Go searching: Does it seem to be everybody has been pouring little packages of electrolyte into their drinks recently? Pre-workout, post-workout, with no exercise in any respect? Powders and tablets like LMNT, Liquid I.V., and Nuun are in all places, from TikTok advertisements to your workplace snack counter.
The idea of hardcore hydration isn’t new — athletes have been including stuff to their water for millennia. And electrolyte-filled drinks like Gatorade have been mainstays in sports activities tradition for many years.
However at the moment’s electrolyte dietary supplements aren’t only for soccer gamers or ultramarathoners. Firms like Nuun market their tablets for everybody from aspiring endurance athletes to common folks going to yoga courses throughout their lunch breaks.
These manufacturers are “enjoying into folks’s notion of what’s wholesome,” mentioned Samantha Coogan, a diet sciences educator on the College of Nevada, Las Vegas. And it appears to be working: In keeping with Priority Analysis, the world electrolyte drinks market is value over $40 billion and is predicted to develop to just about $75 billion within the subsequent decade.
The idea of hydration has turn into a level of fixation in wellness tradition, despite the fact that specialists nonetheless don’t completely agree on how a lot hydration we want or the perfect method to get there. With electrolytes making their approach from the world of endurance athletes to brunch cocktails, it’s tempting to consider that they could certainly be a magic treatment for all the things from leg cramps to hangovers.
Whereas electrolyte dietary supplements are nice for athletes and lifesaving for cholera sufferers, they’re not magic. Right here’s what it’s good to learn about what electrolytes can and might’t do, and whether or not you want them.
What’s an electrolyte, anyway?
Our our bodies want to keep up a sure steadiness of important minerals to operate correctly: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, phosphate, and bicarbonate.
These minerals are all electrolytes, substances that carry electrical energy by way of the physique, controlling fluid steadiness, muscle operate, and communication between the mind and the physique. The “electro” in “electrolytes” comes from the electrical cost produced after they’re dissolved in a fluid like blood. With out electrolytes, these electrical indicators get disrupted, inflicting muscle spasms and cramps, complications, and hassle pondering clearly.
Sodium specifically is a crucial electrolyte as a result of it aids in controlling the quantity of water in your blood. Electrolytes like sodium “principally assist water within the physique go the place it’s purported to go,” mentioned Holley Samuel, a registered sports activities dietitian who works with endurance athletes.
After we sweat, we lose loads of sodium and chloride (a.okay.a. salt). But when an individual profusely sweating solely chugs water with out additionally replenishing the salt, it throws off the steadiness of sodium and water within the physique, pushing an excessive amount of fluid inside cells. This could ultimately make these cells swell like raisins soaking in water, a probably harmful situation known as hyponatremia. While you drink water with electrolytes, that water is healthier ready to stay round inside your physique the place it’s wanted.
Electrolytes like sodium “principally assist water within the physique go the place it’s purported to go.”
It’s necessary to notice that “electrolytes don’t exist solely in a magic packet,” mentioned Stavros Kavouras, director of the Hydration Science Lab at Arizona State College. Past tablets, packets, and powders, electrolytes exist in common meals we eat on a regular basis, like bananas (potassium), cheese and crackers (sodium and calcium), and spinach (magnesium). Electrolytes as pre-packaged water dietary supplements, as we consider them at the moment, have solely been round for just a few a long time.
Within the Nineteen Sixties, assistant coach Dewayne Douglas seen that his College of Florida soccer gamers have been struggling to get better after practices within the swampy Gainesville warmth. Athletes shed weight — Douglas recalled shedding as much as 18 kilos per sport himself, when he performed — however barely felt the necessity to pee.
After conducting research with UF first-year soccer gamers as topics, kidney illness specialist J. Robert Cade discovered that gamers felt horrible as a result of along with experiencing low blood sugar after understanding, they have been sweating out tons of electrolytes, particularly sodium and potassium. So he created a brand new sports activities restoration drink for the Florida Gators, known as Gatorade: principally water, salt, sugar, and lemon juice for style. The sodium-enriched drink helps athletes retain water whereas sweating, and the outcomes have been outstanding. “One Lil’ Swig of That Kickapoo Juice and Biff, Bam, Sock — It’s Gators, 8-2,” the Florida Occasions-Union celebrated in December 1966, after Gatorade’s first season with the crew.
Sports activities drinks took off, and different corporations started capitalizing on Gatorade’s success. All sports activities drinks are variations on Gatorade’s theme: Water for hydration, sugar for vitality, and electrolytes to help in fluid absorption, in addition to flavoring to get it down. Sports activities drinks act as “one magic bullet” for athletes, Kavouras mentioned. “You’re taking one factor, and it has all the things in there.” This components is so efficient it’s beneficial by the World Well being Group for rehydrating folks, particularly cholera sufferers or youngsters experiencing diarrhea.
At first, these drinks have been primarily marketed to skilled athletes. Immediately, Powerade and Gatorade are marketed as smooth drinks for anybody.
In 2024, the yr of the large water bottle, there are additionally a bunch of new-wave electrolyte dietary supplements like Nuun, LMNT, and Liquid I.V. in grocery and comfort retailer aisles, which swap sugar for different sweeteners like stevia leaf extract or allulose to focus on shoppers who don’t wish to drink too many further energy. These dietary supplements market themselves as hydration superfoods: one thing to assist athletes, certain, but in addition a hangover treatment and general vibe-booster for normal, health-conscious folks.
Coogan mentioned, for those who’re consuming a balanced weight-reduction plan and aren’t coaching for a marathon, you in all probability shouldn’t be pounding again electrolyte packets.
In case your physique wants further electrolytes, dietary supplements — whether or not a Gatorade or a Nuun — may be an environment friendly method to rehydrate. However, Coogan mentioned, for those who’re consuming a balanced weight-reduction plan and aren’t coaching for a marathon, you in all probability shouldn’t be pounding again electrolyte packets. “An excessive amount of of an excellent factor isn’t at all times an excellent factor,” Coogan mentioned.
Okay, however what about hangovers? Pedialyte, an oral electrolyte answer meant for infants and youngsters, has turn into the go-to hangover treatment for younger adults at music festivals and fraternity events. School college students are even making an attempt to sidestep the results of binge ingesting by swapping beers for BORGs (“blackout rage gallons”): a half-gallon of water blended with a bottle of liquor and an electrolyte additive.
Alas, electrolytes are not a magic hangover treatment — making an attempt to undo an evening out with electrolyte dietary supplements is “simply going to be an uphill battle,” Coogan mentioned. Whereas pre-hydrating with an electrolyte complement earlier than an evening out may assist mitigate a few of the penalties of the upcoming alcohol-fueled dehydration, the one actual hangover treatment is time.
Electrolytes are nice for super-sweaty occasions. In any other case, meh.
One of the best time to devour further electrolytes is if you’ve been sweating loads, or in any other case shedding loads of fluids by way of one thing like meals poisoning. Coaching for a long-distance run? Working on a building website on a summer season day in a spot like Phoenix? Consultants say electrolyte dietary supplements are undoubtedly an excellent name.
Many individuals (myself included) fall someplace in between sofa potato and ultramarathoner. I requested specialists how I ought to take into consideration electrolytes, as somebody who spends a lot of the day sitting in entrance of my pc, then goes to a CrossFit or pole dancing class after work. Samuel says that for informal health club rats and leisure athletes, how it is best to rehydrate largely is dependent upon how a lot you sweat, and what your sweat is product of.
Some folks “go to do a spin class they usually’re on the bike for 5 minutes, and there’s a puddle round them,” Samuel mentioned. “If that’s you, you’re a heavy sweater.” Sodium ranges in sweat can even range anyplace from 200 milligrams per liter to 2,000, relying on the particular person. In case your sweat tends to sting your eyes or depart white streaks or crystals in your pores and skin and garments, you could be a salty sweater.
For informal health club rats and leisure athletes, how it is best to rehydrate largely is dependent upon how a lot you sweat, and what your sweat is product of.
Each heavy sweaters and salty sweaters ought to take into account electrolyte dietary supplements earlier than, throughout, and after understanding. The American School of Sports activities Drugs recommends consuming a minimum of 300 milligrams of sodium per hour for those who’re going to be out sweating for greater than an hour, whether or not you’re taking part in a sport or just working outdoors on a scorching day. Learn labels, too: Attempt to keep under 14 grams of sugar per 8 ounces of fluid (that’s about half of the quantity in a Gatorade Thirst Quencher).
Be certain that to verify the sodium content material on the label of your electrolyte complement, although: Some widespread dietary supplements, like Liquid I.V., include 500 mg of sodium, which is greater than what’s needed for all however the sweatiest endurance athletes. These athletes normally have to devour extra sodium than different folks, Samuel mentioned. For everybody else, dietary supplements with extra reasonable ranges of sodium (round 200 to 300 mg), needs to be sufficient to rehydrate.
About one-third of in any other case wholesome persons are delicate to salt, that means that consuming excessive quantities of sodium causes an enhance in blood strain. “That’s why you may have heard {that a} excessive sodium weight-reduction plan can result in hypertension and heart problems,” Kavouras mentioned. If you happen to’re delicate to salt, you’ll wish to watch out. The FDA recommends Individuals restrict their sodium consumption to 2,300 mg per day.
However, for most individuals, it’s subsequent to unimaginable to devour a harmful quantity of electrolytes. If you happen to eat extra carbs, fats, or protein than your physique wants, they get saved as fats. However electrolytes aren’t saved — they’re eradicated. “If you happen to drink an excessive amount of sodium,” Kavouras mentioned, “you can be peeing extra sodium.”
You don’t essentially want an electrolyte complement after your exercise. Low-fat milk (or soy milk, for lactose-intolerant and plant-based athletes) provide sufficient electrolytes, carbs, and protein to rehydrate, restore muscular tissues, and stabilize blood sugar, and smoothies can incorporate protein and fat along with electrolyte-rich meals like bananas, dates, leafy greens, and coconut water.
Electrolytes have one other counterintuitive profit: making you thirstier. “Electrolytes assist in sustaining the thirst drive for an extended time frame,” Kavouras mentioned. This may be useful for many who wrestle to drink sufficient water, as a result of they aren’t thirsty sufficient to succeed in for it — or as a result of they don’t just like the style of water. “If it tastes higher, and if it drives thirst longer, you can be ingesting extra by yourself,” Kavouras mentioned.
Whereas ingesting an electrolyte complement if you don’t actually need one is never harmful, Samuel cautioned that consuming further sodium with out sufficient further water (or sweating it out) is dehydrating — say pouring two LMNT packets into one regular-sized water bottle, though that may style fairly unhealthy. “You’re principally creating jerky out of your self by salting an excessive amount of,” she mentioned. “We wish to be a pleasant, hydrated steak.”
You don’t want them on a regular basis, however electrolytes will help rebalance a sweaty physique and make ingesting water a little bit extra enjoyable. Simply do not forget that they’re hardly magic — they’re salts.
