There's nothing on the radio when you're dead

[venta]

I need a little shopping advice.

I often wake up, in the night, with dreadful cramp in my legs. This is not pleasant. Some time ago, someone recommended drinking one of those modern-fangled isotonic-flavoured electrolye-ridden buzzword-compliant sports drinks before going to bed.

I bought a drum of lemon-flavoured powder from (I think) Boots and... hey presto! Miracles were worked, and my legs did not tie themselves into excruciating knots in the night.

Enter a second friend, who assured me that the water was the important part and that I was merely paying for the caché of sports drinks unnecessarily. So, this summer (cramp seems to be a summer problem, for me) I stuck to drinking water before bed. Friend2 was wrong. It does not have the same effect.

So, off to Boots I went. And then to Superdrug, Holland & Barrett, Tesco... Nope. No one sells the damn stuff any more. According to Boots' website, they do still sell drums of mixable powder but they now only do orange flavour. Also, I have yet to catch a branch which actually stocks the damn stuff (and the website is out of stock, too).

Can anyone recommend a powdered sports drink which is (a) cheap and (b) available in something non-orange? I only require the re-hydration parts, not the energy parts, since I'll be drinking it before bed. For preference I'd like something available in high street shops, since I don't think my ego will permit me to become the sort of person who orders highly specialised sports beverages off t'internet.

Either that, or I'll just have to settle for squash made up with homebrew ORS. Which might work, but would probably taste nasty.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

The trouble with salted juice is... it tastes salty. To me, anyway, and I really don't like that. The advantage of the posh rehydration stuff is that the presumably contain salt-like things, but don't taste like sodium chloride.

What I referred to as homebrew ORS is the WHO recipe:

6 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 litre water

... but I'd expect to be able to taste 1/2 tsp salt in that much water.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Perhaps try salted lemon juice or lemonade? The salt + lemon works really well.

That homebrew recipe is enormous! I'd feel pretty sick drinking all of that. The keyfob measure that I have is about 200ml water (about one glass) 1 quarter teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Alternatively, a quarter spoon of salt to a glass of non-diet lemonade.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's just the quantity I happen to know the recipe for - I don't think I'd expect to take on drinking a litre of the stuff at once!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I shall regard your salty lemon claims with suspicion, but will try it out ;)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I suppose it might work - margaritas with salt on the rim are good.