ArtisianWhat are electrolytes?
givesomefucksThey’re what plants crave
LazaroFlimYeah! 🖕🖕
Fuck Yeah! 🖕🖕
FTFY
For those downvoting those, watch Idiocracy…
HausI really hope it doesn't get removed, because while jokes aren't always appropriate, this particular joke is, like, essential.
It’s also technically correct.
I’m no doctor, but as far as I understand it electrolytes are sodium and potassium, and they help your body get hydrated faster by helping you absorb water (more? Faster? Idk, one of the two.)
(Btw, you’re supposed to drink gatorade and water for this purpose, of course gatorade ads don’t tell you that part though. Nor will they tell you about Pedialyte which is better than gatorade for hydration, or Liquid IV which I’m trying out now so I’m reserving judgement until my testing is complete).
Doll_Tow_Jet-skiI think it's water retention they help with. You should consider consuming electrolytes is you plan on sweating a lot (e.g high intensity sports) or if you consume large amounts of Caffeine.
SuzyQMy 2cents: Pedialyte (premade) still has that sweet taste whereas Liquid IV does not. The powdered Pedialyte contained (I haven’t bought it in a few years so I’m unsure if the formula has changed) artificial sweeteners that upset our guts - which was no good when I was giving it to kids with diarrhea because it just exasperated the issue.
It may be placebo effect but I feel like it does a really good job.
*I am also biased because they make one with caffeine and it’s helping me cut back on soda.
Imo some of the liquid IVs taste sweet enough, and some like golden cherry are even a touch sour, I love the taste of the ones I’ve had so far (which is only the aforementioned and the passion fruit one.) They do have Stevia leaf extract though. Honestly the bottled pedialyte is almost too sweet for me, and the powdered stuff is ok but for taste alone I definitely prefer the liquid 4. For hydration I’m still curious but I don’t have any pedialyte powder to compare ratios, though I do have an old bottle of the pre-bottled one, and that seems to have similar proportions of Na and K.
Actually, pedialyte seems to be 16% Na and 6% K per serving, opposed to liqvid IV’s 22% Na and 8% K. Buuuut if you drink the whole bottle, the pedialyte is 45% Na and 15% K.
Not sure I understand how the percentage of what is suspended in the liquid changes assuming that the solution is well mixed (I’d expect it to still be the same percentage, as no ingredients are added or removed beyond the total quantity of the solution as a whole), but whatever.
Seems a whole bottle of pedialyte is equivalent to 2.1125 liquid IV, which means that the liquid IV equivalent would be 47.35mg more Na and 22.75mg more K.
My amateur science degree allows me to now say with confidence liquid I.V. is better.
Ah ok. I’ve been getting the pineapple and lemon lime ones and both are a tad sour and I like that.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say a product sold as a powder, and called Liquid IV, when IVs are always liquid, is not to be taken seriously.
Would a rose by any other name not smell as sweet?
They’re playing off the IV liquids you’d get in the hospital, like “oh look we hydrate you so well you’d think it’s that shit.”
You hate “Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” simply for having the gaul to use a catchy name instead of “Hey Look It’s Margerine?”
Lol I kid, but by all means, don’t drink pedialyte either because that is only for children if we’re going by the root words of their brand name. I mean really what sort of basis is this for an opinion?
Blaze (he/him)A core element of Idiocracy stuff
it's what plants crave!
Effectively, yes. “Electrolytes” is a collective term for the ions that help move stuff into and out of your cells. These are primarily sodium and potassium, although calcium also plays a role. Sodium is the most important of these for sports drinks, because it is the one you most lose through sweat.
Unfortunately, most sports drinks don’t really contain enough to balance out heavy sweating, because sodium salt (aka normal salt) tastes, unsurprisingly, salty. If a drink had the right balance of sodium, it would be noticeably salty. Gatorade has one line of drinks that do that, and Pedialyte is specially made for the correct balance. Sports drinks really jack up the sugar to help hide the salt taste.
Most sports drinks, rather than having the sodium you need to replace sweat, instead jack up the potassium (think Prime and it’s advertised 843mg of electrolytes, 700mg of which is potassium). This doesn’t really replace the electrolytes you need, but it also doesn’t make the drink nearly as salty.
When you see “electrolytes”, you should flip around to the nutrition label, which must list the actual amounts of sodium and potassium. This will tell you if it will actually help you recover from activity, or if it’s just more sugar water and advertising.
Sodium is also used for all the electrical activity of our body (such as thinking and moving and living…), and is fundamental in adsorption of nutritions in digestion. Sodium, potassium and calcium are so important that it is difficult to even list all processes they are involved
such as thinking and moving and living
bold of you to assume
Yup, they are the basic electron donators for almost everything. In the context of sports drinks tho, hyponatremia is the #2 threat (after hypernayremia, funnily enough), so the rest of it was sort of overcomplicating
They don’t donate electrons. When metallic sodium or potassium donate electrons they burn, explosively. It doesn’t happen in our bodies. It happens by simple contact with water.
They are already in their ionic form in our body. They cross membranes as ions, creating a potential difference across the membranes. Allowing ion to diffuse along the gradient generates the electric signals of our brains, or trigger the muscle contraction.
Ah, thanks for the clarification
So you’re saying… they are the electrons. Woahhh.
They are actually positively charged. Electrical signals in our are actually not created by long migrations of electrons, but by short diffusion of positive charges across membranes, that temporarily reverse local polarization. This depolarization triggers nearby regions to do the same, creating depolarization waves: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depolarization
It’s very fascinating, also because controlling the cross membrane diffusion of ions allows for controlling the signal
I know man, I was just being silly. My first degree was in physiology and pharmacology so I’m very familiar with nerve signalling.
Is it easy to make such a drink yourself? And at least a bit drinkable?
I buy this and add it to my water. Use a little less than a ‘serving’ first time at it can activate your gut - maybe from the magnesium? Buying it by the bag makes it much much cheaper than liquid iv.
Thanks for the Intel.
Since what you really need to replace is sodium, you could just make salt water. But there are a lot of products that make it easier
My preferred are Salt Stick caps… It’s a tablet so you don’t need to taste it at all
Alright, I’ll check it out. Thanks
So drinking pedialyte is better than Gatorade?
gamermanhPedialyte or Gatorlyte are both balanced sports drinks and I’d say they’re “better” than standard Gatorade if the goal is hydration exclusively, but they taste like salt water with flavoring added
Myself and the 3 others living in my house just all got e. Coli infections and the Gatorlytes were recommended by the Dr.s over regular ones or water due to the sheer amount of liquid loss experienced
Much more effective, yes. Although endurance athletes do benefit from all that sugar, too. But if you are playing sports - Pedialyte is much better
So would you say 500-510mg Na to 370-380mg K is a good ratio for a drink additive? Trying to figure out where liquid IV (or is it Liqvid IV? Lol) stacks up.
I’m a bit curious in this too. I don’t have an answer for you but totally anecdotal, I do notice I feel noticeably better even just halfway through a liquid IV which I’ve never noticed with any other sports drinks.
Eh, anything that close to what your blood is at normal levels works out pretty well. Liquid IV and LMNT and so forth do pretty well… But depending on your activity, acclimation, and the temp, you might need several packets to make up. I run, so I am very acclimated, and that makes your sweat more. So in summer when I do multi day hikes, I take electrolyte tablets with me. It can really sneak up, so just swallowing a salt tablet makes it a lot easier to balance.
Here’s a thorough (long) video by Gear Skeptic where he breaks down a lot of this within the frame of through hiking (usually 100+ miles) youtu.be/pcowqiG-E2A
Performance Nutrition for Backpackers, Part 5: Advanced Electrolyte Supplementation
Thanks!
This is an awesome ELI5, thanks for helping me to better understand this!
Welcome!
Great eli5! Thank you!
cedarmesaSo basically youre better off salting the shit out of a banana and eating it
Maybe, but do you really think you could keep that down?
I’ll practice with a smaller banana to train my gag reflex
That sounds horrible. Can you share the link?
Our diets are already rich in sodium. Because it makes food more tasteful.
You really don’t need any additional sodium
This is quite true. The only people who need to worry about this on the regular are endurance athletes (and people with equivalent jobs). Anything where you are working at an elevated heart rate and sweating for hours or days. Not common for joggers or people who shoot hoops after work
I actually take electrolyte tablets with me when I hike. Hyponatremia (having dangerously low salt levels) can really sneak up on you when you are hiking in the heat for four or five days straight. You keep hydrated, but there just isn’t enough salt in your food to replace what you lose. Dropping a straight tablet of salt can really help balance that
Fantastic ELI5, excellent response. Thank you!
Welcome!
Back in high school I had some friends tour an NFL stadium. They got to see the field and locker rooms and all. I didn’t get to go with them, so while they were in the locker rooms they stole a bunch of these powdered electrolyte drinks they had out for the players and brought some back for me. I remeber trying them and they tasted like straight sweat. It makes sense, but they were gross. Same flavor as licking someone’s forehead.
That’s how you know it’s working
Apply directly from forehead.
swab148Same flavor as licking someone’s forehead.
Funnily, I actually just recently watched an episode of Kurzgesagt that explains how osmosis and diffusion work in cells. Pretty cool stuff!
Link to the episode - www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1KkQrFEl2I
That’s excellent. I’ve been coincidentally researching that myself now that I’ve picked up running. Out of curiosity, what is the one line of Gatorade that actually has enough salt that you mentioned?
I got some liquid iv and like you said, it’s palpably saltier than other things I’ve tried recently.
Gatorlyte. It has 490mg sodium and 350mg potassium per bottle. It has that very distinct Pedialyte flavor that tells you it’s legit. I can get it at the convenience store next to the local hiking trail, but not the one on main street
Thank you, this is fantastic. I got more understanding out of your write up and responses to people than out of a couple of weeks of reading up random write ups online. Thanks for taking the time.
Welcome!
Make your own. The ratios are out there, just takes salt (NaCl), maybe some salt substitute (KCl), sugar, etc.
I use the WHO reduced osmolarity ORS recipe which uses sodium citrate as well, it has worked pretty well.
So in times of heavy exercise, is it better then to effectively drink saline? Assuming one doesn’t mind the salty taste.