Black_Rose
1st December 2011, 05:06
I am completely bewildered of the utility of sports drinks in normal training , compared to a reasonable competitor, such as diluted fruit juice. For instance, Gatorade is modeled under the drinks given to cholera patients, and I accept that Gatorade confers an ergonomic advantage relative to water during strenuous exercise such as football practice and games, which is the setting where Gatorade was originally used for. A reductionist approach first asks what are the components of Gatorade - it's got electrolytes (notice the solecism on the word "it's"). Gatorade is a solution of sodium and potassium ions, a sucrose/dextrose mix, coloring, water - a rather pedestrian listing of ingredients that could be easily imitated. Fruit juice is similar although the concentration of sugars is higher, but the mundane solution is to dilute the solution of fructose with water. Gatorade has a higher Na+/K+ ratio than fruit juice, but in most cases, this is not a problem, unless one loses sodium through excessive perspiration.
I've tasted Gatorade before, and it doesn't have an exceptional taste; it's inferior to diluted fruit juice in that respect. Economically, diluted fruit juice is probably cheaper than Gatorade, unless you use bottled water to dilute the fruit juice and/or use an expensive juice such as asai or pomegranate juice.
Lastly, Gatorade has calories and I would not recommend if one aims to lose weight as the ingestion of calories would be a countervailing factor in creating a caloric deficit. If you take a two hour walk, it is not necessary to consume Gatorade, since that activity largely depends on the action of type I muscle fibers (slow-twitch) that are satisfactorily fueled from fatty acids that can be derived from circulating triglycerides, sequestered in a VLDL particles and liberated via muscle lipoprotein lipase, and free fatty acids bound to albumin and can be released from adipose tissues depots by activating the protein kinase A via epinephrine and glucagon by binding to the appropriate g-protein coupled receptor.
(I don't understand how baseball players, during games, would even need it, as Joe Mauer, the slugging catcher of the Minnesota Twins, prominently endorsed it in advertisements for the "G-Series", with the possible exception of conditioning and playing under torrid weather, since during games most players either sit on the bench or stand on the on-deck circle, or wait to field a ball. No player performs metabolically demanding aerobic or anaerobic activity for a sustained period of time, although pitching is physiologically demanding. I don't see how a player can deplete his ATP and creatine phosphate reservoir in his type IIb/x muscle fibers (fast twitch fibers), with the exception of running to track a fly ball, or running for extra bases, but a minutes rest will replete the available supply. Therefore, it seems that endogenous fatty acids and hepatic and muscle glycogen can adequately fuel baseball player's activities without the need for exogenous carbohydrates as supplementary fuel. However, electrolytes can remain a problem during excessive perspiration.)
I've tasted Gatorade before, and it doesn't have an exceptional taste; it's inferior to diluted fruit juice in that respect. Economically, diluted fruit juice is probably cheaper than Gatorade, unless you use bottled water to dilute the fruit juice and/or use an expensive juice such as asai or pomegranate juice.
Lastly, Gatorade has calories and I would not recommend if one aims to lose weight as the ingestion of calories would be a countervailing factor in creating a caloric deficit. If you take a two hour walk, it is not necessary to consume Gatorade, since that activity largely depends on the action of type I muscle fibers (slow-twitch) that are satisfactorily fueled from fatty acids that can be derived from circulating triglycerides, sequestered in a VLDL particles and liberated via muscle lipoprotein lipase, and free fatty acids bound to albumin and can be released from adipose tissues depots by activating the protein kinase A via epinephrine and glucagon by binding to the appropriate g-protein coupled receptor.
(I don't understand how baseball players, during games, would even need it, as Joe Mauer, the slugging catcher of the Minnesota Twins, prominently endorsed it in advertisements for the "G-Series", with the possible exception of conditioning and playing under torrid weather, since during games most players either sit on the bench or stand on the on-deck circle, or wait to field a ball. No player performs metabolically demanding aerobic or anaerobic activity for a sustained period of time, although pitching is physiologically demanding. I don't see how a player can deplete his ATP and creatine phosphate reservoir in his type IIb/x muscle fibers (fast twitch fibers), with the exception of running to track a fly ball, or running for extra bases, but a minutes rest will replete the available supply. Therefore, it seems that endogenous fatty acids and hepatic and muscle glycogen can adequately fuel baseball player's activities without the need for exogenous carbohydrates as supplementary fuel. However, electrolytes can remain a problem during excessive perspiration.)