Hydration:Pedialyte v. Gatorade (NY Times Article)

In this Sunday's New York Times there was an interesting article discussing the use of Pedialyte (an beverage given to young children to avoid dehydration from diarrhea) as a sports drink for athletes. With all the discussions on these forums regarding methods of staying hydrated in emergencies, I thought this material might be of interest. Here is a link to the article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/fashion/09pedia.html

Interesting article. Thanks for the link. I had no idea that Pedialyte had a professional following. As the article mentions, the sodium content of Pedialyte is quite high and I can't stand the taste of it unless it's served very cold.

As I've pointed out before, there's a difference between rehydrating your body and replacing electrolytes. Few of us routinely lose enough electrolytes during some activity to require replenshment on-the-go. Most of us will replace the electrolytes at our next meal. Rehydration, however, is something that most of us can benefit from.

Personally, I would not routinely use Pedialyte as a "sports drink," primarily due to its high sodium content. Americans already consume way, way more sodium than necessary in our diets and consequently suffer from hypertension and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. I'm surprised that trainers and sports medicine docs allow their highly paid altheletes to chug this stuff, unless they're careful to limit how much and how they drink it.

I would still recommend Gookinaid Hydralyte as the best general purpose rehydration beverage for sports and other strenuous activities. Only if I were having severe or prolonged diarrhea or vomiting would I really benefit from something like Pedialyte.

A baseball pitcher an endurance athlete

The equivalent 'athletes' here in the UK take a different approach, when playing cricket, they all stop for afternoon tea at the pavillion. Tea, orange juice with banana cake and chocolate digestives. Probably the most effective rehydration solution available and tastes a whole lot better. Cricket games can last for days and days.

I have heard this in the past and used it on our scout troop Mount Washington hikes. I cut it 50% with water and it worked fine. Taste wasn't a problem.

I had discussion about this beverage in mountain bike forum this week. This beverage isn't suitable for mountain bikers since it contains too much fructose without electrolytes.

Pedialyte is closer to Ringer's lactate, which I believe is still the EMS rehydration tool of choice.