I’ll spare you the gory details of the inspiration to share this particular recipe today. Let’s just say, in times of great need (and dehydration, vomiting, and…well…other unpleasantness), this is what we turn to. Thankfully we’ve never been life-threateningly dehydrated before (like the Cholera epidemic in Haiti), but apparently even that can be helped by this simple solution.

There are several recipes for this type of sugar-salt-water solution available online, and most of them tend to agree that too diluted is better than not diluted enough. Just FYI.

Oral Rehydration Therapy

Rehydration Drink:

The Ingredients:

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp white sugar

2 1/2 cups water

The Method:

Mix all ingredients together and either stir to dissolve, or screw a mason jar lid on and shake well. Drink as needed to prevent dehydration symptoms.

**If you are truly seriously dehydrated you should seek medical care. I am not a doctor and don’t pretend to be.**

A word on Gatorade:

I know this is one of the sports drinks people have recommended for a few years to fight dehydration. And I’m sure it is effective, as are many things made by scientists in a lab. But according to the Pepsico website, Gatorade (“Gatorade Cool Blue” to be exact) has the following ingredients:

WATER, SUCROSE, DEXTROSE, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, MONOPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, GLYCEROL ESTER OF ROSIN, BLUE 1

Does any of that sound like something you would immediately recognize as food?

Many of these ingredients are derived from GMO corn or beets at best, and beaver anal gland secretions at worst (at least one can hope that’s the worst…).

I know it doesn’t taste fancy or look like neon lighting, but I’ll stick with my homemade all-food version, thanks.