Is water actually good for you

"Electrolytes" is indeed just a fancy word for salts and sugars. You'd need to be doing some intense and prolonged exercise to really need Gatorade or other "sports drinks" instead of plain ol' water, and it's usually better just to eat something since food is less likely to be filled with crap.

 

IMO, the only time a regular person needs Gatorade is when they are experiencing bad diarrhea/vomit, and can't stomach anything else. Just pick a color that won't stain the carpet too bad because purple vomit is hard to clean up

 

To pile on, think about this logically. In early human history (in fact, up until the last few centuries) we spent an inordinate amount of time engaged in intense physical labor. If significant electrolyte abnormalities could exist after only an hour of moderate-to-intense exercise, how would we even exist? People used water to rehydrate for most of human history because, unsurprisingly, water is most all anyone needs in any but the most extreme of circumstances (eg Morella's post).

 

Except when the water was bad, jabba. Then there's alcohol, which doesn't help hydrate but is safer than water. Usually.

 

I have trouble drinking plain water. Since I also want to avoid artificial sweeteners and HFCS, I make my own sports drinks with raw sugar and a mix of electrolytes. It seems like a good compromise.