Today's Tip: Sports Drink Info & Make-It-Yourself Recipes

As promised, I did some research and put together a list of various sports drink recipes you can make at home.  I'm going to put them to the test with my kids, starting with the first one and making my way through each.  Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions to add! 

Note: I did have someone share yesterday that many professional athletes drink Pedialyte both before and during intense workouts for replenishment of lost fluids.

 

Before we go any further, here are some facts about sports drinks:

 

The important ingredients of a sports drink are:

• water: to keep the body hydrated
• salts:  to aid in that hydration (salt makes the solution isotonic), and to replace some (but not all) of the lost salts from sweat
• carbohydrates (sugars): for energy 
• potassium: to convert glucose into glycogen for storage and later use (athletes use potassium at accelerated rates so their requirements are higher than that of the average person. Potassium deficit can stop an athlete in his/her tracks because potassium is lost in sweat)

Did you know?  Two tablespoons of lemon juice contain almost exactly the amount of potassium in 8 oz of a typical sports drink.

Men's Health magazine suggests the following do-it-yourself sports drink recipe:

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup orange juice, or Trop 50
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 large pinch of salt

 

From Wellness Mama:

• 1 quart of liquid (options: green tea, herbal teas, coconut water, plain water, etc)
• ⅛-1/4 tsp sea salt (regular table salt will work, but it doesn’t have all the trace minerals)
• ¼ to ½ tsp crushed Calcium magnesium tablets or powder (optional)
• ¼ cup or more of juice (optional; can use grape, apple, lemon, lime, pineapple, etc)
• 1-2 TBSP sweetener (optional; can use honey, stevia, etc.)

 

Instructions

• Brew tea if using or slightly warm base liquid
• Add sea salt and calcium magnesium (if using)
• Add juice and mix or shake well
• Cool and store in fridge until ready to use

Example: 1 quart of tea (brewed with Red Raspberry Leaf, Alfalfa, Nettle and Stevia), ¼ tsp sea salt, ¼ tsp calcium magnesium powder (about 1,000 mg), and ¼ cup grape or apple juice

 

 

General Recipes:

 

A) Mix Vitamin C powder or Emergen-C with water and a little juice for flavor. Adjust to taste.

 

B) Mix:

1 cup (8 oz) water

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

small pinch of salt

Flavoring and sweetener to taste (Crystal Light Pure or other sweetener - look for stevia-based sweetener)

 

C) Mix:

30 oz boiling water

2 Tea Bags

6 level teaspoon sugar (24 grams)
A pinch of salt (0.5 grams)
2 oz lemon juice (about 55 grams)

D) For a 20-Oz. Sports Drink:

3 tablespoons table sugar

1/8 teaspoon table salt

Flavoring to taste - 2-3 tablespoons of orange juice and/or lemon juice, or 1/3 of a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid or Wyler's drink mix, etc.

 

Keep refrigerated.

 

E) Mix:

70% water

30% orange juice
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
small amount of sugar to your energy and taste needs
pinch of salt (sodium is good, great if you can get some with potassium also)