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?
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Imagine you have a large pot of soup. You want the pot full of soup with good flavor (the right amount of electrolytes or “saltiness”).
When the pot is not full, you are dehydrated and you want to fill the pot….but you still need the soup to taste right.
If the soup that’s remaining is at a good level of saltiness, adding pure water will make the soup “bland”. You want to add more soup that has some flavor- saltiness (Gatorade or soup). You need both water and electrolytes.
If the soup that is remaining is too salty you want to add water or soup that is low saltiness (hypotonic). You need water more than electrolytes. Plain water or just light electrolytes is probably fine.
If the soup that is remaining is both low in volume and bland, you need to add liquid and definitely more salt (pickle juice).
That being said…..
When you exercise a lot you sweat and lose electrolytes.
A general diet usually has plenty of electrolytes. But if you really go hard, some electrolytes may need replenishing.
If you just ate 4 slices of pizza and then play sports and feel thirsty, you probably just need water. You already got your salt load.
If you been sweating in the sun for 6 hours, you probably have lost electrolytes and Gatorade or maybe pickle juice works.
Also our kidneys are normally very good at flushing excess water. So most of the time you don’t need very salty liquid. Our body will generally be happy with water, or just minimal electrolytes because we usually have plenty (eating a regular diet). But if you are really going at it, yes maybe you do need some pickle juice.
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