Review: Nuun Hydration Tablets
Staying hydrated when exercising is important. The extent to which hydration effects your performance is constantly up for debate, but certainly there are solid physiological reasons you need to replace the water you lose through sweat. To put it simply, dehydration makes you feel rubbish so it’s best avoided.
When replacing lost water, it’s helpful to include electrolytes/minerals as they can help prevent cramping, and this is where Nuun’s little tablets can come in handy. Designed to be added to 500ml of water, Nuun’s tablets contain no carbohydrates (or calories) and therefore do not produce an energy drink; their primary aim is to provide minerals essential for the body to function correctly. So rather than just replacing lost water, you’re replacing lost minerals too.
When on the bike, it’s worth taking on water regularly, even only 15 minutes into a ride, so it can be useful to find something you actually feel like drinking. And I think this is where Nuun have been pretty clever. All of the flavours are so nice (we’re talking grape, cola, strawberry lemonade, fruit punch for example) that you really want to consume your drink, and keep sipping away throughout your ride, and even post ride if you need to replace a lot of fluid. They’re not overally sweet or strong and I found them to be easy on my stomach, with none of the nasty bloating or ache I’ve occasionally had from other products.
When it comes to cost, well, it costs more than water, which is what I used to use… so from that respect they’re expensive! But if you compare it to buying a ready made drink for exercising then at around 50p per tablet they’re not too bad. I have heard some people say that it’s more economical to knock up your own drink using a combo of water, juice and salt, but you could knit all your own clothes if you wanted – personally, I can’t be bothered. I enjoy the ease of bunging a tab in my bottle before a ride and then sipping on something I really like drinking, so Nuun fits the bill.
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