Why are drinks with electrolytes considered healthy while foods rich in sodium (instant noodles) considered unhealthy?
In: Chemistry
Electrolyte drink ≠ healthy. A healthy drink with electrolytes = healthy.
Mainly because most electrolyte beverages have a balanced level of electrolytes (magnesium, potassium, sodium) while instant noodles have preservatives & 600+mg of sodium with no nutritional value whatsoever.
the salts that are electrolytes aren’t just straight sodium, they are different, but they are in this case marketing wank. almost nobody is exercising long and hard enough that a sports drink is necessary. water would do just fine. the reason people consider it ok is because the marketing works, and sugar sells nearly as well as sex does, probably better than really.
Marketing.
Drinks with electrolytes are sold as post exercise drinks. Exercising makes you sweat, and when you sweat you lose both water and minerals from your body. A drink with electrolytes replaces both the fluid and those minerals. However, if you haven’t been sweating, then you will have too many of those minerals in your body, and so you will keep more water in your blood to dilute them, which will raise your blood pressure until you wee them out.
Noodles aren’t marketed at post exercise fluid and salt replacement. They are marketed at eating cheaply, easily and tastily. You will get high blood pressure before weeing out the extra salts from them as well.
If you keep on consuming too many salts, your blood pressure will be too high frequently, and that isn’t good for your heart.
Electrolyte drinks aren’t inherently healthy and instant noodles aren’t inherently unhealthy.
Whether or not a food is healthy depends on how much of it you consume, when you consume it, your lifestyle, your age etc.
Electrolyte drinks aren’t inherently healthy. Just chugging a Gatorade every day is horrible for your health. They’re healthy in certain cases, usually in situations where you may become or are dehydrated. If you haven’t been sweating a lot or aren’t dehydrated it’s best to avoid electrolyte drinks.
Instant noodled also contain a good amount of saturated fats. That makes them extra unhealthy.
Latest Answers