Doesn’t salt / sodium dehydrate you?
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You need salt in a balanced way to regulate your water. That said, sodium chloride tastes better than potassium so typically they will add more sodium to a commercial drink, and acids and sugar, to mask the taste of the less pleasant but profoundly important potassium salts
It’s a bit of a misunderstanding of what those drinks are supposed to do that gets reinforced by the marketing.
Water hydrates you, and hydrates you best. The drinks are actually for a slightly different thing. When you sweat a lot, you also lose a lot of electrolytes (basically salts for ELI5 purposes) in the process, and those will need to be replaced to keep operating at high athletic levels. Hence, the drinks have those salts in them.
But as a regular person in most situations where you’re thirsty and getting dehydrated, just water is a much better option.
Electrolytes are salts. When you exert yourself and sweat you also lose electrolytes.
Something like seawater is dangerous because it’s extremely salty in comparison.
Sodium is an electrolyte. Sodium, potassium, calcium etc are ions that the body needs to undergo muscle contractions. Sodium specifically is the ion that starts the contraction. Calcium commits. And potassium relaxes. Which is why potassium is important if you have frequent cramps.
A good hint is of a sports drink tastes sweet… drink water.
If the same sports drink tastes salty, but the most delicious salty ever? You needed the electrolytes.
Athletes and manual workers are the people with the most probable need for them. They pass out electrolyte drink mix at Amazon for that reason.
>Doesn’t salt / sodium dehydrate you?
*Too much* salt dehydrates you – like the amount in seawater. But our bodies need salt (and other electrolytes) to live. Sports drinks have the right amounts of salts and other electrolytes to keep the balance of the salt that’s already in our bodies without being *too* salty.
Gatorade also really well designed for replenishing your muscles with sugars. It uses a transporter present in the cells to pull sugar across the membrane utilizing the passive transfer of the salts in the juice. Here is the non ELI5 link that explains exactly how it works, with pictures.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC24099/
When I first started working in construction I was 20 and we had a major heat wave. I was 5 floors up in a crawl space below the roof adding insulation. Me and my buddy are drenched in sweat. 5 hours in and my whole body is cramping. I drank 2 liters of water and was confused as to what was going on with my body. The roofers had some work to do above us and as they pass us on their way up to the roof access they see me and my coworker not looking so hot. He told us to follow him to the roof. He goes in his lunch box and pulls out 2 salt packets youd get from a fast food place. Hands one to me and my coworker and told us to eat it. 10 min latet all my pain disappeared. If your sweating a lot replacing salt is very important. I’ll never forget the difference it made that day
Edit: wanted to add, this particular roofer brings a box full of the snack pack sized chips to work. The flavor? Salt and vinegar. He keeps a stash for his employees and hands em out at lunch to help on very hot days. He was a pretty cool guy
Because that’s part of hydration. Water only would just result in the body letting all that water pass through.
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