Hydration: Recommended choices?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

With heat waves and summer time temperatures getting into the 90s and 100s in places, what are some good pro hydration drinks you all recommend?

I stick to cold water and I like to freeze some of it into ice. I also like Gatorade, but, what are some good alternatives that do not have the sugars and calories and food coloring chemicals? I was told a blend of fruit juices made in a blender is superior to Gatorade.

I also notice there are "Electrolyte waters" being sold that have potassium and other salts in them.

[tvenuto]

You should further notice that those "electrolyte waters" now have _{"added for taste"} verbiage on the bottle, as I think they got called on the fact that the added salts are doing little to nothing from a hydration/performance perspective.

Drinking sugar, when not actively engaged in some intense physical activity, is one of the worst things you can be doing. So your notion to avoid Gatorade is a good one.

My first question would be: do you think you are dehydrated, despite a reasonable water intake? What makes you think this?

I work in an space that is not climate controlled, and will coach for 4-5 hours on end, and in that time drink 2-2.5 liters of water during the hot and humid east coast summers. I also work out on these days, go through 3 shirts per day if it's particularly hot. Periodically, I'll take some multi mineral tablets, but otherwise I do nothing more than drink water, and eat a diet that includes fruits and veggies (both of which contain water). I prefer the GNC brand multi-mineral, and like all good supplements, it's cheap. I've also heard that some athletes shake some salt substitute (which contains potassium chloride) into their water during the hot months, but I've never tried that.

I'm of the opinion that people drink these hydration drinks so that they can have their sweet drink and feel like they're "being healthy." Now, if you're a roofer and are doing 8hrs of physical labor in the sun, then gatorade is probably a good idea. But for the rest of us here who are primarily desk jockeys, you need nothing more than to drink water consistently throughout the day.

[bdblue]

Basically for most people it is hard to beat water.

I remember many years ago we used to have salt tablets in the school gym, because sweating during exercise could reduce the salt in your body. But these days we usually get so much extra salt in our food that we don't need salt tablets. Nevertheless there are other electrolytes that are beneficial for replacement if you are doing heavy exercise. I don't think working outside is quite the same thing.

Gatorade and other similar drinks are helpful for replacing electrolytes, but they are mixed too strong for use during exercise. If you put too much food in your stomach it takes away from the ability of your circulatory system to serve your muscles and cool your body through evaporation of sweat. As someone said long ago, Gatorade is mixed strong in order to sell it, thinking "you can't charge people money for something that tastes like plain water". Well history has proven that to be wrong, but the point is that Gatorade works better for your body if you mix it half and half with plain water.

One of my hobbies is bicycling. I've talked to numerous people, as well as my own experience, and people think that they feel better after a long training ride if they use diluted gatorade during the training compared with just drinking water.

YMMV of course, but it's hard to find evidence that you are missing out on much by just drinking water. You have to determine how much to drink by trial and error. If you are working outside and sweating a lot, and you get really thirsty, you aren't drinking enough. After you stop working, go inside and cool off, if you are still very thirsty then you didn't drink enough. I've read that you have to drink before you get thirsty. The water is essential for your circulatory system and essential for you to be able to sweat. You also breathe out water vapor and this cools you too. During exercise you are better off to drink a certain amount of water vs. pouring it on your head.

[sbaker345]

Honestly, don't overlook salt, The more water you drink the more adept your body is at eliminating it. I bring a gallon jug to the unairconditioned gym and an hour or two later leave with around half of it left, and that's moderating how much I drink to avoid feeling sick. I work at a subway on a college campus during the semester, and it gets surprisingly hot considering the building is filled to capacity with students all the ovens can easily raise it above 90F behind the counter. I have learned that drinking poweraide and adding extra salt to my lunch makes me handle the heat much better than plain water.

[Kirko]

Before gator-aide atheletes used a mixture of orange juice and water.

[Evil D]

Back in the day when I rode BMX pretty hardcore, we could easily spend the middle 12 hour chunk of a day out in the sun riding dirt jumps. We never had any fancy sports drinks. One thing we would do once in a while was drink salt water. Just drinking a quarter to half a teaspoon of table salt dissolved in a big glass of water would prevent cramps and keep you from getting dehydrated. Salt helps your body retain water, which is a good thing when you're sweating like a pig. Another thing you can do, and this may surprise some and gross out others, is drink pickle juice. This seems to be catching on, and you can even buy pickle juice drinks now. This is also another salt-drink based idea, and is pretty dang good if you like pickles.

[bdblue]

...a quarter to half a teaspoon of table salt dissolved in a big glass of water would prevent cramps...

...this may surprise some and gross out others, is drink pickle juice...

You mention cramps. I have read that eating bananas helps prevent cramps due to the potassium in bananas.

And pickle juice- Ive seen it a lot at bicycle rallies. I don't think it's gross, and I wasn't interested for awhile, but I like dill pickles and the drink actually isn't bad. I can't say how well it works though.

[TomAiello]

I just go with water. I drink a lot of it, and I am outdoors and active for a large part of the majority of my days. Water works for me. :)

[Surfingringo]

You should further notice that those "electrolyte waters" now have _{"added for taste"} verbiage on the bottle, as I think they got called on the fact that the added salts are doing little to nothing from a hydration/performance perspective.

Drinking sugar, when not actively engaged in some intense physical activity, is one of the worst things you can be doing. So your notion to avoid Gatorade is a good one.

My first question would be: do you think you are dehydrated, despite a reasonable water intake? What makes you think this?

I work in an space that is not climate controlled, and will coach for 4-5 hours on end, and in that time drink 2-2.5 liters of water during the hot and humid east coast summers. I also work out on these days, go through 3 shirts per day if it's particularly hot. Periodically, I'll take some multi mineral tablets, but otherwise I do nothing more than drink water, and eat a diet that includes fruits and veggies (both of which contain water). I prefer the GNC brand multi-mineral, and like all good supplements, it's cheap. I've also heard that some athletes shake some salt substitute (which contains potassium chloride) into their water during the hot months, but I've never tried that.

I'm of the opinion that people drink these hydration drinks so that they can have their sweet drink and feel like they're "being healthy." Now, if you're a roofer and are doing 8hrs of physical labor in the sun, then gatorade is probably a good idea. But for the rest of us here who are primarily desk jockeys, you need nothing more than to drink water consistently throughout the day.

pretty much what tvenuto said. I eat pretty clean and just drink water. I lose a lot of water fishing on the kayak. I weigh before and after my trip and I usually come in 7-8 pounds lighter than when I go out. That is even after drinking a few pounds of water while I'm out. I just try to drink plenty of plain water throughout the rest of the day and that seems to handle hydration just fine. I have noticed that if I am performing at that level for days and days on end i will start to get run down and will feel very groggy in the mornings. I tend to believe that this is from vitamin and mineral depletion. I have recently started taking a multi vitamin supplement and that seems to help. Any suggestions on supplements for that tvenuto?? Right now I am just taking centrum.

[bdblue]

I have noticed that if I am performing at that level for days and days on end i will start to get run down and will feel very groggy in the mornings. I tend to believe that this is from vitamin and mineral depletion.

It seems that these days there are a lot of different opinions on vitamins. A lot of people recommend vitamin D to help your body absorb other nutrients. At my last checkup my doctor told me I really needed to take D.

You could do your own experiments-
Sports drinks supply minerals, bananas supply some minerals, and of course there is always plain sugar. You could pick one of these and try it for awhile and see if you can tell a difference, then try another one for awhile, etc.

It seems that 8 pounds of water loss is a lot. I can do long bike rides in the high temps we have here and probably lose that much water, even if I drink about that much along the way, and I know how it makes me feel. Maybe another of your experiments should be to drink 2 or 3 quarts of water while you are out.

[Surfingringo]

Yeah, bdblue, the number is high for two reasons. I pound a lot of water before I launch and don't drink enough while I am out there. Probably half that water loss is pee. I should definitely increase my intake while on the water though.

[tvenuto]

I have noticed that if I am performing at that level for days and days on end i will start to get run down and will feel very groggy in the mornings. I tend to believe that this is from vitamin and mineral depletion. I have recently started taking a multi vitamin supplement and that seems to help. Any suggestions on supplements for that tvenuto?? Right now I am just taking centrum.

As I mentioned I like the multi-mineral from GNC (not even sure if they sell it anymore). I would say that we tend to get caught up in US RDA (recommended daily allowance), when that is really a minimum to maintain normal bodily function, so popping one vitamin tablet a day may not be replenishing what you're losing. The nice things about vitamins/minerals is that the majority of them are water soluble so you'll just excrete what you don't need.

Being a gringo in costa rica, Vitamin D is certainly not an issue for you, however, many people are indeed lacking in vitamin D.

As a final note I like to think outside the box, so it may be that the run-down feeling is something else, or a combination of factors. For instance it could just be volume of physical work catching up to you. Or perhaps fishing days change your sleep pattern that isn't sustainable for extended periods.

[twinboysdad]

My take...and I admit to being a minimalist, is that eating high quality seasonal food eating in proper quantities and resting when you should theoretically be GTG. I supplement with ZMA for recovery on hard exercise day, and B vitamins some mornings. Occasional Muscle Milk when I feel beat up. I admit to being a tissue assassin and NEVER needing motivation so really resting is the one gift I could give myself more of.

[Ruden64]

Yeah I also suggest you to take the supplements for that. But make sure you choose the herbal ones as they are very beneficial. There are so many online megastores that deal in the herbal Green supplements. So you can get these pills very easily.

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

water mostly. coffee or tea in the morning. occasionally iced coffee in the afternoon for a pick me up, but then more water to counter it.

[Echo63]

I drink water, lots of water.
occasionally a gatorade, if i have been working hard.


the work canteen started selling reasonably priced insulated SS bottles - i bought two 1l versions.
they keep water cold all day, even when left in the hot car - and we have a nice filtered cold water tap in the coffee break areas, so i fill both at the start of the day, and the empty one whenever i return to the office.

Last year i had a 3L camelbak bladder, and would freeze big ice cubes to keep it cool all day (I asked the local mcdonalds for a bunch of "sundae lids" the 3" x1" plastic tops they put on sundaes when you buy one in the drive thru) 4 big ice cubes would keep my water cold all day (and the emergency snack chocolate bar too)

I hate drinking warm water - and have gone through a lot of water bottles over the years trying to find the perfect solution for summertime.
these seem to be working well, although they are heavy.

[JD Spydo]

With heat waves and summer time temperatures getting into the 90s and 100s in places, what are some good pro hydration drinks you all recommend?

I stick to cold water and I like to freeze some of it into ice. I also like Gatorade, but, what are some good alternatives that do not have the sugars and calories and food coloring chemicals? I was told a blend of fruit juices made in a blender is superior to Gatorade.

I also notice there are "Electrolyte waters" being sold that have potassium and other salts in them.

Interesting thread SPYDEREDGE because I've been a student of "survivalism" for about 12 to 15 years now collectively. I've learned that the two most important aspects and skills one must learn to survive just about any kind of disaster or anomaly are the skill of making water potable (drinkable) and the ability/skill to produce fire under just about any type of circumstance. You can survive almost a month without food if you keep your head but most people can't survive any longer than three days without potable water to drink.

The electrolyte apspect of water consumption is an important consideration>> because minerals play a far more vital role with human health than most people realize. Also with cold weather comining up I can't over-stresss the importance of mastering fire>> with fire you can disinfect water to make it safe to drink and produce heat to prevent hypothermia.

I use a gravity fed water filter made by Aquarain. It's similar to the British Berkfeld units but the Aquarain units are rated even better. The concepts of Fire & Water are indeed two of the most important skills to master. There are a myriad of products in many of the survival type magazines to aid in making water drinkable as well as many devices to help start fires>> I highly recommend you all to learn those two aspects of survival if you don't learn anything else.

[awa54]

For use while exercising I found a drink mix that has no sugar (though it does have maltodextrin and stevia), no artificial sweetener and a good mix of minerals, it's called Ultima replenisher. Alacer also makes a packet mix called ElectroMix that has some minerals and lacks all the sugar/sweetener of most sports drinks. The orange Ultima tastes like Tang (woohoo astronaut drink!) and is better tasting IMO than ElectroMix, which has a slightly acrid lemon flavor.

Honestly, I doubt that in my usage I'd be able to tell the difference between this and water in terms of performance, but the idea of replacing minerals at the same time I hydrate is appealing, so I do it.

I use the mix at at about 1/3 recommended strength and drink about 3/4 of a liter (big bike bottle) on a 10 mile ride whether I think I need it or not.

My physical therapist recommended using more salt in my diet as a benefit for nerve and muscle function... really, the low sodium propaganda we get so often is only relevant for people with specific medical issues, an otherwise healthy person who eats a little more salt doesn't just get high blood pressure from the increased salt intake. (all things in moderation of course!)

[awa54]

Yeah, bdblue, the number is high for two reasons. I pound a lot of water before I launch and don't drink enough while I am out there. Probably half that water loss is pee. I should definitely increase my intake while on the water though.

and you can get a free salt/mineral supplement by adding the occasional swallow of seawater!

[Monocrom]

I have to give the nod to cold water kept either in an insulated HydroFlask or an insulated Klean Kanteen bottle.

Both get the job done about the same. Plus, both will not allow water to get up to a certain temperature. Even in the hottest of Summer days, kept for a couple of days outside the fridge, the water will get up in temp.

But not beyond a certain amount of degrees. Meaning, you still get to enjoy very cool if not cold water.

HydroFlasks are textured on the outside. Honestly, if you can get a slightly older model that is Made in America, go for it! The current batch of HydroFlasks are Made in China and while the quality is still good, it is not as good as the older ones. Caps now squeak on many of the individual bottles. The threads aren't as smooth. Caps themselves have a (for lack of a better term) machining seam right down the middle where the two parts of the cap were joined in the middle to make it one piece. Once again, quality is still good. But the older ones were better. Also, with the current batch, the true narrow mouth design is gone! Their new narrow-mouth version would be other brands' wide-mouth. I recommend checking dedicated, independent, Health Food stores in your area. Best place to stumble onto the older version.

Klean Kanteens are just great. I'd put the overall quality of the current version on par with that of the older HydroFlasks. One thing though, they don't have a slightly rough coating on the outside like HydroFlasks do. They're actually quite smooth.

So yeah..... Ice cold water in the right insulated water-bottle.