giorgios

I normally have a stocked supply of gatorade in my pantry. When I spot a sale I grab them by the case. The other day after a 12 mile long training run in 90 degree heat I was thirsty for gatorade after my run. I had none so I grabed a grape Kool-Aid envelope, 3/4 cups sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a two quart glass pither with water and ice. It tasted similar to my favorite gatorade flavor Fierce Grape I chugged the entire pither glass by glass...

I don't have a gatorade bottle to compare sugar and sodium amounts gatorade also has electrolites?

dokie

I am Ron Burgandy?

RonH

Gatorade provides electrolytes and potassium.
Kool-aid provides empty calories.

farrellcollie

There are several homemade gatorade drink recipes around - many use kool aide or other flavoring and add salt and potassium.

JanMM

adding some salt to kool-aid is not a bad idea - the salt is more important for most folks than potassium. That said, do a little research - check out those recipes listed above.

ehsiung

Yup, I always make my own with Recipe #1 from here.
The nutritional and electrolyte breakdown is very similar to Gatorade, with the exception of more potassium.

vulpes

What's the potassium source in that recipe? Does it come from the Coolade mix?

10 tbs. sugar (5/8 cups or 120 grams) (Sucrose)
.75 tsp Morton Lite salt (4.2 grams) (Sodium chloride)
1 package of unsweetened Coolade mix for flavor (?)
Water to make 2 liters (H2O)

UmneyDurak

I think Gu2O is a better alternative to both of those products. One jug is 17 bucks, and it's enough for about 560 oz.

mtnbk3000

thats exactly what i was thinking when i read that question

Astronomical

Haha Wawa makes an electrolyte drink now.

CommuterRun

Get a container of each and compare the ingredients. I did this years ago and found Gatorade and Kool-Aid were pretty close to the same thing, close enough for my purposes anyway, and, partly because it doesn't have that "sports drink" stigma attached to it, Kool-Aid is cheaper.

n2t

I am kinda odd. I regularly drink koolaid without the sugar, I like the sour taste ao the stuff is pretty much water with some vit C content. Water is good enough for me I'm a humble comuter flavored water is probably all I need.

ehsiung

The potassium comes from the Morton Lite salt, which is a mix of sodium chloride (table salt) and potassium chloride ("k salt").

chinarider

Is it cheaper than powdered gatorade that you mix up yourself? That's pretty cheap. The can I have now has a $7.35 sticker on it & it makes about 90 8oz servings (full strength; I usually cut it almost in half for use while riding).

DannoXYZ 

Problem with Gatorade is that it has too few calories and electrolytes for the water-volume. Back when I was using it, I would get powdered Gatorade and mix it at 2x concentration in order to get the required 250cal/hr in 500ml of water. Even then, the electrolyte mix was still insufficient. You sweat away a significant amount of sodium, around 400-800mg/hr and you want to be taking it in at roughly the same amount.

Yeah, my solution was to add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8th teaspoon of NoSalt for potassium. The reason you need so much more sodium is that it's external to the cells and is sweated away easily. Potassium and magnesium exists primarily inside the cells and aren't lost in as large amounts.

Problem with the Gatorade was that the sugar was too concentrated in the required amounts and this slows down gastric emptying. Mixing my own drinks using maltodextrin turned out to be much better; the stuff is nowhere nearly as sweet as sugar. I use some concentrated orange or lime/lemon juice for flavoring.

mlts22 

A lot of fruit punch pouches don't use sugar, but artificial crap. I personally use Gatorade, or consider NUUN tablets.

vulpes

Oh. Thanks. I wonder if sea salt would be even better what with all the other trace minerals in it (including potassium).

blickblocks

I thought that electrolytes could only form when consuming a specific ratio of sugar to salt. Maybe I don't understand everything you said.

edp773

https://health.howstuffworks.com/question565.htm

BJC

Daniel4

It's all just sugar water.

sports-drinks-unnecessary-counterproductive-for-most-people-1.2517424

JanMM

Zombie Thread Alert!

dedhed

Kool aid you drink before agreeing with a conspiracy.
Gatorade you dump on a coach after winning.

EnjoyinTheRide

Ive always been a big gatorade fan. I always bring a bottle with me. I like the original lemon lime flavor because that's what they gave us in pop warner football practice. Thats all they had when it first came out. I do get the orange or fruit punch if they dont have the lemon lime.

Aldi markets usually has a good sale. I bought 8 bottles for 4.99 (small ones like in the photo below)


Fits perfect in the cup holder...

Edit..Lol I didnt realize this was a zombie thread...I should buy stock in Gatorade....

Aidoneus

I cannot stand the taste of Gatorade. I get enough potassium on a ride from a banana, and salt from gorp. They both help deter any half-wheelers, too.