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DIY sports drinks and gels that nourish, not deplete

Ian Craig ©2017

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The basis of a sports drink or gel is sugar, water and salt. There are now various forms of sugars used, but it doesn’t get too much more complex than that. However, manufacturers add flavors, colors and sweeteners to individualize their taste, additives that need to be detoxified out of the body at an energetic cost to the athlete. In the era of beetroot juice and its nitrates and cherry juice and its antioxidants, it is actually possible to design a sports drink that contains the necessary sugar and salt for fuel and electrolyte needs, plus active phytonutrient components that nourish our cells rather than deplete them.

Learning Outcomes

The aim of this webinar was to provide academics, students, physiologists, sports scientists, health professionals and nutritionists with an education of the basics of sports drinks and gels, plus working examples of DIY nourishing alternatives

This webinar will allow attendees to:

• Review the historic science of hydration and fuel provision via sports drinks
• Understand how by reading labels on various healthy fruit juices and plant extracts, we can concoct our own drinks, that are kinder on our gut and nourishing to our cells
• Go away with some DIY sports drink recipes, with possible supplement additions for particular physiological outcomes
• Have a better understanding of how to use a sports gel without stomach distress and ideas on how to make your own

Ian Craig is an exercise physiologist, nutritional therapist, NLP practitioner and an endurance coach. He was a competitive middle-distance runner for 20 years and is now a more leisurely runner and cyclist. Ian specializes in Functional Sports Nutrition (FSN), a fast-evolving discipline that considers both health and performance of an athlete from an integrative health perspective. He is the editor of Functional Sports Nutrition magazine and is conference leader of Sports Nutrition Live. Additionally, Ian runs a private nutritional therapy practice in Johannesburg.