Gloss Find: Naked Juice Coconut Water

Water or sports drinks is an ongoing debate for athletes. My personal opinion is unless you’re engaging in endurance activities or sweating a lot due to heat, water is your best bet for hydration. Distance runners and other endurance athletes do need to replace lost electrolytes, though, so a sports drink is a convenient solution. If only they didn’t have artificial colors, added sugar and other not-so-desirable things in their ingredients list. Naked Juice is adding one more option to our post-exercise options — coconut water.

Naked Juice 100% Coconut Water has a surprisingly mild flavor. A newbie to coconut water, I was expecting that super sweet coconut like you would find in a Mounds bar. But there’s no added sugar to make this coconut water overly sweet. In fact, there’s no added anything. The ingredients list is short — Coconut Water. That’s it. And that’s pretty great.

The jury is still out on whether coconut water is an ideal option for replenishing lost electrolytes. On the up side, it’s high in potassium; an 11.2 ounce container of Naked Juice Coconut Water provides a whopping 650 milligrams of potassium. It also provides calcium and magnesium and a small amount of sodium. And therein lies the problem. Sodium is a pretty important thing to replenish after you’ve been sweating heavily.

When it comes to replenishing your body after a workout, each option has its pros and cons. Personally, I’m still a fan of plain old water. But Naked Juice 100% Coconut Water provides a great alternative when I’m looking for a little flavor.

Naked Juice 100% Coconut Water — $1.99 (suggested retail) available at Whole Foods and other retailers.