Make Your Own Healthy Electrolyte Sports Drink

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When you walk down the drink aisle of any convenience store or grocery store, the shelves are filled with sports drinks- you know the ones- and they have pictures of sports stars and claim to fill your body with all the electrolytes that you need to function properly. They must be good for you, right? You see football players and soccer stars chugging them down on the playing field.

Well, the truth of the matter is, although professional athletes might drink those sports drinks where you can see them, it’s probably because they are paid to do so more than they think those drinks are healthy for them. Although they will help to maintain the body’s electrolyte balance after hard exercise, when it comes right down to it, those drinks are really little more than colored sugar water (high fructose corn syrup, we might add) loaded with artificial colors, flavors, and maybe a bit of salt. That’s it. Three or four dollars for that? Seriously?

The marketing geniuses who work with sports drinks have led us to believe that everyone needs these special drinks for our bodies to recover, even if all we’ve done is break a sweat sorting through a rummage sale! It’s important to note that there is a huge difference between a professional athlete, who might spend 6 or more hours a day working out and practicing, and those 30 minute treadmill sessions. Our bodies were designed to maintain a healthy level of electrolytes most of the time. Don’t believe it? How do you think that the pioneers managed to survive, then, after a hard day of cutting lumber, tilling the fields, building fences and houses, all without the benefit of sports drinks? They drank plain old water and somehow, they survived just fine.

However, if you like sports drinks or you feel you work out hard enough to need one, we have a recipe for your own electrolyte replacing drink that you can make at home. It contains no artificial ingredients, no artificial colors, no artificial anything, and it certainly doesn’t use that health-damaging high fructose corn syrup!

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Photo credit: bigstock.com

Use fresh, organic juice for the best results, although you can always buy organic juice at your health food store in a pinch. This recipe will make about 3 cups of electrolyte replacing sports drink, so have your container ready!

By the way, this drink will also work for children who are sick, vomiting, or have diarrhea and need to replace their electrolytes. Have you ever read the ingredients on those Pedialyte bottles? Red dye #40, Blue dye #1, citric acid, sucralose, dextrose, and lots of other things you probably don’t want your kids ingesting! This recipe will work well for both you and your kids. Try freezing some of this drink and make popsicles. Your kids will think you’re a big softie, giving them popsicles when they are sick. You don’t have to tell them that they are good for them!

OK, are you ready? Let’s get started!

Electrolyte Replacing Sports Drink Recipe