Is Gatorade Bad For You?

[LLLLern]

Is Gatorade Bad For You?

question: Is Gatorade Bad For You?

I had a teacher in high school tell me that gatorade that comes from a bottle is actually too concentrated to properly re-hydrate a person and requires dilution. I love the drink for after a work out, so I was wondering if this is true or not.
Here's my take on sports or rehydration drinks.

Sports drinks such as Gatorade are good for getting you re-hydrated and energized if you are doing intense or long-duration exercise - especially if in a hot environment.

There are three words to take note of here: intense, duration and hot. If you are doing light exercise or doing nothing at all (couch-warming) - then Gatorade is a big waste of money. In this situation (and arguably in any typical workout) water is perfectly adequate.

Gatorade provides sodium and potassium. If you are sweating heavily you will lose these two minerals in your sweat. However - I believe you would need to be doing a serious amount of exercise (hours) before loss of these minerals will become a problem (this is a different story if diarrhea and vomiting are involved).

If you drink a whole bottle of Gatorade you are consuming about 56 grams of sugar -- this is not required in a normal sedentary lifestyle -- and in this situation it could be considered "bad" for you.

Gatorade Ingredients
water, sucrose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, salt, sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate, ester gum, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, yellow 5

Gatorade Nutrition Facts
serving size: 8 fl oz; calories 50; total fat 0g; sodium 110mg; potassium 30mg; total carbs 14g; sugars 14g

Let's open this up for discussion.



another cut and paste but I have thinking about this for some time now.

[Paladin]

Well I am sure this will draw some fire llllern, but I enjoy Gatorade, and more specifically for me Poweraid.

I guess it is unfortunate that when I have these it is usually not after hours of exercise. That is usually when the protein shake comes in to play. However while I am in town, if I am getting thirsty and am out of water, or forgot to bring some, I will opt for one of these. This also includes any social gatherings, since I can't seem to handle tap water anymore since I got my purifier, I like to have a bottle with me to drink instead of whatever they are drinking.

I know this is pretty much empty calories in my situation, but it is better than some of the alternatives.

[B-natural]

This is true, it has to do with the value or content of electrolytes in the drink. After a workout sodium and potassium are depleted and need to be replenished, however, as far as I have read the content is too high in gatorade, haveta look this up though,..