Hydration and Exercise, Part 3: Other Influential Factors

We’ve gone over all the hydration choices and weighed the pros and cons of each in the first two parts of the series. focused solely on water and sports drinks; focused chocolate milk, fruit juice, and caffeinated beverages. There are other factors you’ll have to consider than just the pros and cons.

Accessibility

I remember when I was in youth football; all the parents would take turns providing a snack and a drink after our games.  Our snack was usually fruit or some kind of sweet.  Our drink was usually Powerade or Gatorade.  It was almost never water.  Should we have refused the sports drinks because we didn’t work hard enough to warrant their necessity? Nope, it was what we were provided with and it was better than nothing.  Water would have been better seeing how we played a 40:00 minute game and 90% of us stood around for half the time.  Not to mention they sure tasted good, which brings me to my next point.

Taste Preference

If you don’t like the way it taste, you probably won’t drink it.  At the very least, you won’t drink enough of it to be properly hydrated from it.  I believe everyone should learn to enjoy water.  It doesn’t matter what I believe though if you don’t like water.  Choose something you do like, maybe water it down, maybe not, and make sure you stay properly hydrated. It is quite obvious that we would drink more of something we like than something we don’t like, as long as we can afford to.

Affordability

Hydration is now a huge marketing tool.  Gatorade has launched a whole new set of products aimed at better hydrating you and improving your performance.  Both Powerade and Gatorade have sugar free products.  Several other products have cropped up.  However, these things aren’t free.  You could save a lot of money going with a regular Powerade or buying a jug of water.  You’d even save money drink tap water instead of buying bottled water.  Go with what’s affordable for you; no need to waste money on expensive hydration products.

Tap or Bottled?

This last one pertains only to water unless you have a drinking fountain that shoots out Hawaiian Punch like Adam Sandler had in Mr. Deeds.  However, if you’re like us normal people, then your tap only gives you H₂O.  Now, should you drink tap water or bottled water? After you go through the list (Affordability, Accessibility, and Taste Preference) you should think about the environment, convenience, and the fact that some claim many bottled water companies put the same water you get from your tap into their bottles.  Some people have funky tasting water, like me.  So, I drink bottled water.  I recycle my bottles, so I take the environment into account.