I don’t know even know what electrolytes are because I’ve never heard the term in my life except from Americans. When I worked at the airport, water bottles that came from America would often say ”contains electrolytes”. I recently did a general blood test, electrolyte levels in my blood were included and it was well within standard range. Does American food contain less electrolytes or something?
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america will take any excuse to take a non health issue for most people, convince you need it and market it to the max
Advertising.
It’s what plants crave!!!!!
Americans, by and large, don’t know what electrolytes are either. That’s why advertisers are able to fool the public by putting a few metallic salts in the water and claiming it “contains electrolytes” (of course it does) “to support cellular health” (“support” is a meaningless term).
If you could have better health by drinking this water rather than that one, why wouldn’t you?
Advertising. People don’t know what electrolytes are, or when they might need to be replenished
I’m American and haven’t heard the word “electrolytes” in years.
It could be bias but they make me feel more hydrated
Having lemon water is a type of electrolyte drink. You may have more of this in your culture than you think, it’s just not labelled as such.
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By and large, Americans hydrate far more than Europeans. As a result, Americans need more stuff to keep that hydration in their bodies
I used to work in film. When you’re working outside in Louisiana for 12 to 14 hours you have to carefully maintain your electrolyte levels or you’ll just pass out. It would happen to Los Angeles folks all the time.
Because it’s electrolytes….
I heard somewhere that the government has a plan to replace all water supplies with electrolytes. They said it’s better for plants than water.
Electrolye supplementation usually just means the addition of sodium and/or potassium in order to make the solution more hypertonic.
Most people don’t need more electrolytes because there’s a crap ton of salt and sugar in our food already. The only people who need replacement electrolytes are ones who are exercising a lot and not eating or are starving/eating disorder or some medical conditions
Drinking too much plain water can throw off the electrolyte balance in your body. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are extremely important for cellular function. Low or high potassium can cause deadly cardiac problems. You’ll notice when you get an IV for fluids at the hospital it is saline, .9% sodium. Plain water would be a problem. So people who drink a lot of water and/or sweat a lot should include electrolytes.
For me in high school it was always playing sports and getting cramps. Now I’m not gonna argue that Gatorade had a huge marketing campaign at the time but drinking it (along with a ton of water) from CA Central Valley, it gets hot. My cramps stopped, helped me feel better.
Now I’m older, don’t drink Gatorade but if you have a hangover or anything else those liquid IV types/pedialyte help you feel better.
It’s prolly mental, and marketing association to be honest lol.
Unless you’re sweating a lot, there are enough electrolytes in food. I take electrolytes if I’m running 10km or over.
Because of gatorade.
I lived in Europe for a bit and electrolytes were just in a lot of the bottled water there. My fave was Gerolsteiner.
Here in the US the water is just… weird. Like my tap water isn’t safe. Unless I want cancer maybe. I get ugly black sludge in my faucets and toilets. So yeah. I say that to say I learned because I sweat a fuck ton in a hot climate I do feel better with adding electrolytes to my water here because it’s just not a thing. Americans often feel very proud of themselves for never ever having sodium. If that works for them, cool. I sweat too much and feel like shit without.
Because of science
I’m American and I feel like I haven’t heard the term electrolytes in a long time, spoken. I guess it was a trend in food some time ago which is why it’s still printed on bottles, but it’s not something Americans go around talking about.
It’s only really important if you do outdoor activities for an extended period as some states can routinely go above 40 C (104 f) during the summer or exercise a lot
I’d answer this question for you but you gotta fork over some electrolytes first.
We don’t care. It’s all just the latest marketing ploy.
Marketing to sell you salty water… which that’s all that is. Electrolytes are just salts.
About 50 years of nonstop marketing
Probably because our lousy diets. Just look at the average American and you’ll see evidence of a bad diet.
I’ve had seizures from electrolyte imbalances.
For context, I’d bet money that you don’t know anybody that drinks more water than me. I’m not a big guy/eater, but I literally drink 2-3 gallons per day (cold climate, not exercising/sweating).
Just always drank tons of water. problem being without adequate sodium/salt, it’s an electrolyte deficiency which can cause seizures (the sodium in my body is too low/diluted for my body, because of the amount of water).
If I had a better diet, it probably wouldn’t have become an issue.
We’re not obsessed. They’re vital to, like, living. Which I think most (not all) people want to do regardless of dietary choices.
Your country probably just measures things differently.
American food is very salty
Small story: I got bad food poisoning one time, and this caused me to vomit and have the runs. This lasted for a full week. And despite all the water I drank I had to be hospitalized for dehydration. The problem was though I had lots of water I didn’t have nearly enough electrolytes. So yeah, it’s not ridiculous at all. They ended up hooking me up to an intravenous so they could get fluids and electrolytes into me.
Because of a Florida football team in 1965
ACTION POTENTIAL.
We Americans have salty food and most of us don’t drink water like you’re probably supposed to. I know a handful of people who don’t even drink water on a daily basis.
Americans are owned by large corporations and marketing departments
They also gargle down more useless vitamin supplements than any other group of people, so idk, probably heard it’s good for recovering after sweating and decided to preemptively fill ‘er up?
Electrolytes are small amounts of certain salts. 99% of the time, there’s no point considering them. They show up in your diet normally. Except sometimes table salt, but deficiency in that is usually because of some other health issue, not malnutrition.
They’re used to maintain certain balances in cells, and to transmit signals in nerves and muscles. They are important. They just usually get into your body through regular food and drink.
However, 99% of the time is not always. Sweat and urine contain a lot of electrolytes, so activities that involve a lot of those substances, like hard exercise, being in a hot environment, or taking medications that are diuretic can sometimes deplete your electrolytes. Donating blood or blood plasma, as I do twice a week for extra money, also significantly depletes your electrolytes.
If you see food or drink products designed for recovery after exercise, or for helping keep babies healthy through early growth spurts, they probably have a lot of electrolytes. In particular, it’s pretty hard to overdo it on most electrolytes. You can have too much, but it takes a lot to get to that point. So some extra generally can’t hurt and might help.
Are you sporty? We were told to drink electrolytes if we’d been sweating a lot (Australian) but you don’t have to buy Gatorade or Powerade or Lucozade, you can just make it yourself.
Water + a bit of salt and sugar, you can add lemon juice or use coconut water as a base.
The only other time I’ve heard ut recommended is for illnesses. My GP told me to take them when I had gastro and couldn’t keep anything down.
They’ve been brainwashed by the media.
In truth we don’t need to actively replenish unless we have been sweating a Lot but these companies want to sell us electrolyte packets so they’ve convinced everybody that they need extra electrolytes
Not American but i live in a place where temperature breached 52c last summer and at those levels merely water is not gonna help you’ll need extra that’s why instead of just water we mostly add lemon and salt/sugar in water maybe it’s the same thing?
Chemistey wise, things that are ionic when dissolved in water and thus allow for the liquidvto be used to make electricity … acid / alkali, salts, etc
The nervous system is electrical.
Electrolytes are just a group of common minerals needed for the body. Some you might be familiar with are calcium, potassium, magnesium, etc.
These are usually sourced just through regular eating of healthy meals. However if you’re working extra hard then it is essentially like using more energy and you might need more electrolytes or else you might experience fatigue, stress, muscle decay, headaches, and the like.
As such, in America you will mostly see electrolytes when inspecting energy drinks such as Gatorade which are meant to be refreshing in more than taste to alleviate extra energy spent doing stuff like sports or just working in the sun.
I would also like to note that in my experience sometimes just existing in California especially during the summer can be fatiguing so a nice refreshing drink with electrolytes can be nice to have.
If you’re sweating a lot, and don’t restore your electrolyte levels, your body’s just gonna dump whatever water you take in as urine because it’s trying to maintain a delicate chemical balance and you’re currently low on electrolytes because you sweat them all out. What’s that mean? If you go sweat a ton, then drink water, you’ll be up all night pissing while being dehydrated because your body doesn’t want to hold onto that water. Take them in via food, a sports drink, a DIY home remedy or whatever. Doesn’t really matter.
Nah, unless you’re hardcore working out, have a medical condition, or your diet is unusual most people’s electrolytes are fine.
Our normal environments are generally more extreme than a good chunk of Europe temps of 38°+C on a yearly basis,some places 48°+C yearly, and due to how we farm with heavy chemicals our produce is actually heavily nutrient deficient so we have to get our nutrients in other ways, one of the most common are drinks that have a lot of added nutrients and electrolytes,
It’s just a marketing scheme to sell purified tap water thats stripped of its minerals, then a few get added back as some “electrolyte blend” it’s all bullshit.
When you’re in America buying bottled water, try and find one labeled as “spring water”
I personally would’ve started by searching on Google.com what they are and what they do.
I personally would’ve started by searching on Google.com what they are and what they do.
No, it’s marketing, and a robust but shitty regulated alternative health and wellness industry.
Electrolytes are healthy, see? So it’s ok to spend more money, the drink’s got electrolytes.
If you don’t sweat excessively, then the knowledge of electrolytes is entirely unnecessary.
However, if you ever plan on getting diarrhea, food poisoning, intense exercise, or hungover, the information is beneficial.
It’s salt. We need salt to process water. We lose salt in our sweat, shit and vomit. Usually, just water is better than an electrolyte drink. Sometimes it isn’t, such as any of the circumstances mentioned above.
If you don’t sweat excessively, then the knowledge of electrolytes is entirely unnecessary.
However, if you ever plan on getting diarrhea, food poisoning, intense exercise, or hungover, the information is beneficial.
It’s salt. We need salt to process water. We lose salt in our sweat, shit and vomit. Usually, just water is better than an electrolyte drink. Sometimes it isn’t, such as any of the circumstances mentioned above.
If you don’t sweat excessively, then the knowledge of electrolytes is unnecessary.
However, if you ever plan on getting diarrhea, food poisoning, intense exercise or hungover, the information is beneficial:
It’s salt. We need salt to process water. We lose salt in our sweat, shit and vomit. Usually, just water is better than an electrolyte drink. Sometimes it isn’t, such as any of the circumstances mentioned above.
That’s marketing for you and Americans believe any shite at all!
Sometimes I get dizzy because I need more salt than the average person and the hydration packets help a lot especially in summer due to the humidity and having to walk or take public transportation in 86F/30C weather.
My oncolgist wants me to drink a glass of electrolyte mix every day because cancer is rough. I also have to take magnesium suplements because I use it up fast.
You never did sports?
everyone should be obsessed with them they do a lot of good for you at any time.
Drink some during a hangover?.. now your hangover is half as bad.
Playing a sport and need to hydrate without filling your stomach with a bunch of water that goes slishy sloshy impeding your performance? .. drinking electrolytes?
Feeling just dizzy and off and low energy?.. drink electrolytes and maybe eat something.
Everyone should be obsessed with them its a cheatcode.
Capitalism . Just another marketing word to sell stuff
Where is OP from? maybe a cold climate where you dont sweat your ass off in 40 degree days?
It is meant to replace salts losts due to sweat etc because low salt can lead to cramps.
I used to get leg cramps after driving 8-12 hours, even with regular breaks. Now I drink a gatorade or similar drink once or twice during the drive and dont seem to run into any issues. Not sure if the science backs that up but it seems to work for me.
I ride my stationary bike for an hour. I sweat a lot and probably lose a lot of electrolytes. One thing that started happening years ago was, I’d get cramps after my exercise. Drinking electrolytic water during and after exercise helped to do away with cramps.
Not American (I’m Australian), I think if you were a chemist or a biochemist or a doctor, electrolytes would be something you deal with every day. I took chemistry in high school and we definitely covered electrolytes. I work as a doctor now. Outside of work though, it’s not something I give a huge amount of thought into apart from trying to avoid added sodium in my diet.
I’m from the UK and run. I use electrolytes on long runs and in heat because I don’t want hyponatremia.
It’s nothing more than another excuse to add sugar to something.
It’s what plants crave
To answer the “what are they?” part, they’re anything dissolved in a solvent (such as water) that conducts electricity. Generally salts, acids, and bases.
I mean, it’s what plants crave.
I get really bad leg cramps if I walk in heat for extended period of times, more than 1.5 hours. Electrolytes helps with that. Also with hangovers.