Why is everyone so salty?

If you're a millennial, you'll remember the infamous Gatorade commercials featuring athletes sweating out Gatorade. There wasn't a single sporting event I attended as a kid that didn't involve Gatorade because it was the "sports drink." Unfortunately, since its origination, Gatorade has lost a lot of electrolytes and gained a lot of sugar. This high sugar level has led to a decrease in sports drink sales as people search for healthy alternatives. Beverages like alkaline pH-balanced mineral water or low-calorie functional water enhancers like LMNT have become increasingly popular as alternatives. But why do we need electrolytes, and what even are they?

Electrolytes are electrically conductive minerals that are essential for bodily function. All electrolytes hold a positive or negative ion charge that enables the flow of electrical signals throughout the body. This is essential for things like muscle contraction, transmission of nerve impulses, and brain function. Sodium (salt) and potassium are the most commonly known electrolytes due to their effects on athletic performance, but magnesium, chloride, and calcium are equally essential.

Electrolytes have become a hot topic in the health, optimization, and fitness space due to the increased awareness of things like ketogenic diets and fasting. This is because when the body holds less glycogen (energy stored in muscle cells from carbohydrate consumption), it sheds water, decreasing electrolyte stores and making it harder for the body to retain electrolytes and water. These health trends, hence, put a large emphasis on increasing salt/electrolyte consumption.

Great Hop, but I don’t do that; why should I care about electrolyte intake? I thought more salt was bad for you anyway!

Let’s start with this: if you live a non-active lifestyle and consume a fair amount of processed foods, you probably don’t need more salt in your diet; you need less. This type of person should follow guidelines of 1-2g of sodium a day. But for my fellow distance runners, cross-fitters, regular sauna goers, and whole-food eaters, our story is a bit different.

Most studies that show high sodium consumption is correlated to high blood pressure forget to extrapolate the points of these high levels of sodium consumed in combination with high levels of sugar, fat, and a non-active lifestyle. Once you start to factor in vigorous exercise, where you sweat a lot, causing water and electrolyte loss. Eating whole foods, which typically have lower sodium levels, and sauna use, which is very sweaty, you now have someone who needs more electrolytes in their diet.

Interestingly, new research has shown that low and high sodium levels lead to hazardous human health outcomes. Research shows that consuming 4-6g of sodium daily, 2-3x the recommended amount is the lowest risk for hazardous health outcomes. Having the proper amount of salt and electrolyte intake can decrease brain fog, headaches, fatigue, cramps, and arrhythmias. Not only does it increase athletic performance, but it also helps improve cognitive performance and chronic ailments like headaches.

But let’s not forget about potassium or magnesium, either. Potassium can help lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of kidney stones, and increase muscle performance. Magnesium helps with energy production, DNA repair, and muscle synthesis. Oh, and calcium? If you don’t get enough sodium and calcium together, your body will start to pull from your bone mineral stores.

So how do we make sure we get enough electrolytes throughout the day?

Simple, drink them.

Upon waking, I put LMNT (citrus salt being the best IMO) in 32 oz of water and drink it first thing in the morning. The electrolytes in LMNT help ensure that my minerals are replenished after sleep (you lose electrolytes through sweating and respiration while you sleep) and help your body hold more water. I then have one scoop of Re-Lyte in 32oz of water in the afternoon to prevent any afternoon brain fog or tiredness. Often when you are hungry or tired, you are just thirsty. Adding even a pinch of sea salt will help you curb the afternoon slump.

Everything discussed above should be taken with a grain of salt (hehe) and discussed with your doctor if you are unsure. But for you, go-getters and athletes (you know who you are), salts could be the supplement that truly moves the needle for you to get more out of your body.