Does gatorade really do anything for you?

boobies! wrote:

Gatorade won't dehydrate you. It's an isotonic solution (that's where they claim to have worked on getting things specific in the lab, well that and testing it on athletes). It's like .9% saline (the stuff they give to people in the ER who are bleeding out) with some other stuff added in (the sugars and some vitamins).

Thanks, always knew the guy was full of baloney, but didn't know the % salinity. By the way, if you put a tiny amount of salt into Kool Aid it tastes suspiciously like ... Gatorade. Obviously it doesn't have (potassium or whatver) the other stuff in it.

References please to the liver issue.

Also, I would argue that Gatorade after a workout is less important than during it. Food does a nice job of doing all the stuff post-exercise and you need to consume a good deal of Gatorade to get the 1g/kg/hr post exercise.

I understand the post, sucrose however is a high glycemic carb.

The theory on glycemic index affecting glycogen synthesis isn't as case closed as many believe. It makes sense in theory, however many studies have shown that it does not matter what type of carb is taken in after exercise, just the timing of it. I'll have to go look them up but that was the conclusion that researchers such as Costill came to in his book on running performance I believe.

If you want to learn about fueling for endurance athletes, everything you need to know is at: hammernutrition.com.

Consuming gatorade during exercise is like trying to heat your house by burning newspaper. It's a quick burning fuel that spikes your insuling level only to crash shortly thereafter. If consumed at the concentration of the liquid bought in stores, it is too concentrated to be absorbed through the digestive tract. The body then shunts liquid from the internal organs to dilute it. Look up the term "osmolality".

The electrolyte content of a sports drink is pretty small compared to the average daily consumption of salt and potassium. The most valuable function of electrolytes in sports drinks may not be that they're replacing the electrolytes that you've lost, but that their presense increases the rate of stomach emptying and intestinal absorption of fluid, which allows you to drink more and stay hydrated longer. It's probably not that important to replace your electrolyte losses during exercise, unless its longer than a couple of hours.Personally, I just can't make myself drink sports drinks while I'm running, because they taste way too sweet to me. I drink water and pop an occasional gel instead.

Gaturade endurance has MUCH MUCH more salt / potassium than regular gatorade. Check it out.

...but doesn't dextrose=table sugar, which equals one part sucrose + one part fructose? What then is the difference???

Is the endurance formula as easy to find as the regular stuff? I guess I haven't shopped for gatorade lately so I wouldn't know, but it looks like something I'd like to try.

Endurance is definitely much harder to come by...and much more expensive.

Gatorade is poison. Drink Beer. Pissing is pleasure.

Yes, it's been my sports drink of choice for 35 years and what was in my drink bottles while bike racing y'day. It seems to do the job for me.

Anybody else remember those big bottles of lemon/lime they came in originally? My family recycled a ton of those back in the day.

gator drinker wrote:

...but doesn't dextrose=table sugar, which equals one part sucrose + one part fructose? What then is the difference???

Dextrose is a synonym for glucose. Sucrose (common table sugar) is a polysaccharide (complex sugar molecule) formed from one glucose and one fructose molecule. Sucrose is not a low glycemic index food, it is lower than glucose but higher than longer chain polysaccharides such as maltodextrin.

To the original appender, Gatorade and similar sports drinks consumed during exercise definitely improve performance for endurance events lasting more than an hour or so by replacing glycogen consumed during exercise. If you can tolerate Gatorade, it's a decent choice because it is so widely available and relatively inexpensive. If you don't tolerate Gatorade well, you might want to experiment with other sports drinks or with a combination of gels and water.

For post exercise recovery, you would do better with more balanced (not 100% carbohydrate) nutrition consisting of carbs, protein, and some fat calories. Recovery drinks such as Endurox R4 are formulated for this purpose. Some use nutritional supplement beverages such as Ensure or, if you tolerate it, chocolate milk. Of course there is the ubiquitous and ever popular real food approach to post run nutrition that works just as well.

fat slows down the rate of glycogen replenishment. I'd go with a carb+protein mix like accelerade for recovery.

[quote]ZachAttack wrote:

The electrolyte content of a sports drink is pretty small compared to the average daily consumption of salt and potassium. The most valuable function of electrolytes in sports drinks may not be that they're replacing the electrolytes that you've lost, but that their presense increases the rate of stomach emptying and intestinal absorption of fluid, which allows you to drink more and stay hydrated longer. It's probably not that important to replace your electrolyte losses during exercise, unless its longer than a couple of hours.

Personally, I just can't make myself drink sports drinks while I'm running, because they taste way too sweet to me. I drink water and pop an occasional gel instead.

[quote]bad connection wrote:

Well done ZachAttack. Well done. :)