Why does sodium-heavy liquids like pickle juice, chicken noodle soup, or saline hydrate you better than regular water when you’re dehydrated, but salt water dehydrates you?

Question

Why does sodium-heavy liquids like pickle juice, chicken noodle soup, or saline hydrate you better than regular water when you’re dehydrated, but salt water dehydrates you?

In: 925

Answer 1

“The dose makes the poison” applies here. too much salt will kill you because it’s higher than the amount of salt in your body. too little salt will also kill you because you need a certain amount every day to replace what you lose from sweating and peeing. But usually there’s so much salt in your food that you can just drink plain water to hydrate. But if you drink enough plain water you will in fact die. I’ve seen people try in the hospital.