Do you need electrolyte powders or sports drinks to stay hydrated? : NPR

A classic 20 ounces of Lemon -Lime Gatorade of Gatorade contains almost eighth teaspoon of salt and 80 milligrams of potassium – electrolytes “to help replace what you sweat,” say product advertisements.

Powerade, another brand of sports drinks with flavors like Peach Pucker and Grape Shocker, has “50% more electrolytes” than Gatorade.

American consumers spend more than $ 10 billion a year in sports drinks, according to the drinks industry, a commercial publication. This does not include electrolyte powders, sticks wrapped in brands aluminum paper such as Liquid IV and prevails that people pass in their water bottles all summer.

The category has extended far beyond its athlete niche in well-being products for daily life, according to industry analysts. And now, dozens of online influencers promise products, making major complaints on their advantages.

But what are electrolytes and do you need these expensive drinking amplifiers? We asked doctors and researchers in sports nutrition to weigh.

The complaint

Drinking sports drinks with electrolytes is crucial to reconstruct the micronutrients you lose in your sweat.

The proof

It is true that you lose electrolytes in your sweat.

Sweat is mainly water and salt, with additional minerals such as potassium and magnesium, and small amounts of glucose, ethanol, hormones and other body compounds.

These minerals are electrolytes, which help your cells maintain balance and communicate with each other.

But medical experts and sport scientists who spoke with NPR say: do not fall into marketing. Unless you sweat a long time for a long time or quickly lose water due to the disease, you don’t need additional electrolyte supplements.

Drinking water and eating a varied diet, including fruits and vegetables, it will be enough for most people, they say.

Electrolytes are considered micronutrients because “your body requires them in very small quantities”, explains Tamara Hew-Butler, a sports scientist who recently retired as an associate teacher of exercises and sports studies at the Wayne State University.

And although they are regularly secreted in sweat, saliva and other body fluids, “if you eat a decent diet, you will get all the electrolytes to work,” said Hew-Butler.

And more: “In the Western diet, we take the amount of sodium three times that we really need.”

In addition, your body adapts to maintain the electrolyte levels it needs.

Take salt, for example, that the kidneys help to regulate: if you have lost a lot of salt, “a hormoneal will increase, allowing the sodium to get out of the kidney and return to the blood circulation,” explains Hew-Butler.

“But if you have an excess of sodium – as if you were going to the bar and snacking on peanuts and fries – the hormone descends, and the chains that reabsorb sodium are closed, so that all the sodium you have just eaten is excreted in your urine,” she says.

Calcium and magnesium, stored in your bones, can also be “released if necessary” and transformed into functional electrolytes that your body can use, says Hew-Butler.

The urine regularly contains electrolytes – and if they go out in your pee, it is because your body has more than it needs, she said.

The nuance

It is true that many of us are walking “at a certain level of dehydration”, explains Dr. Kory Taylor, doctor of emergency medicine based in the Metropolitan region of Atlanta who has training in the science of exercise. During a busy day, “it is so easy to push the water on the side,” he said.

The good news is that the human body can perform well for hours, even when it is temporarily dehydrated, explains Asher Rosinger, associate professor and director of the health, health and nutrition laboratory at Penn State University. It was an evolutionary advantage, he says, “not to be so attached to the sources of water, so that you can go out and feed yourself.”

If you dehydrate yourself, the panels include thirst, tired and grumpy, a dry mouth, a headache or a sensation.

“You might feel your heart rate beat a little faster when you go up the stairs,” said Taylor. Indeed, dehydration decreases the amount of blood in traffic.

Almost everything that contains liquid will help you rehydrate, says Rosinger, starting with “good old -fashioned waters”, as well as milk, soup, tea or water loaded with water.

However, sports drinks and electrolyte powders can be a useful tool in certain situations.

Haley Wilson, a sports dietitian from the Kansas University health system, works with athlete students who sometimes do not eat enough for their activity. She appreciates the convenience of sports drinks to help reconstruct the liquid, electrolytes and carbohydrates, especially for those who actively work for more than an hour.

Rosinger, who studies hydration practices on a global scale, applies that these “who run a lot or that simply sweat a ton in the sun” may need to quickly replace these electrolytes. Although this is only one of the many ways to recover them, a sports drink can be practical in these cases.

In the event of extreme medical dehydration, the replenishment of electrolytes can be critical, he notes. The oral rehydration solutions, which help to correct electrolyte imbalances, “have been one of the greatest achievements of public health to treat and manage diarrheal diseases, and they saved millions of lives in the world,” said Rosinger.

The bottom line

If you eat a somewhat balanced diet and you are not an elite athlete or work all day in the sun, you probably get all the electrolytes you need – and more – food. And you can jump for sports drinks.

“From my point of view, physiologically, that will not make you better exercise or increase your performance or make you recover faster,” explains Hew-Butler.

But if you like their taste, it’s good to use them several times a day, she said. They will not hurt you and it could encourage you to drink more.