TinyKitten wrote:
Just don't do it~ Gatorade is so much safer and you shouldn't let pleasure put you in danger of water intoxication. Why is it so important that you use water instead of a sports drink?
Gatorade is "safer"?
It's made by PepsiCo. Its branding as a "sports drink" is marketing.
The reason I bloat with water is because I'm not trying to gain, nor do I want my teeth to rot. I also don't like the taste of most sweet drinks. Additionally I try to avoid over-consumption of sugar/sugar-like products as diabetes runs in my family. I believe Gatorade may recently have elected to remove high fructose corn syrup from its drinks (most people are already aware of the health risks associated with that) but it still contains sucrose, glucose and fructose.
Water is always going to be the healthiest way to hydrate yourself. But if you want to drink it to excess for bloating purposes, you need to make sure it's closer to the composition of your body's natural fluids to ensure your body doesn't react badly to taking on that much fluid in a short time. Hence add some salts and sugars. However only a small amount of salts/sugars is needed. The amount you need to add won't even change the taste of the water that much, unlike the amount of sugars in "sports" drinks, which are teeth-clenchingly sweet. You certainly don't have any need to drink 3 or 4 litres of Gatorade. Last I looked, my body was not composed of anything like the ingredients of Gatorade.
I can only assume PepsiCo's advertising of Gatorade as somehow "healthy" has conned people into thinking that drinking vast quantities of something so artificial is "safe". One bottle might well help rehydrate you rapidly after an intense workout but I don't think even PepsiCo is advocating drinking 3 or 4 litres of it in one go. It might be correct that you need carbohydrates, electrolytes and hydration for prolonged or endurance sport or exercise, but not necessarily for bloating.