22/365 Gatorade

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

When I played softball back in the day, I remember hungrily gulping down Gatorade. My favorite was lemon lime, a strange fluorescent colored drink. This was okay seeing as though I was dripping with sweat under the hot summer sun. The purpose of drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, and Accelerade are to restock your electrolytes like potassium and sodium so that your muscles can keep contracting normally. There's sugar in it because studies have shown that drinks with carbohydrates in them go down faster. This is important so that you can rehydrate quicker and get back in the game, groove, or race.

However, if you're just sitting at your desk or in class, leave the Gatorade behind! You are unnecessarily adding sodium to your system and high fructose corn syrup for that matter. I don't care if it says G2, Rain, or whatever on the label. Check out the ingredients and the calories (multiple by 2 because there are 2 servings in each bottle). Even still, I'd say the average person working out very intensely could do with just half a bottle and then follow it with the same amount of water later. 

On Gatorade's website, they advertised a "G-Natural" series. They claim that it has natural ingredients but please look at the label before you buy it. They didn't actually have that information available on their site. However, the whole drink is only 100 calories, I'm more okay with this one. We'll see...

Bottom line: Only drink Gatorade and it's friends if you are sweating a lot or doing your physical activity when it's very hot or humid. Follow with water when you finish!

In health,

Lauren