Tag Archives: Gatorade

The Real Way to Cure a Hangover

The New Year’s celebration is one of the biggest in the world. For many, the revelry involves alcohol, and lots of it. But when a new day (and year) dawns, party goers often feel the aftereffects of their festivities in the form of a nasty hangover.

If this is your predicament, don’t reach for greasy foods, caffeine, or medications, which can worsen the effects of alcohol on your body. Use these natural remedies instead for a fast and healthy hangover recovery.

1. Water

One of the most tried-and-true, widely recognized remedies for too much alcohol is to drink lots of water. Many hangover remedies sound strange and follow bad logic, and will probably not do any good, but this simple tip makes sense. Water will dilute the alcohol in your body, minimize alcohol’s dehydrating effect on your body, and flush out toxins. Try to stay hydrated before, during, and after drinking and its negative effects will diminish considerably.

2. Fruit and fruit juice

Once you’re properly hydrated, start replenishing the vitamins you’ve lost and get your blood sugar back to normal with a tall glass of juice. Orange or tomato juice will replenish lost vitamins and contain natural sugars to help your body metabolize alcohol faster. Bananas are great for restoring depleted potassium levels associated with overindulging, and they have magnesium, beneficial for headaches. If you don’t have any fruit juice, down a Gatorade or other electrolyte-containing sports drink.

3. Ginger

Ginger has been used for centuries as an aid for motion sickness, nausea, and vomiting. Brew some ginger root tea for soothing relief, or pop open a ginger ale for a quick fix. (more…)

PepsiCo Has No Plans to Remove Brominated Vegetable Oil from Gatorade

UPDATE 1/29/13: After more than 200,000 signatures on a Change.org petition, PepsiCo has announced it will remove the flame retardant it currently uses in Gatorade. However, the company doesn’t not plan to issue a recall on products in market that still contain the BVO, or Brominated Vegetable Oil.

About a month ago, a 15-year-old teenager named Sarah Kavanagh was looking forward to the Gatorade she had stored in her fridge for after her long afternoon of playing outdoors in the humid heat in Hattiesburg, Miss.

With Sarah being the dedicated vegetarian that she is, out of habit she checked the ingredient list on the drink before popping open the top. While making sure none of the ingredients were made from any type of animal, she noticed it contained brominated vegetable oil. Though it had the word vegetable in it, Sarah still felt like investigating further.

“I knew it probably wasn’t from an animal because it had the word vegetable in the name, but I still wanted to know what it was so I Googled it,” said Sarah. “A page popped up with a long list of possible side effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones. I didn’t expect that.”

Needless to say, Sarah threw the drink away without a sip or hesitation. She then began an online petition on Change.org where she now has nearly 200,000 signatures. Sarah’s hoping that she can get enough supporters that will persuade Gatorade’s maker, PepsiCo, to make some changes to the recipe. (more…)

Helping Your Child Athlete with Hydration

Playing sports has a multitude of benefits for kids. Beyond the understood exercise, children learn time management, how to get along with other players, and most importantly, the necessity of teamwork. One of the most important, and least emphasized, skills that children will learn while playing sports is the necessity of proper nutrition and how it relates to both endurance and results.

Have you heard the saying, “You only get out of it what you put into it?” That saying seems tailor made for sports. As adults, we know the importance of fueling ourselves correctly, being certain to be adequately hydrated and well rested. These lessons are not usually at the forefront of a coach’s mind, however, and when you spend time ferrying your kids back and forth, it can often slip to the bottom of your priority list as well. After all, you’ve got to remember where the practice has been scheduled, remember to get the kids there on time AND the gear – something’s bound to slip your mind.

Arguably the most important aspect of the children/sports/nutrition triangle, and the one easiest to overlook, is hydration. Sure, we send our kids to practice and games with a water bottle – but do we make sure that they drink it all? And is the beverage that we’ve given them the best choice? How many of us have seen the swarm of players at the end of a game, grabbing a sugar sweetened drink pouch and thought to yourself, “Is that really the best beverage choice for a player who has just run for an hour?” Let’s take a look at hydration as it relates to the child or teen athlete.

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We Love Gatorade G Fit

Gatorade is one of those products that just about anyone knows – after all, attend any sports game with your kids and it’s on the sidelines. That’s about the extent of my experience with the beverage. I’ve never been a big Gatorade drinker and neither have my children. One of the big problems I’ve always had with Gatorade is the amount of sugar in the beverage. For your serious athlete, a professional football or basketball player, it’s not going to be difficult to burn off that sugar. For me as a 41-year old woman, that sugar isn’t going to be burnt in the same manner – and sometimes, not at all. For this reason, I’ve mostly avoided the beverage.

The Gatorade  company has done extensive research and realized that they have cornered the market with regards to performance beverage: i.e., the drink you enjoy during exercise to replenish the fluids and salts lost while exercising. It’s the pre and post workout that they decided to look to, which is really a largely untapped market. In addition, they realized that the adult, non-professional athlete has different nutritional needs, with less sugar and more protein. Gatorade has created a new line to address this, called G Series Fit.

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We Love Gatorade G Series Pro

The elite athlete has different nutritional needs than the weekend warrior. We can all agree on that, yes?

Professional athletes train for hours every day and their dietary needs far surpass those of the typical exerciser. They have higher protein needs and require carb levels that will give them both short bursts of energy and long levels for endurance.

Gatorade, the company most well known for hydration beverages, has created a line of product for professional athletes called Gatorade G Series Pro. This line was created with elite athletes in mind, those who train for hours and face different nutritional hurdles than the rest of us. This line has different nutritional standards than the other lines Gatorade offers, the traditional Gatorade often referred to as G or G2 (the lower sugar version), the G Series Fit and the G Series Natural. G Series Pro is offered in the same three step line as the G Series Fit, with Prime, Perform and Recover. Prime was created for use an hour before training, Perform during and Recover for use within two hours after a workout.

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We Love Gatorade Naturals

Gatorade is a well known beverage, served at sports events everywhere, from preschool sports games to professional events. It’s arguably the most served beverage at sporting events, but many parents are not fans of it. The traditional G Series is often thought to be high in sugar, and in answer to this, Gatorade created a lower sugar version, called G2. This beverage wasn’t a perfect fit for many families, however, in that it’s sweetened with sucralose. Many families desire natural foods and beverages and Gatorade has created a new line of performance beverages to please the most discerning of athletes.

Called G Series Natural, the beverage is part of the Perform level, designed to be enjoyed while exercising. G Series Natural replenishes lost fluids and electrolytes exactly the same as traditional Gatorade. Containing only sea salt, natural flavors and natural sweeteners, this beverage meets the needs of athletes who don’t want artificial colors or sweeteners. G Series Natural is sweetened with sucrose and dextrose and has 50 calories per serving. For a lower calorie, yet still natural choice, G2 Natural is sweetened with Stevia, and has 20 calories per serving. Each bottle contains 2 servings. (Always read the label!)

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Flavored Water Isn’t a Substitute for the Real Thing

Water is life. Water transports vital nutrients in your body and flushes out harmful toxins, while lubricating joints, aiding in digestion and regulating body temperature. Water is also essential for weight loss to keep your metabolism running efficiently to allow you to burn maximum fat while curbing those dehydration cravings that love to mask themselves as hunger.

You know all of this. You know you are supposed to drink your eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day to keep you properly hydrated, especially while exercising. All too often, however, people make the mistake of thinking if something is liquid, or marketed as a beverage, it counts towards your water intake. Not so.

Some are obvious: soda, coffee, tea and anything else with caffeine actually works against you, dehydrating your system and leaching calcium from your bones. They also pack a caloric punch that will undo any burn you just put in at the gym. Those are no brainers. (more…)