Yes, but riding at a relaxed pace on a tour doesn't raise much of a sweat. I see people out for a stroll drinking Gatorade ... mothers giving their kids Gatorade ... all sorts of situations where Gatorade is overkill and even potentially harmful (tooth decay, to name one harmful side effect), but Gatorade marketing has convinced these people that the moment they get off the sofa they've exerted themselves enough to need Gatorade.

If all you do is to exert yourself at a moderate level and don't sweat much, the food consumed in western society has ample salts and other electrolytes to compensate ... more than ample in many cases.

If you are riding in hot conditions, or sweating a lot because you're doing a lot of climbing or something on your tour, you should consider replacing your electrolytes. The electrolytes are •sodium (Na+), •potassium (K+), •chloride (Cl-), •calcium (Ca2+), •magnesium (Mg2+), •bicarbonate (HCO3-), •phosphate (PO42-), and •sulfate (SO42-)

1) You can do this by eating foods specifically high in sodium and potassium in particular (they are the two main electrolytes) ... consuming salted almonds, for example, would do the trick. Salted almonds not only have the sodium and potassium, but they have most/all of the rest of the minor electrolytes too.

2) You can consume electrolyte pills. Hammer Nutrition products have an electrolyte supplement which is quite good, or you can find similar things at some Health Food stores. Carrying a small bottle of electrolyte pills for those occasions where you might be losing a lot of sweat is a lot lighter than carrying 2 lbs of powder. A good multivit with minerals would have most of these electrolytes too. I often carry a multivit on tours.

3) Or you can do as I suggested above and make your own sports drink using HalfSalt.

If you are particularly attached to Gatorade, and if you want to carry an extra 2 lbs around with you ... go for it. I'd rather use something that tastes so much better, has what I need, and is lighter to carry around.


Have a read through some info ...

-- Scroll down and read the articles about electrolytes here: http://www.ultracycling.com/siteindex.html
-- About electrolytes:http://health.howstuffworks.com/well...uestion565.htm
-- Salted almonds: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...roducts/3170/2 ... scroll down and you'll see that they are high in sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, another vitamins and minerals.
-- Compare with lemon gatorade powder which only has sodium and potassium: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/3861/2 , and orange gatorade powder which, for some reason, has a little bit more: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/9232/2
-- And compare with ready-to-drink gatorade http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/9233/2 which doesn't have much of anything in it either.