What is better for thirst, exercise, summer heat?

It might not be sexy. It may not be colorful. It may not have a theme song. But for years, decades and centuries, plain water has helped quench people’s thirst. However, nowadays many advertisements seem to tell you that water is not enough and that you should drink sports drinks instead. Of course, the main ingredient in a sports drink is still water, since filling your mouth with dry powder wouldn’t do much to quench your thirst. But the big question is whether that extra stuff in sports drinks is worth the potential extra cost.

The claim is that this extra stuff will improve your performance in exercise (hence the term sports drinks) and other forms of physical activity. So what is this extra stuff? Is magic, The Force or something else?

Many sports drinks contain sugar

An additional non-water component that many sports drinks contain are carbohydrates. Yes, those kinds of carbohydrates like carbohydrates, which can make up 6 to 8% of what goes down your esophagus when you drink a sports drink. This is usually in the form of sugar, namely glucose, sucrose or fructose.

The reason behind adding such carbohydrates to your drink is that your body uses sugar as fuel during exercise. Unless you eat a donut while running, your body depends on the glycogen stores in your muscles and liver for sugar. The thinking is that these glycogen stores can be depleted during intense physical activity, leaving your body craving more fuel for better ‘performance’. That fuel can come from consuming sugar that happens to be mixed with water.

Of course, sugar water is essentially what many soft drinks are. And drinking sugar is actually drinking calories. That may not be so appealing to you, because one of the general goals of exercise is to burn calories to lose or maintain a certain body weight. So drinking calories can defeat part of the purpose of physical activity. That is why in recent years, manufacturers have increasingly started selling low-carb or carbohydrate-free sports drinks, which contain little to no carbohydrates.

Most sports drinks contain electrolytes

The other common non-water component in sports drinks are electrolytes, usually sodium and potassium. When you sweat, you can lose such electrolytes. That’s why your sweat tastes salty, assuming you’ve tasted your own or other people’s sweat. (We won’t go into why you tasted other people’s sweat.)

It is indeed important to maintain proper sodium and potassium levels in your body. Low sodium in your blood, also known as hyponatremia, can lead to low energy, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache, confusion, seizures, or comas. It is clear that a coma state is likely to affect your sports performance. But so do many of the other symptoms of hyponatremia mentioned above.

Low potassium levels in your blood, also known as hypokalemia, can also be problematic. Hypokalemia can affect your energy levels and cause muscle spasms, cramps, and weakness. When severe, low potassium levels can affect the conduction of electrical signals in your heart, leading to cardiac arrhythmias.

The big question: how much do you sweat

But what are the chances of you becoming hyponatremic or hypokalemic while exercising or in the middle of a heat wave? How Much Sodium and Potassium Could You Lose When You Exercise? During an hour of physical activity, the average person can produce from somewhere a third to two and a half liters of sweat.

Of course, the specific amount you sweat depends on several factors. For example, you may sweat more if it is very hot where you exercise or if someone who is very hot is exercising next to you. Still, you probably already have a good idea of ​​how much you’ll sweat when you get active. If you notice that you are sweating much more than two and a half liters over the course of an hour, it is best to see a doctor and get screened for a medical condition.

Losing a few liters of sweat probably won’t be enough to transition you into hyponatremia or hypokalemia, assuming your blood sodium and potassium levels started out within normal limits. Therefore, if your physical activity lasts less than an hour, it is probably not necessary to use a sports drink to replenish these electrolytes. Water should be enough to keep you hydrated. Moreover, you should get enough of such electrolytes as soon as you eat something.

The electrolytes in a sports drink can be useful if your physical activity lasts much longer than an hour and is particularly vigorous. Again, it all depends on how many electrolytes you lose, mainly through sweat. There are other ways that electrolytes can leave your body, such as through diarrhea. So if you have diarrhea, especially a lot of watery diarrhea, it’s important to replenish your electrolytes properly. And sports drinks can help in such a situation. Of course, if you have a lot of diarrhea while playing football, wrestling or another sport, you may want to stop playing for your own benefit and that of your teammates and opponents.

Alternatives to sports drinks

Keep in mind that sports drinks are not the only drinks containing electrolytes. They can also contain milk, tea, juice and gravy, for example. Of course, not all of these drinks are practical to drink while exercising, because you don’t see many people shoveling gravy into their mouths while running on a treadmill. Other drinks can also contain carbohydrates, if you think you need a little extra sugar boost.

However, not all drinks provide good hydration. Anything with caffeine or alcohol can make you urinate more. And urinating more often is one of the main reasons why drinking caffeinated or alcoholic drinks can make you even more dehydrated.

That is why it is always important to know exactly what is in what you drink. Before you put anything in your mouth, look at the ingredients and nutrition facts label. In addition to electrolytes and possibly carbohydrates and extra calories, a sports drink may also contain other substances, such as artificial colors and preservatives.

That said, a sports drink can be a reasonable option if you’re losing a lot of electrolytes without other ways to replenish them. But in most other cases, plain water will be clear enough. Just because something has the words “sport” in the name doesn’t mean it’s automatically better to use it when you’re exercising.