Is Gatorade really that good for you?!
Is Gatorade really that good for you?
Okay so Gatorade is what you drink when you work and are dehydrated or need to be replenished, but is it really that good for you, it has a lot of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Should i drink it or just stick with water? or vitamin water
Answers:
The big part about this is electrolyte balance. You do lose a certain amount of electrolytes like sodium, potassium and calcium when you sweat, have been vomiting, had diarrhea or been urinating excessively. Plain H2O is fine if you are just thirsty and are NOT really dehydrated. If you are truly dehydrated you need to replace some those electrolytes you have lost as well as the water. However you want to be careful not over do the electrolytes.
Plus full strength Gatorade tends to be a bit harsh on the stomach. One thing you do not want to do when dehydrated is to vomit. A lot of the doctors I use to work with would sometimes recommend half-strength Gatorade, especially if you were in a situation where getting an IV was not an option. Needless to say, when ever I went out in the field (usually just exercises, but we played for real) I always made sure I had some powdered Gatorade in my supplies, but I never gave it to my patients full strength