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Homemade Gatorade

Old 06-07-19, 02:13 PM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
Gatorade is basically Kool Aid with salt and potassium added. Probably not hard to figure out a recipe with a packet or so of your favorite flavor kool aid, some sugar (and/or some maltodextrin instead), some salt, and some salt substitute (which uses potassium instead of sodium).
Okay, so I just wasted a silly amount of time exploring this. My conclusion is that

a) other drink mixes aren't that much cheaper, only maybe 20-40%

b) kool aid has a lot of high fructose corn syrup, make your own decision.

c) the largest savings was sucrose based 50/50 iced tea lemonade powder, but they only had the mix in a huge canister, I don't have the pantry space for that.

d) I'm not hard core enough to start with a 5lb bag of sugar and try to flavor it

For the moment, I've decided the cost savings in switching sugar bases is too small to merit the testing. What I may do however is pre-spike the gatorade powder with measured sodium and potassium salts to save the 60 cents of adding a Nuun tablet to each bottle.

I'll still carry the tablets and probably switch to using only those without the gatorade sugar late afternoon.

Last edited by UniChris; 06-08-19 at 08:08 AM.
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Old 06-07-19, 02:16 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by autonomy
Bingo. I was sick of drinking plain water and ran out of Nuun tablets, and then wife invited me for an unexpected ride together (the bike kind, people!). Looked up a recipe online quickly, just that - salt, sugar, lemon juice - exceeded my expectations in being refreshing.
Doing this with a sodium salt only is not smart. Use the reduced sodium mix that has a lot of potassium chloride (ie, Morton "lite salt"), or use a pure potassium chloride salt ("Nu-Salt" etc) substitute and also table salt, in measured quantities.

Otherwise, yes. Another thing that's nice for flavor is red wine vinegar.
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Old 06-07-19, 02:25 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by UniChris
Okay, so I just wasted a silly amount of time exploring this. My conclusion is that

a) other drink mixes aren't that much cheaper, only maybe 20-40%

b) kool aid has a lot of high fructose corn syrup, make your own decision.

c) the largest savings was sucrose based 50/50 iced tea lemonade powder, but they only had the mix in a huge canister, I don't have the panty space for that.

d) I'm not hard core enough to start with a 5lb bag of sugar and try to flavor it

For the moment, I've decided the cost savings in switching sugar bases is too small to merit the testing. What I may do however is pre-spike the gatorade powder with measured sodium and potassium salts to save the 60 cents of adding a Nuun tablet to each bottle.

I'll still carry the tablets and probably switch to using only those without the gatorade sugar late afternoon.
FWIW, when I referenced Kool Aid, I was talking about when made from these .2oz flavor packets where you add your own sweetener. Not the presweetened drink powder.

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Old 06-07-19, 02:35 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by UniChris
c) the largest savings was sucrose based 50/50 iced tea lemonade powder, but they only had the mix in a huge canister, I don't have the panty space for that.
Really, who does?
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Old 06-07-19, 02:37 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by UniChris
Doing this with a sodium salt only is not smart. Use the reduced sodium mix that has a lot of potassium chloride (ie, Morton "lite salt"), or use a pure potassium chloride salt ("Nu-Salt" etc) substitute and also table salt, in measured quantities.

Otherwise, yes. Another thing that's nice for flavor is red wine vinegar.
Oh, I didn't care about electrolytes or anything like that. I ate. I was just going for flavor and hydration.
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Old 06-07-19, 03:10 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by autonomy
Oh, I didn't care about electrolytes or anything like that. I ate. I was just going for flavor and hydration.
Then why did you add salt?

Point is, if you're going to add it, add it in some semblance of Na/K balance.
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Old 06-07-19, 03:56 PM
  #32  
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BITD, like early 70’s, I filled one bottle with plain water and to the other I added a slug of red wine into the water. Kept my mouth from getting gummed up. And if I just needed giving up, like after attempting Mt Palomar I would find some shade and drink it all. It was all down hill from there!
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Old 06-07-19, 04:12 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
FWIW, when I referenced Kool Aid, I was talking about when made from these .2oz flavor packets where you add your own sweetener. Not the presweetened drink powder.
My Dad brought half a dozen of these things on a backpacking trip when I was ten or so, just old enough to be backpacking but still drinking koolaid. I was really spun up for drinking so much koolaid. Mom would never have allowed it. But - he didn't realize they needed sugar. Alas, what a terrible weekend!
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Old 06-07-19, 04:17 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
My Dad brought half a dozen of these things on a backpacking trip when I was ten or so, just old enough to be backpacking but still drinking koolaid. I was really spun up for drinking so much koolaid. Mom would never have allowed it. But - he didn't realize they needed sugar. Alas, what a terrible weekend!
Our family legend is the early chocolate pudding mix that required added milk, brought in powdered form. And the instant mashed potatoes.

Scout campout, water supply that was supposed to be there wasn't. Sum total of canteens was enough to make only one.

Scouts of course voted for the pudding.

What they got was chocolate potatoes.

Last edited by UniChris; 06-07-19 at 05:46 PM.
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Old 06-07-19, 05:28 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by CycleryNorth81
Do you make your own "Gatorade" electrolyte drink? Is it as good or better than the store bought stuff? Wanna share your recipe??

I'm not a fan of G-aid, Pwr-aid or any of the other sports drinks, just water. But, I am a believer in the pickle myth (I believe it's the brine, not the pickle) so there's always a jar of dill juice and along with that I also save the jalapeno juice from jars which I eat as much as pickles.

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Old 06-07-19, 07:39 PM
  #36  
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Potassium Chloride, sodium chloride, sugar of some kind, lemon juice.
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Old 06-07-19, 09:59 PM
  #37  
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There could be a pickle flavored Gatorade by now. Missing the boat, PepsiCo!
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Old 06-07-19, 10:13 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
There could be a pickle flavored Gatorade by now. Missing the boat, PepsiCo!
Er, well, don't store your gatorade powder canister in the same pantry storage tub as the curry powder and stuff.

Just sayin'

Last edited by UniChris; 06-08-19 at 08:07 AM.
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Old 06-08-19, 05:03 PM
  #39  
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So I'm sitting there with my .01 gram scale, tipping crystalline powders into improvised weighing trays and pouring the result into little baggies...

What I did was add about 300 mg of Sodium and 155 mg of potassium (via 750 and 300 mg of their chlorides), roughly comparable to what is in a Nuun tablet, and then a little over 2 scoops of gatorade powder to each bag, which I'll mix with a little under a liter of water.

Just out of curiosity I mixed a final batch of the salts and put them in a liter bottle of water to sample. Can't really taste the sodium (though the gatorade powder would double it), but do definitely get a hint of the uniquely odd taste of potassium chloride. How anyone thinks that stuff is a substitute for salt is beyond me, it tastes completely different.

In theory this saves me a 60 cent tablet per bottle. More practically it saves the extra step of getting out the tablet, waiting for it to dissolve, etc. Though once in the past I just put a tablet in each gatorade bag.

In theory I'm ending up with around 45-50 grams of sugar, 600 mg of sodium and around 240 mg of potassium per bottle. And yes, for 10+ hour ride I'm taking three dry and one mixed bottle; easier to bring one home again than go hunting for stuff to buy on the way.
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Old 06-08-19, 11:52 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
True.. but a hassle to make each time you want to fill a couple water bottles, and as I previously noted, premixing larger batch has the question of mixing all of the dry ingredients uniformly throughout.

A 3.3lb container of gatorade makes about 40 water bottles and I bought one for $7.50. Comes to about $.20 per bottle
Now that I re-read this statement that you don't want to go through the "hassle" to make your own drink, Who In the Freaking World Cares?
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Old 06-09-19, 04:40 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by CycleryNorth81
You are right. I am going to make 100 bottles worth.
You happy now?
Homemade Gatorade scientists have thin skin. Who knew?
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Old 06-13-19, 03:50 PM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by Homebrew01
Potassium Chloride, sodium chloride, sugar of some kind, lemon juice.
It's wild I just saw this, wife and I were talking about this since it's so hard to find anything decent! But in the end we settled on this exact combo!
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Old 06-14-19, 10:13 AM
  #43  
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Lemonade, limeade or orangeade (or combination) mixed on the weak side and just barely sweet enough. Add a pinch of Morton's Lite Salt (half sodium chloride, half potassium chloride) and you're all set. Lightly sweetened green tea with just a bit of sweetener (honey works well) and the same pinch of Lite Salt works too.
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Old 06-14-19, 11:15 AM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by Myosmith
Lemonade, limeade or orangeade (or combination) mixed on the weak side and just barely sweet enough. Add a pinch of Morton's Lite Salt (half sodium chloride, half potassium chloride) and you're all set. Lightly sweetened green tea with just a bit of sweetener (honey works well) and the same pinch of Lite Salt works too.
What I like about the homemade stuff is that you get to choose the flavor and sweetness. Add a pinch of Morton Lite salt and you are done not to mention the cost saving over the commercial stuff.
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Old 06-14-19, 05:53 PM
  #45  
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Never made my own, but I always mixed the powder with a little more water and some lemonade or juice.
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Old 06-24-19, 07:34 AM
  #46  
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So I've had an issue my last three rides with a backpack causing a sweat-friction burn on the small of my back. (Yes, I know, backpacks bad, but there's only so much you can mount on a unicycle frame).

The thing is this hadn't happened before, with the same breathable poly top, same backpack, and greater distances. Originally I was thinking my sweat might have cumulatively soaked into things so both laundered and hand washed the top, or maybe the waterproofing on the pack cloth was gone (it is, whatever inside is against my back ends up soaked).

Then I realized the first of these rides was when I started adding weighed sodium and potassium salts to gatorade powder instead of a Nuun tablet.

It's a bit farfetched, but kind of wondering if as a result of intake there was more salt in my sweat than previously and that made this worse, someone in another thread recently commented on being well-stocked with electrolytes causing salt stains on shorts.

Putting chamois cream on my lower back before and during the ride didn't really help. Rising the shirt in a bathroom sink didn't do much (though it felt nice everywhere else) No really unusual soreness in the saddle area, actually just came out of a century feeling better there than I had on some shorter previous rides. Did have some irritation from salt around my eyes when I tried to wash my face at a sink, but that kind of thing goes all the way back to high school gym class.
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Old 06-24-19, 02:36 PM
  #47  
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I like Nuun tablets but, A they're a little pricey, B they're not as available, C I like a little more flavor.

- Zero cal single serving drink mix to taste.
(I'm a big fan of peach tea)
- Good pinch of Nu-salt (potassium)
- ~1/8 tsp baking soda (I've done this enough that I just dump some in my palm & eyeball it)
- I'll add sugar sometimes for longer rides

Only takes me maybe an extra minute when making 2 bottles.
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Old 06-24-19, 08:49 PM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by TheRiles
I like Nuun tablets but, A they're a little pricey, B they're not as available, C I like a little more flavor.

- Zero cal single serving drink mix to taste.
(I'm a big fan of peach tea)
- Good pinch of Nu-salt (potassium)
- ~1/8 tsp baking soda (I've done this enough that I just dump some in my palm & eyeball it)
- I'll add sugar sometimes for longer rides

Only takes me maybe an extra minute when making 2 bottles.
Sounds like a good recipe. Add sugar as needed.
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Old 06-25-19, 11:14 PM
  #49  
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bruh Gatorade ??? WHY ??? it does nothing , maybe gives you a mental illusion , i always joke gator aid is just colored sweat with sugar added ,

my adive to you would be to just ass sugar to water maybe a bit of salt , cut out the silly coloring , and test that out , combine that with honey , and molasses with salt , in a rubber squeeze bottle so it doesn't get messy , fuel your rides on that for a while , if you do any real riding there really isnt much more you need .

i dont even brag , but ill easily get 40 to 60 miles on 1 cup of oatmeal mixed with 3 table spoons of sugar , backed up with what ever nutty granola bar is on sale , back that up with water and the homemade energy gel , if im racing ill do caffeine to help ease the hurt ,

i tried gator aid one time it just made me have to peee quicker , i usually go for a lite soda like a goya or a organic soda while on the road , sometimes a Snapple really perks me up , but usually on the road i have 4 bars and the energy gel mix , and i have easily done a few big rides over 100 miles without feeling any real bonk out side of the normal perimeters

let me know what kind of riding you do ill give you advice on fueling , but id say scrap any store bought drink , unless its like ketones or some of the crazy drinks that cost 30 bucks a bottle , like the froome juice lololol
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