The BEST Sports Drink

There are a ton of sports drinks on the market. But which one is the BEST sports drink? Does the holy grail of sports drinks really exist?

I’m sure you’ve heard “you gotta try this sports drink” or “this sports drink is the best” from your training partners, shop employees, and friends. Are you getting tired of spending a ton of money trying out drinks that just don’t work for you?

Since everyone’s sweat rate, genetics, diet, body weight, heat acclimatization, athletic demands, and medical conditions vary, the best sports drink is very individualized. It might already exist, or it can be made, but it’s not the same for everyone. In other words, everyone’s sweat is unique.

Just because a sports drink has worked well for one person, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. In order to find what’s right for you, it’s time for some testing and a little experimentation. Luckily, we like your sweat and have the technology to be able to determine what’s in it so you can hydrate properly to perform your best.

Proper Hydration = Less Fatigue

Proper hydration will improve your performance, delay fatigue and decrease your risk of heat illness (do you really want to hang out in the medical tent?). The goal should be to lose less than 2% of your body weight during workouts. Ideally, it should be closer to 1%. By the time you’ve lost 2% of your body weight, your heart rate will increase and you may be feeling discomfort. If you make it to 4%, you’re performance will clearly decline (if it hasn’t already) and you might be nauseous. How do you know how much you’ve lost? You can easily weigh yourself before and after workouts. Also, keep in mind that workouts lasting less than 1 hour may not need a sports drink. Check out our article on Tips for Training & Racing in the Heat.

Grab our FREE Hydration Guide here:

Electrolytes Are Important

Did you know that sodium is the main electrolyte lost in sweat? Electrolytes, fluid and carbohydrates are necessary to hydrate the best. Other electrolytes lost in sweat are potassium, magnesium and calcium. All of them are responsible for proper muscle function, so they should all be included in your drink. In fact, magnesium helps regulate potassium and calcium. In my experience, the standard sports drinks on the market are often too low in sodium to be effective.

Two Types of Sugar Are Better Than One

What are sugars? They can hide under many different pseudonyms, including sucrose, cane sugar, fructose, brown rice syrup, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), honey, maltodextrin, dextrose, galactose, glucose, lactose and more. Recent research suggests that beverages containing 50% galactose/50% glucose and 80% glucose/20% fructose are more advantageous than galactose only drinks.¹ Products that contain glucose plus fructose can delay exhaustion by 25-40%, if consumed before exercise.² However, fructose (which is what makes drinks–and fruit–sweet) can often create GI distress (since it’s digested differently) so other sugars may be better in that case.

Avoid Sports Drinks With Artificial Sweeteners & Dyes

Will it affect your performance? Likely not. But some people are very sensitive to them. Plus, many of them are not well-researched in humans and don’t belong in your body anyway. Popular artificial sweeteners used in sports drinks (especially low calorie sports drinks) are sucralose and acesulfame potassium, so look out for those on the nutrition label. If it’s electric-colored, it likely has food dye so choose one that’s naturally colored (i.e. with beet juice or turmeric) or doesn’t have them in it at all.

Sports Drinks With Protein Might Help

Products with protein have been shown to have a 12% improvement in performance when compared to carbohydrate-only products(3).You want to be careful with the amount of protein since too much before exercise can cause an upset stomach and gas. Many people can tolerate a drink with protein while biking, but can’t tolerate it while running. Keep in mind that during long distance exercise, up to 15% of energy needs come from protein.

Drink it at Full Strength

I hear this all the time. “This drink is too sweet, so I dilute it with water.” This effectively defeats the purpose of a sports drink and puts you at risk for poor performance and even worse, hyponatremia (over-diluting your blood).

The BEST Sports Drink Is…

…the one you can tolerate (and hopefully enjoy and want to drink more of) during exercise in any weather conditions, at full strength, that closely matches your sweat concentration (i.e. the electrolytes you lose in sweat). Want to try to make your own? Try our Homemade Honey Lemon Sports Drink recipe..

Stop Guessing!

The only way to determine your sweat concentration is to get it tested. We do it in our office (book yours here) or as a home sweat testing kit, which includes a personalized consultation on how to use the results. We’ve tested people who have lost less than 1g of sodium per hour, while others lose 4g per hour. So you don’t know until you get tested. Then we can match you to the sports drink that matches your needs best or create one using Infinit.

We Can Help!

We specialize in fueling & hydration solutions for athletes! Just book a Free Nutrition Consult here to learn how we can help you.

References

Stannard SR, Hawke EJ, Schnell N. The effect of galactose supplementation on endurance cycling performance. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009;63(2):209-14.
Jentjens RL, Jeukendrup AE. Effects of pre-exercise ingestion of trehalose, galactose and glucose on subsequent metabolism and cycling performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2003;88(4-5):459-65.
Cathcart AJ, Murgatroyd SR, Mcnab A, Whyte LJ, Easton C. Combined carbohydrate-protein supplementation improves competitive endurance exercise performance in the heat. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011;111(9):2051-61.