There's nothing at the movie show when you're dead

[venta]

Following on from yesterday's post, about avoiding cramp.

Lots of people rubbished the idea of sports drinks, suggesting instead that sugar/water/salt solution was what I wanted. So, yesterday I duly mixed up the WHO-approved quantities and added lemon juice to make it taste less nasty.

Ewww. Vile stuff. I'd expected to find the saltiness of the drink a problem, which actually it wasn't particularly. The problem was what I can only think of calling the texture. What looked like normal water suddenly became repellently... silky, somehow, sliding over my tongue like a big fat roll of gross fluid. I drank half a pint of the stuff, then gave up. I also didn't get cramp last night, in fairness, though I'd have to try it for a few more nights to be sure that wasn't random chance.

I appreciate that, were I dying of cholera, I might be prepared to drink it. Grateful, even. However. I am not dying of cholera, and I live in a country where commerically-prepared non-disgusting electrolyte powder is readily available.

Ideally, I'd like something like High 5 Zero, as alien8 suggested, which is purely electrolyte replacement (ie not an "energy drink", since I'm not using it in an exercise context). But I'd still prefer to just pop into a shop. So, next stop is Holland & Barrett to see if I can find some of their pre-mixed powder which valkyriekaren recommended. Ooh, unless the nice branch of Evans Cycles in Reading carries the High 5 stuff...

Comments

[lnr]

I wonder if something like Powerade Zero would do? It's a sports drink but low cal. Comes as liquid rather than powder.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It would be fine, I should think - the trouble is that if you're buying bottles of liquid, it gets quite expensive. The High Zero tablets work out around 30p for a pint, and powders are even cheaper - whereas the perfectly nice bottle of Lucozade Sport Lite I happened to drink yesterday morning was about £1.60.

[alien8.livejournal.com]

http://www.wiggle.co.uk have high5 on special offer. Evans prolly have nuun or similar zero drink. TBH just get that online.

[venta.livejournal.com]

This is the trouble with LJ, whatever you ask about, people always try to convince you otherwise :) One of my original reasons for asking was that I wanted recommendations of a shop I could pop into and buy stuff in person!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

That does sound nasty, particularly the texture. Admittedly, I've never gone to the trouble of measuring out exact proportions.

Mind you, I'm probably not one to make taste recommendations, as I LOVE the taste of salted lassis and Indian salted buttermilks but have never met anyone outside of India to share my delight in them.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember you commenting on them on someone else's LJ (maybe yours) a while back. I have tried salted lassi here, but couldn't get on with it (I think we concluded at the time that maybe you have to be in 45 degree heat to appreciate it properly the first time!)

I still have to try the straight salt-in-juice recommendation, as we didn't have any sensible juice yesterday :)

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I did manage to source and drink a buttermilk in a London based Indian restaurant last month, not even in fierce heat. It was nectar! Nectar I tell you!

Then I gave it to my chap to taste - the look on his face was incredible, I think he might even have tried to scrape out his mouth on a napkin.

(Oh, the other illicit pleasure that I picked up from a Persian chum is munching a mini cucumber, but salting it as you crunch down. That's delicious too, and probably bad for you if you eat too much salt.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm with your chap on this :) From my one experience, salted lassi is one of those things that actually tastes much worse than you think it will (or than it should, given its constituent ingredients).

I don't really eat salted snacks much, either - the exception being edamame, which are usually snowed under in salt.

[lnr]

Free delivery from wiggle :) But yes, IKWYM.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

I've used nuun in the past and have found it to be entirely adequate-if-inexciting. Which is probably about the best thing you can say for that sort of thing, I suppose.