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Homemade Sports Drink (Without The Nasty Artificial Ingredients!)

I am pretty proud of the fact that I haven’t had to drink Gatorade in years even though I’m still a very active individual. After finding out the truth about the ingredients in it and other sports drinks like Powerade, I always turn to coconut water or fresh made juice and it always hydrates me just fine. 

I find it appalling that scientists 40 years ago were paid by these sport drink companies to tell us we would not be able to sufficiently hydrate ourselves with just water, that our children didn’t drink enough at meals, and that we would lose performance during sporting events if we didn’t drink this artificially flavored and colored salt water. 

I also find it appalling that some doctors still recommend this garbage that is full of artificial ingredients to parents with sick children. Just look at the ingredients in these popular sports drinks:

Orange Flavored Gatorade: Water, Sugar, Dextrose, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Gum Arabic, Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate, Glycerol Ester Of Rosin, Yellow 6

Orange Flavored Powerade: Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Less Than 0.5% of: Citric Acid, Salt And Potassium Citrate And Magnesium Chloride And Calcium Chloride And Potassium Phosphate (Electrolyte Sources), Gum Acacia, Natural Flavors, Glycerol Ester of Rosin, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Vitamin B3 (Niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B12, Ascorbic Acid (to protect taste), Calcium Disodium EDTA (to protect color).

When I look at these ingredient lists, I just shake my head. Gatorade & Powerade drinks are full of GMOs, artificial food dyes, and synthetic additives. No thanks! This super hydration juice, however, has none of those ingredients and is perfect to have after a hot day in the sun, will get you hydrated fast and give you a serious dose of nutrition!

super hydration juice

Let me break down the nutritional components of this juice to give you an idea of how powerful it is. This juice has a tad more fruit juice than I normally would recommend for green drinks but that is because hopefully you’ll be drinking this after you’ve lost a lot of calories, electrolytes and sweat! If you need to dial back the fruit juice, you can cut the fruit ingredients in half. 

  • Watermelon: Has a high water content for fast hydration and lycopene that helps with skin protection from too much sun exposure.
  • Green Apple: Provides potassium and magnesium that helps with headaches associated with dehydration. 
  • Cucumber: One of the best vegetables for natural hydration.
  • Celery: A natural source of sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and phosphorus. 
  • Orange: A high dose of vitamin C that can aid the immune system.
  • Romaine: Another nice dose of magnesium to aid in dehydration and calcium for bone health.

Source: The Guide To Juicing for Health: Unleashing the Healing Power of Whole Fruits and Vegetables Revised Edition

Refreshing Super Hydration Juice
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 1 cup chopped seedless watermelon
  • 1 apple, cored
  • ½ cucumber
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 orange peeled
  • 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
Instructions
  1. Wash all fruits and vegetables and place into a large bowl.
  2. Place all ingredients through your juicer.
  3. Clean juicer immediately.
Notes
**Please choose all organic ingredients if possible**

 

If you don’t have a juicer, you can make this juice using a blender – here’s a technique you can use.

Do you know someone who needs to drop Gatorade or Powerade for good? Please share this information and recipe with them.

It’s easy to beat the heat naturally without that garbage! 

Xo, 

Vani 

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87 responses to “Homemade Sports Drink (Without The Nasty Artificial Ingredients!)

  1. This recipe falls really short when someone’s into serious athletic activity. Apples and cucumbers won’t do anything but replenish water. This recipe is not sufficient to replace salts lost in such activity, and does nothing to prevent or alleviate muscle cramping and other complications of strenuous training.

    1. So…..? Add a pinch of pink himalayan sea salt……it’s that simple…..really…..I honestly learned this trick from a bodybuilder friend…..who simply adds a pinch of salt to his water container…..swears by it…..no sugars…..just salt.

    2. No, Dawn is right. Also serious athletic activity does not mix with the amount of fibre in this recipe. It’s yummy, but when you are running a marathon or such, the last thing you want is the trots.

  2. Duh! Hence the title:Refreshing Super Hydration Juice No remineralization mentioned, nor anything about the fantastic benefits derived from the fruit/vegetable non-vitamin components, polyphenols or bioflavinoids .A nice refreshing super hydration juice…but that would be redundant.

  3. Despite all the waste from juicing it tasted pretty good. Maybe water with lemon would serve the same purpose though. Fruit shouldn’t be juiced. It destroys the dietary fiber.

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