I’m not eating and I need to keep my electrolytes up. I’ve been trying different drinks and there pretty much all awful. The best I’ve had so far is pineapple coconut water. The worst is Powerade Zero fruit punch.

It seems like whatever stuff they put in there in these drinks is the problem because many of them have this horrible bitter taste they try to hide with flavoring.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

And yes, I know Brawndo has electrolytes. Very droll.

  • fkn@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 year ago

    I am going to second making your own. Most electrolyte solutions are only sodium chloride, potassium chloride and sugar.

    Morton’s makes a thing that is literally this without the sugar. It’s called “lite salt”. https://www.mortonsalt.com/article/morton-lite-salt-mixture-nutritional-facts/

    Any “lite salt” should do the trick. You will also need a multivitamin/multimineral as well but if you are just looking for an “electrolyte” replacement drink… It’s just lite salt, water and sugar. If you want to get fancy you can add magnesium and calcium.

    Is it salty? Yes. It’s salt. Electrolytes are salts.

    How do I make it not salty? Add sugar.

    Why are the things like propel bitter? Fake sugar + salt tastes bitter to some people. Most Gatorade/propel blends also need to be low cal so they use fake sugars. Gatorade originally had like 60grams of sugar in a bottle. That doesn’t sell well anymore. You, however can go nuts and use as much sugar as you like.

    Is there electrolytes that don’t taste salty? No. They are salt.

    What other options do I have? Pills. But if you aren’t eating you might not absorb them well.

    Edit: after reading some other posts I am going to add the following.

    Gatorade is potassium and sodium salt + sugars, artificial sweetener and flavors. You can check the nutritional facts. It only provides sodium and potassium… No calcium or magnesium. Gatorade is literally “lite salt” plus sugar, flavorings, artificial sugar and water.

    Monk fruit, stevia and the like all have bitter aftertastes.

    Personally my favorite artificial sweetener is erythritol. Incidentally it is the only artificial sweetener that doesn’t cause an insulin response. Monster zero energy drinks are sweetened with it for a flavor profile.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Don’t forget magnesium! I like Natural Calm, which becomes magnesium citrate when mixed with water. Avoid magnesium oxide, which is typically used as a laxative.

      Mix it all with your preferred flavoring, such as Mio drops. Keto forums call this ketoade/ketorade.

      Side note: different sweeteners are radically different. Stevia, sucralose, saccharine, aspartame, erythritol, etc all have different properties. Some have weird flavors, feels, or gastro effects, and affect each person differently. Saccharine is often called bitter; stevia is often described as metallic; erythritol has a cooling mint-like feeling.