Thursday, October 4, 2012

The real problem with Gatorade

No, the real problem with Gatorade is not the high fructose corn syrup. Not the sucralose.  Not the glycerol ester of wood rosin (what???).  Not the FD&C color # of the day. Not even that it comes in blue.

The real problem is with Gatorade is that it tastes so darn good.  

This week I got really sick.  After way to many hours of throwing up, my dear hubby decided I needed something to keep me from getting dehydrated.  He provided me with a wealth of options - lovely purified water from our filter, organic lemon/maple syrup drink he made himself and a bottle of green Gatorade.

My body was wrecked, my liver was working overtime, and every 30 minutes I'd find myself waking up craving another suck out of the high-fructose, neon-colored sports bottle. Weird. I'm pretty sure the stuff is highly toxic, but maybe my body recognized its deep need for salts and chose the Gatorade to meet its most basic needs.  But I don't think so.  I think the stuff just tastes weirdly good.

Healthy enough to drive myself around town today but not really wanting to get too close to solid food or much water, I made the health-concious, responsible choice to pick up some organic, non-sugar plant based sweetened electrolyte powder.  It's great, I notice I'm feeling better with more fluids in me, and I'm not stressed about the secondary effects of what I'm putting into me.

But it sort of tastes like my 1980's memories of Crystal Light and my tongue is crying out, "Where's the Gatorade?!"

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