[red-beard]

For general consumption, sports drinks are no better than Soda. Used for their intended purpose, keeping blood glucose levels up, restoring mineral salts and water, they are fine.

I mix my own now, since I hate the price and I hate the flavors. Gatorade only has lemonlime and orange in the powder form. I use standard lemonade mix plus 1 tsp of "lite salt", 1/2 NaCl and 1/2 KCl, per gallon of mix. Or 1/4 tsp per qt. I only use sports drinks when I am riding/exercising for over 1 hour. Anything less than 1.5 hours, and you don't need them.

I also make my own "power gels", using mostly dextrose and a little lemonade mix for flavor. I also mix in lite salt, pulverized calcium and a little caffine, matching the properties of "Gu".

Back on topic, I prefer 4%, but I gave it up for everything but coffee. I use skim milk for everything else.