Store bought

Why do I need to make an electrolyte drink when I can just buy one? Just like many food products, home made is always a better option, for the simple fact you know exactly what is in it. It won’t be full of chemicals and artificial fillers that serve no beneficial purpose to our bodies. This recipe for the natural electrolyte can literally be made in minutes and only contains exactly what our bodies want.

Water is the best……right??

So when it comes to hydrating ourselves, we’re always told to drink water, so surely that must be the best option! It kind of depends on why you’re hydrating really. Obviously water is very good and probably the best option for most of us. But if you are training, whether that’s endurance, resistance, HIIT  or whatever your preference, you are going to sweat (providing you’re putting in the effort and not going through the motions by meandering along watching your favourite soap on the treadmill), you need to make sure you are replacing fluid to a similar ratio to what you are losing it. That doesn’t just mean chugging back on a load of water, because when we sweat we also lose sodium from our body, which needs to replaced. Let’s not forget though, we don’t just sweat when we exercise, so this recipe is for everybody.

Without getting too scientific, when we sweat and lose fluid, it needs to be replaced otherwise we become dehydrated, but as we are made up of essentially water and sodium mix, we need to make sure that we don’t just replace the water content otherwise these ratios becomes unbalanced and could potentially cause us problems.

This is where these “sports drinks” come in. These are drinks usually contain electrolytes such as Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphate as well as others. They replace the lost minerals, therefore  maintaining those ratios and keep us hydrated more effectively. But like I mentioned previously, a lot of the store bought drinks can contains high amounts of sugar, sweeteners, flavourings and other chemicals that are not so beneficial for us.

It’s all natural baby!

All the ingredients are natural, so no nasty surprises and there is only a handful of them, so no huge shopping list with 20 ingredients on.

The natural electrolyte

Let’s get into it

All these ingredients are important as they all play a role in the whole electrolyte story, but if you wanted to add extra ingredients then feel free. You could replace the water with a Coconut water (which is basically a natural electrolyte in itself), add other fruits, berries etc.

The awesome thing with this recipe is that it doesn’t get any easier than this. Just chuck everything into a blender. One thing I would like to add (it is my personal preference), is to chill this drink for approximately 30 minutes. It really allows the flavours  to mix and mellow a little.

Ingredients

• ¼cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ cup of fresh squeezed orange
• 2 x tablespoons of honey
• 2 cups of water
• ¹⁄8 teaspoon of good quality salt

Method

1. Place everything into a blender and blitz for 5-10 seconds……how easy is that!!!
2. Chill for 30 minutes (purely as I think it tastes better once it is chilled). You could just use chilled water and skip this step.

So if you are training or just finding yourself melting away in the hot weather, this drink for you. It will be more hydrating than water and provide beneficial minerals lost through sweating. Have a play around with the flavours and experiment.

I hope you find this post useful and give it a go. As always, thank you so much for taking a look at this post. If you would like more recipes then feel free to take a browse around this site. There is an ebook available to download. It is an introduction book into what The Urban Canteen is all about (quick, simple, healthy recipes, that can be a foundation for a healthier way of eating).

Take a look at the Recipe video page as well for useful demonstrations on some of the recipes. Come and get social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube-all links found on the homepage.

Thanks again.

Paul