electrolytes

When I was a kid my sister Elin went to the municipal tennis courts on sand island. That was back in the very early 60s. Sometime I went and watched and I was always fascinated by a vending machine. It had salt tablets. When I questioned her she said that when you sweat  a lot you need to replace the salt in your body. It sounded gross.

It still does. That's why the invented Gatorade in 1965.

It's that time of the year again. It's getting hot, and the walks are getting longer. We're already in our second official heat wave and it's still June. Last Sundays walk was h-o-t. I have to keep hydrated and replace my "electrolytes".

I'm not even sure what that is. My computer dictionary says its "the ionized or ionizable constituents of a living cell, blood, or other organic matter." So now I need a dictionary, for the dictionary. I tried to look online. More double speak.

The Wise Geek says that they are "are minerals in the body that keep an electric charge, transporting nutrients to cells and exporting wastes away from cells. Generally, an electrolyte drink is a beverage that replaces essential electrolytes and minerals that are lost during long periods of vigorous exercise." That I almost understand. "The three main minerals lost during strenuous exercise are sodium, chloride, and potassium."

No offense to the fine researchers at the University of Florida, but I dislike Gatorade. If forced to drink it I use about 20% Gatorade, blue tastes best, and the rest water. I also dislike most other sports drinks I've tasted. Plus I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors and preservatives.

Two years ago when I started all this training I found some fizzy Alka-Seltzer like tablets that were all natural. They worked well. But I haven't seen them since. Can't even remember what they were called. Last year I drank SmartWater, which tastes like tap water with salt in. But it's really expensive.

For the past two or three weeks I've been seeing commercials for Crystal Light Pure Fitness. It looks like little packets of Kool Aide. They claim no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservative. My neice just had a gastric by-pass and is still post-op and can't drive, so I took her food shopping Tuesday. While she was looking for something, I found the Crystal Light Pure Fitness. I looked at three sides of the box. I scanned the ingredients. Everything seemed okay and I bought it. Today when I was taking the pix, I saw the large Truvia logo. (How did I miss that?) It has stevia in it. It's a natural sweetener, but I think it's bitter. Not sure how well I'm going to like this. But I'll try it and let you know.

The wise geek suggests making your own. It's not really portable like a dry mix, but looks like it should taste okay. And I could probably cut back on the sugar. Simply mix 2 quarts (1.9 l) of water with ½ cup (114.96 g) of sugar, ½ teaspoon (2.373 g) of salt, and ½ cup (4.04 oz) of orange juice.

This one is more portable but it has Kool Aid in it. From Instructables:
1 Kool-Aid packet
1/4 tsp Morton Lite salt
1/4 tsp sea salt
heaping 1/2 cup sugar
2 quarts water

Throw it all together and stir. Chill it and prepare to guzzle it down when you're sweating a ton from sports or working outside on a hot day.

The most popular one I saw contains baking soda. It sounds disgusting. It's been attributed to Bob Harper.

1 liter water
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 Tbsp. sea salt
2 Tbsp. agave nectar
(I like to add the juice of 1/2 a lemon for a little extra zing)

I'll keep looking. It's supposed to be hazy hot and humid all weekend.