What's in Your Bottle?

[Kona_Blue]

This time some more sensible comment via CHOICE Magazine (Consumer advocate)

Sports water
What if you exercise?






If you’re an active person — maybe you run or swim a bit, play sport socially or head to the gym a couple of times a week — do these waters have any advantages for you?

According to the sports dietitians at the Australian Institute of Sport, a recreational exerciser like this can get what they need from plain water. And at the other end of the spectrum, the AIS says if you’re an elite athlete, or if maintaining your best possible performance at all times is important to you, you’d be best to use a proper sports drink (such as GATORADE or POWERADE) to maintain optimum hydration. They have appropriate levels of electrolytes (sodium and potassium) to be absorbed quickly and replace losses, plus the carbohydrate level in them is more suitable for refuelling during intense exercise.

However, you don’t need sports drinks, according to the experts, unless you exercise at moderate to high intensity for about an hour or more.

So what about ‘sports water’ instead of plain water for recreational exercisers? It seems that light flavour and even the lower levels of electrolytes in them have been shown to increase the amount people drink when exercising, compared to plain water.

So the AIS dietitians reckon that, while water on its own is fine, if drinking one of these sports waters means you’re likely to take in more fluid, that’s probably a good thing. It’s known that in general people don’t drink enough when they exercise — no matter how light or strenuous it is.

For more on the AIS' advice for rehydrating during sport, you can visit their sports nutrition website www.ais.gov.au/nutrition

 

[Kona_Blue]

And more....

Sports water
Table - Waters compared






Nutrients 1 Electrolytes
Name (in alphabetical order) Flavour Energy (kJ / bottle)* Sugars (g / bottle)* Sodium (mg / bottle) Potassium (mg / bottle)
AQUAVETA Lemon 266 15.4 14 ns
AQUAVETA Lime 287 16.1 14 ns
AQUAVETA Orange 276 15.4 14 ns
MIZONE SPORTS WATER Lemon / lime / mandarin / passionfruit 344 20.0 20 ns
POWERADE SPORTS WATER Lemon / lime / mandarin 312 17.8 85 99
PROPEL FITNESS WATER Lemon-lime / orange 420 25.9 14 0
RIDE (C)(E) Citrus / mandarin 360 20.0 40 45
SPRING VALLEY TWIST Lime / mandarin 330 (A) 19.5 (A) 22.5 (A) ns
WATERPLUS (B)(D) Lemon / mandarin / peach  10 0 41 41




2 Minerals 3 Vitamins
Name (in alphabetical order)
AQUAVETA • • •  700 Cadbury Schweppes 2.95
AQUAVETA • • • •  700 Cadbury Schweppes 2.95
AQUAVETA • •  700 Cadbury Schweppes 2.95
MIZONE SPORTS WATER • • • • •  800 Frucor Beverages 1.99
POWERADE SPORTS WATER •  710 Coca-Cola Amatil 1.98
PROPEL FITNESS WATER • • • • • •  700 Cadbury Schweppes 3.30
RIDE (C)(E) • • • • • •  500 Zenergy Functional Beverages 3.30
SPRING VALLEY TWIST • • 1500 Cadbury Schweppes 2.78
WATERPLUS (B)(D) • • • • • • • •  710 Sanitarium 1.99


Notes
* See Watching your weight.

** Prices are what we paid per bottle in October/November 2003. They may vary between supermarkets, convenience stores and garages.

ns Not stated.

(A) All figures are based on the size of one bottle, except for SPRING VALLEY TWIST, where half a bottle (750 mL) is used for better comparison.

(B) Contains Magnesium - WATERPLUS

(C) Contains Chromium - RIDE

(D) Contains Thiamin - WATERPLUS

(E) Contains Biotin - RIDE

1 Electrolytes
Sodium and potassium are lost during exercise, but only need replacement after 2–3 hours of it. If you exercise for shorter times, their main benefit is they may encourage you to drink more than you would of plain water.
The AIS says the levels of electrolytes in sports waters are adequate for moderate exercise, but for more intense exercise a sports drink is more useful — they typically have higher levels.

2 Minerals
Drinks with minerals in general contain only about 10% of the daily recommended dietary intake (RDI) per serve, though some are higher.

3 Vitamins
These drinks contain a varying range of vitamins, but typically give you between 25% and 40% of the RDI for each per bottle. However, some vitamins in some drinks are as low as 10% (vitamin E, WATERPLUS) and as high as 500% (vitamin C, MIZONE Sports Water) of the RDI.
The amounts are unlikely to fix a poor diet and there’s little evidence to suggest that there’s an exercise benefit in drinking vitamins during exercise — a healthy diet provides all you need.

This article last reviewed January 2004

 

[Mark Andrews]

water

 

[Cipher]

Originally posted by Kona_Blue
Just checking....Plain water + honey ???

Correct. The honey didn't readily mix well with the water, so if you plan on trying this, mix it up a little ahead of time. (I also like to freeze it for my rides). As far as looking for performance improvements over Coke and water, don't count on it, but it's a nice alternative...

 

[flysolo1]

cytomax and recover with endurox r4

 

[Ted B]

I use Carboforce, which contains roughly double the optimum sugars concentration, so I cut it 50/50 with water. A 16 oz bottle costs only $1.75 USD, so it's quite economical.

 

[zaskar]

Originally posted by cycleboy
I'm not a physician but I have read it is possible to drink too much water. A female jogger in the Chicago area died last year from excessive water consumption. Basically, we have a mental switch that tells us we're not thirsty any more. When we drink water constantly we overload that switch until it no longer responds.

A pretty good indicator of hydration is urine color. Very light straw color is about right. No color means your getting more than enough.

I hope you'll accept this as just a friendly suggestion from a
fellow cyclist.

Thanks for looking out, but what i meant was i drink 4 - 5 24oz bottles a day, not counting 2-3 bottles on the bike for 2-4 hours of riding. here in the desert its very easy to dehydrate humidity arounr 10% will dry ya out quick. my urine is a pale color and if i was drinking to much i would have to wake up in middle night to go, like i did a few times. when this happins i did perhaps drink to much.