by the body from heated foods.

This is no miracle diet. Not only is it extremely difficult to stick with, but it really limits the foods and variety that you can get. The raw food diet is also risky and can result in nutrient deficiencies, food poisoning (from sprouts and uncooked produce), and lower bone density.

Your best bet for weight loss and overall health is to eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes all foods in moderation. A much safer and healthier approach is to avoid or limit highly processed foods. A diet without these foods is high in the raw fruits and veggies, but also in healthy grains, breads, cereals, lean protein sources, and calcium-rich foods like dairy or fortified soy milk.

A great book that dispels many of the claims of the raw food diet is The Raw Secrets: The Raw Vegan Diet in the Real World. Be sure to discuss this diet with your health care provider first, in addition to getting plenty of unbiased research about its effects.

If you want to try adding more raw foods to your diet in general, a fun raw cookbook is Raw: The Uncook Book: The New Vegetarian Food for Life by Juliano Brotman. His recipes are both beautiful and tasty, but many are time-consuming and contain obscure ingredients.

Written by Becky Hand, Licensed & Registered Dietitian and Nicole Nichols, Health Educator

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