I don’t know, maybe it’s the blue color? Just the sight of one of those performance / energy drinks in the hands of anyone, child or adult, makes me wonder at our sensibilities.
I was reading an article from the Associated Press. Poor man’s Gatorade saves Bangladeshi kids. The ingredients are, according to the article, “A pinch of salt. A fistful of sugar. A half liter of water.” This simple mix saves the lives of children who come down with diarrhea. In the United States, we probably can’t quite wrap our minds around dying from such a mundane ailment as this, but it is fact and Bangladeshi moms pass down the recipe from generation to generation.
Because of this article, I flew back a few years into my first child’s babyhood. One day, due to his having a high fever, I called my brother, who lived a block away and who was also a fireman/paramedic, to ask him to pick up some things at the nearby health food store. On the list was an “all natural” performance drink. He dutifully bought that, but also included apple juice in the bag. He had determined, by reading the labels, that apple juice had far more of the needed electrolytes than the performance drinks. I’ve remembered this ever since.
When my kids were very little, they never drank pure juice, I always watered it at least ½ way. It was far more refreshing for them, especially since we live in Florida and were usually at our lumber mill all day long in those days. Little did I know how perfect this recipe really was. I thought it might be interesting to look up some information on this subject and typed in “electrolytes in apple juice” as a Google search. There it was, “Rob Declares War on Gatorade.” Yahooie Louie. It’s true! The blue stuff (orange, green, yellow, purple, red) just isn’t all it’s made out to be! You might like to take a peek for yourself, so click here.
Then I checked out the videos available for the same Google search and found one telling about how apple juice is good for enhancing memory. Something about its preventing loss of the essential neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Hmm. A word I can pronounce. So, maybe I can understand the information too! Let’s see.
Yes, sounds very sensible. An apple a day… we can make sure to add one for our kids and ourselves…keeps the doctor away.
Flickr Creative Commons image credit: svacher
