Engaging in sports and exercise can improve your quality of life. Anyone already fit will agree that it helps you focus, sleep better, and do more with your time. It is no longer a pastime but a business and an industry. I often see companies luring people into believing they need fancy clothes or gadgets to feel comfortable and confident. Let’s face it! When I was in college, no one had an armband heart rate calculator!
A two per cent loss in body weight caused by dehydration can lead to a 20 per cent drop in performance for runners and even a one per cent drop can diminish the performance of some runners. Many runners taking part in marathons do so with a level of hydration of between two to five per cent, though runners do need to be careful about hydrating too much as they run. If you’re drinking as much as 800ml of fluid per hour to maintain your dehydration level at lower than two per cent, then you could be drinking too much.
We all stayed fit. The thing that most bothers me is the rise in popularity of “sports drinks”, which claim to hydrate faster than any other product. Between rounds and games, sports stars are seen sipping on brand-name drinks while children as young seven and 8-year-olds enjoy the same drink. It isn’t easy to distinguish between a sports drink and HEALTH DINK. Sports has become synonymous with HEALTH, so people believe that sports drinks will make them healthier. It is not healthy to consume a mixture of artificial colours, artificial sweeteners, sugars, and preservatives.
There is a reason for hydration supplements and their rehydrating abilities – they replace electrolytes that are lost from sweating. These electrolytes are salts found in living tissue. The fact that sweat tastes salty is proof of this. Salt must come from somewhere and have to be replaced. Salt can be easily replaced in your food over the long term, but it is beneficial to have dissolved electrolytes ready to drink if you are doing intense exercise. Sports drinks can help reduce cramping or strains, especially if you do intense exercise. But do you need all the preservatives, colours and flavours in your body? Here’s how you can make it so. You can make your own “sports drinks” right at home. Instead of giving you a recipe, do some research and discover what dieticians recommend. However, as a guide, you can dissolve half of a teaspoon of table salt in a litre of water before adding any flavouring you like, such as blackcurrant juice or similar.
If you want to improve your health, another option is to replace sports drinks with electrolyte powder. Celery juice is known for its high levels of sodium and potassium. Because it is a living organism, the concentrations and ratios are ideal for rehydration.