Most peo­ple don’t need a “sports drink” at all when they exer­cise.  There’s noth­ing bet­ter than water at replac­ing the fluid you’ve lost from work­ing up a good sweat.

Unless, that is, you’re a marathoner or a triath­lete, or you work out hard for more than half an hour at a time.  Then you may have to con­cern your­self with the min­er­als you’re los­ing in exer­cise.  And dur­ing an extended work­out, your body might need an extra sup­ply of readily-available energy in the form of carbohydrates.

Then a sports drink could be useful.

One of the super-fit ath­letes in my prac­tice wanted to steer clear of all the artificial-sounding ingre­di­ents in widely-available com­mer­cial sports drinks.  So she asked me -

What are the alter­na­tives to sports drinks?

One viable alter­na­tive is diluted fruit juice.  Orange juice is a good choice.  Use one part OJ to two parts water.  The orange juice has sug­ars and min­er­als in it that will replace much of what your body’s lost.  And the two-to-one dilu­tion fac­tor makes sure you’re get­ting plenty of fluid replace­ment with­out a neg­a­tive post-sugar crash.

Another choice that many health-conscious ath­letes are mak­ing is coconut water.

(It’s not coconut milk – coconut milk is extracted from mature coconut flesh.  Coconut water is the liq­uid inside the imma­ture fruit.)

Coconut Water Benefits

Coconut water has 15 times the potas­sium of a banana, along with the mag­ne­sium and sodium needed to replace the min­er­als lost through exercise.

It’s low in calo­ries and refreshing.

Give it a try.  And then let me know how you do in your next endurance race.

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Deepen Your Body of Knowledge

What to Drink After You Exer­cise to Rebuild Muscle