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

Seawater has a *lot* more salt in it than soup does. A little bit of salt is good when you’re dehydrated because when your body loses water it’s largely through sweat, which has salt in it, so when you’re dehydrated you’re usually also short on salt. The symptoms of dehydration and being short on electrolytes are often quite similar and have the same cause so fluids with a little salt in them help both.