Sports Drink Recipe - Cheap and Follows AIS Guidelines

[Roadie_scum]

OK guys, I spent an hour the other day working out things like 'how much sodium is there in a teaspoon', so to save you the trouble, here is how to make sports drink to AIS guidelines. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying it mixed for you from a sports nutrition company ($60/kg last time I checked).

Buy:
2 X 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer No 1 (=Dextrose + Malto-dextrin)
1 X 500g Tang (=Sucrose + Flavouring)
1 X 250g Fruit Sugar (=Fructose)
1 X Lite Salt (=Potassium + Sodium)
1 X Normal Table Salt (=Sodium)

You can substitute Gatorade Powder for the Tang if you want for a different source of flavour and sucrose and a slightly different taste, but you'll need to work out the sodium/potassium levels yourself because I can't be bothered. Let's keep this open source and post it if you work it out...

Instructions: take the sugar (brew enhancer, fruit sugar, Tang/Gatorade) and put in a big bowl. Add 12 level teaspoons table salt. Add 1 level teaspoon lite salt. Mix it a lot, very well, until the colour and consistency is totally even. Add 50-70g powder for a normal sized bidon, but you can work it out yourself. Here's a clue - the mix is more compact than normal sports drink, so you can't use the same number of scoops. It is 2 powerbar drink scoops for a bottle rather than three if you use the powerbar mix.

If you have problems (feel sick) with the strength, you can try using less mix, but I would recommend first trying adjusting down the level of fructose (fruit sugar), then adjusting the salt down. Also, if it's very hot, you can add a little more table salt, and if its very cold and hydration is less important than energy, you could add a little brew enhancer for more CHO and then mix it in higher concentration.

Approx nutritional info:

2.75kg total weight

Lotsa CHO (a bit over 2600g)
29,700mg sodium
1500mg potassium

It's not too hard to divide it down to 50g and get the per serve stats. If you do this, you'll find its about the same as most good sports drinks. The flavour isn't strong, I'd say 'non-offensive'. Everything is available at the supermarket - I get it at my local safeway. Let me know what you think/if you use it.

Note: some people may not be able to stomach much fructose at all. Be careful with the fruit sugar if you think this might be you.

Hope this is helpful...

 

[Bleve]

Roadie_scum wrote:
> OK guys, I spent an hour the other day working out things like 'how much
> sodium is there in a teaspoon', so to save you the trouble, here is how
> to make sports drink to AIS guidelines. It's a hell of a lot cheaper
> than buying it mixed for you from a sports nutrition company ($60/kg
> last time I checked).

You left out magnesium.

Staminade powder is cheap, has sodium, potassium and magnesium, no
rooting around mixing stuff (what's your time worth?) , no fructose,
and available at the stupormarket ready to go. Last time I bought
staminade it was ~$7 for 330g, so that's about $21/kg.

If you want to add protein to the mix, this is what I do : I mix it
with a whey protein isolate (4:1, but the ratio is reasonably arbitary,
depending on what papers you read and who you choose to believe) for my
own drink. Recipe is here :

http://www.aboc.com.au/tips-and-hints/aboc-c4p-receipe/

 

[Roadie_scum]

Roadie_scum wrote:
> OK guys, I spent an hour the other day working out things like 'how much
> sodium is there in a teaspoon', so to save you the trouble, here is how
> to make sports drink to AIS guidelines. It's a hell of a lot cheaper
> than buying it mixed for you from a sports nutrition company ($60/kg
> last time I checked).

You left out magnesium.

Staminade powder is cheap, has sodium, potassium and magnesium, no
rooting around mixing stuff (what's your time worth?) , no fructose,
and available at the stupormarket ready to go. Last time I bought
staminade it was ~$7 for 330g, so that's about $21/kg.

If you want to add protein to the mix, this is what I do : I mix it
with a whey protein isolate (4:1, but the ratio is reasonably arbitary,
depending on what papers you read and who you choose to believe) for my
own drink. Recipe is here :

http://www.aboc.com.au/tips-and-hints/aboc-c4p-receipe/

Yep, add protein for your recovery drink. It's a little controversial whether you want protein in your drink for during exercise. As far as magnesium, I think it's more important to get the CHO, sodium and potassium right, but you could add magnesium from vitamin pills fairly easily I think - how much would you suggest to add? I'm thinking it would be more important if its hot?

The key point is the differing forms of CHO. The fructose is there for a reason. It follows a different metabolic pathway to other CHO so including a small amount can increase the uptake of CHO. It can cause GI issues for some, but normally only in larger quantities. The best CHO uptake in studies I've seen is achieved using a mix of maltodextrin, sucrose and fructose. This drink also has some glucose, but that shouldn't change things much.

I think the cost on mixing it yourself is about $15 for 3 kg, so that's still a fair saving over staminade. The time to mix once you have a recipe is about 3 minutes. The extra time to shop is about 2 minutes. I'll admit, I'm a student. It's probably not worth it for some, but if you want to try it, its very easy.

Anyway, as I said, hope this helps some people. If you don't want to use it, don't bother. If you have a criticism, it would be great if you made it constructive - eg suggest how to improve it rather than just knocking it.

 

[Bleve]

Roadie_scum wrote:
> Bleve Wrote:
> > Roadie_scum wrote:
> > > OK guys, I spent an hour the other day working out things like 'how
> > much
> > > sodium is there in a teaspoon', so to save you the trouble, here is
> > how
> > > to make sports drink to AIS guidelines. It's a hell of a lot cheaper
> > > than buying it mixed for you from a sports nutrition company ($60/kg
> > > last time I checked).
> >
> > You left out magnesium.
> >
> > Staminade powder is cheap, has sodium, potassium and magnesium, no
> > rooting around mixing stuff (what's your time worth?) , no fructose,
> > and available at the stupormarket ready to go. Last time I bought
> > staminade it was ~$7 for 330g, so that's about $21/kg.
> >
> > If you want to add protein to the mix, this is what I do : I mix it
> > with a whey protein isolate (4:1, but the ratio is reasonably
> > arbitary,
> > depending on what papers you read and who you choose to believe) for
> > my
> > own drink. Recipe is here :
> >
> > http://www.aboc.com.au/tips-and-hints/aboc-c4p-receipe/
>
>
> Yep, add protein for your recovery drink. It's a little controversial
> whether you want protein in your drink for during exercise.


I'm not sure that it is. What's your source for the controversy? Ed
Bourke, Chris Carmichael et al all recommended it. The amount they
suggest varies (EB 4:1, CC 7:1 etc), but that it helps carbohydrate
uptake and insulin response seems fairly well supported as "during
activity" intake as well as recovery. The benefits of available
proteins during recovery are prettymuch taken as read at this time as
far as I'm aware. The advantages of having it (protein) available
*during* exercise are similarly pretty-much established these days.

> As far as
> magnesium, I think it's more important to get the CHO, sodium and
> potassium right, but you could add magnesium from vitamin pills fairly
> easily I think - how much would you suggest to add? I'm thinking it
> would be more important if its hot?

My understanding is that magnesium salt is one of the more important
cramp-prevention salts, but as to the amount that's ideal, I'm not
sure. You'd obviously want more when it's hot, but that applies to all
the salts, not just magnesium.

> The key point is the differing forms of CHO. The fructose is there for
> a reason. It follows a different metabolic pathway to other CHO so
> including a small amount can increase the uptake of CHO. It can cause
> GI issues for some, but normally only in larger quantities. The best
> CHO uptake in studies I've seen is achieved using a mix of
> maltodextrin, sucrose and fructose. This drink also has some glucose,
> but that shouldn't change things much.

I'd be interested to see these studies, do you have a reference for
them?

> I think the cost on mixing it yourself is about $15 for 3 kg, so that's
> still a fair saving over staminade. The time to mix once you have a
> recipe is about 3 minutes. The extra time to shop is about 2 minutes.
> I'll admit, I'm a student. It's probably not worth it for some, but if
> you want to try it, its very easy.

That's quite cheap, yes.

> Anyway, as I said, hope this helps some people. If you don't want to
> use it, don't bother. If you have a criticism, it would be great if you
> made it constructive - eg suggest how to improve it rather than just
> knocking it.

I suggested an alternative, and gave you my receipe, what more do you
want?

 

[Roadie_scum]

I'm not sure that it is. What's your source for the controversy? Ed
Bourke, Chris Carmichael et al all recommended it. The amount they
suggest varies (EB 4:1, CC 7:1 etc), but that it helps carbohydrate
uptake and insulin response seems fairly well supported as "during
activity" intake as well as recovery. The benefits of available
proteins during recovery are prettymuch taken as read at this time as
far as I'm aware. The advantages of having it (protein) available
*during* exercise are similarly pretty-much established these days.

Ric Stern and Andy Coggan for one. The problem is, there aren't many studies about the PRO/CHO mix. The one Ed Burke points to is problematic because the drinks aren't equicaloric - they both have the same amount of CHO, but the PRO drink has more total energy so its not a fair comparison. From first principles, its not clear that you would want more insulin during exercise (as Ed Burke posits) because the major limiting factor in exercise seems to be blood sugar, which is reduced by insulin. (Ref: There are some studies on this - by which I mean exercise being limited by blood glucose - referred to in 'The Lore of Running' by Tim Noakes. I think they are his but I can't remember. If you want me to look them up I can probably do it later.)

As for Chris Carmichael, that guy is a marketing guru as much as a coach. The Ed Burke arguments are worth adressing, but not the CC ones. Note also, Ed Burke has a conflict of interest (obviously) as he promotes accelerade.

My understanding is that magnesium salt is one of the more important
cramp-prevention salts, but as to the amount that's ideal, I'm not
sure. You'd obviously want more when it's hot, but that applies to all
the salts, not just magnesium.

I've heard this theory too, but I don't think its clear cut. I think it's a fair call to put some Mg in your drink if you want, but I tend to think cramps are primarily a conditioning issue.

I'd be interested to see these studies, do you have a reference for
them?

Asker Jeukendrup loves this stuff. Here are some of his papers on the topic:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15354037&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15946410&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15741841&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15212750&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14657042&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16282436&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

I suggested an alternative, and gave you my receipe, what more do you
want?

Fair point

 

[Bleve]

Roadie_scum wrote:
> > I'm not sure that it is. What's your source for the controversy? Ed
> > Bourke, Chris Carmichael et al all recommended it. The amount they
> > suggest varies (EB 4:1, CC 7:1 etc), but that it helps carbohydrate
> > uptake and insulin response seems fairly well supported as "during
> > activity" intake as well as recovery. The benefits of available
> > proteins during recovery are prettymuch taken as read at this time as
> > far as I'm aware. The advantages of having it (protein) available
> > *during* exercise are similarly pretty-much established these days.
>
> Ric Stern and Andy Coggan for one.

I've read Stern's take on it, and IMO he misses a key part of the point
- he focused on the carbohydrate uptake side, and seemed to completely
miss the benefit of having available BCAA's around in terms of reduced
muscle damage post training. I get my riders using protein during &
after for this reason, moreso than the energy availability benefits (if
any!).

> The problem is, there aren't many
> studies about the PRO/CHO mix. The one Ed Burke points to is
> problematic because the drinks aren't equicaloric - they both have the
> same amount of CHO, but the PRO drink has more total energy so its not
> a fair comparison.

Again, this take misses part of the point (and the important part,
IMO!)

> From first principles, its not clear that you would
> want more insulin during exercise (as Ed Burke posits) because the
> major limiting factor in exercise seems to be blood sugar, which is
> reduced by insulin. (Ref: There are some studies on this - by which I
> mean exercise being limited by blood glucose - referred to in 'The Lore
> of Running' by Tim Noakes. I think they are his but I can't remember. If
> you want me to look them up I can probably do it later.)

Understood, but blood sugar is only part of the story, and insulin
enables the body to actually use the sugar. There's no point having
high blood sugar levels if the body can't burn it.

>
> As for Chris Carmichael, that guy is a marketing guru as much as a
> coach. The Ed Burke arguments are worth adressing, but not the CC ones.
> Note also, Ed Burke has a conflict of interest (obviously) as he
> promotes accelerade.

^has^had

Ed Bourke is dead.

My understanding of the history of accelerade is that it came some time
after EB's jumping on the C4P bandwagon. I see no conflict of interest
where he decided to promote a product after seeing research that
suggested it was of benefit.

> > My understanding is that magnesium salt is one of the more important
> > cramp-prevention salts, but as to the amount that's ideal, I'm not
> > sure. You'd obviously want more when it's hot, but that applies to
> > all
> > the salts, not just magnesium.
>
> I've heard this theory too, but I don't think its clear cut. I think
> it's a fair call to put some Mg in your drink if you want, but I tend
> to think cramps are primarily a conditioning issue.

Every race is a conditioning issue, and if you want to win (or even
keep up!) you often need to push past your fitness limits. So yeah,
it's a conditioning issue, but one that you will run into no matter how
fit you are if you're prone to cramping.

> > I'd be interested to see these studies, do you have a reference for
> > them?
>
> Asker Jeukendrup loves this stuff. Here are some of his papers on the
> topic:
>
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=15354037&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=15946410&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=15741841&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=15212750&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=14657042&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/..._uids=16282436&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

I'll have a read, thankyou.