Electrolytes
As the weather begins to warm up, I tend to get a lot of questions about electrolyte drinks and what my recommendations are. The truth is, just like the supplements industry, the powdered and bottled beverage industry is pretty shady – loaded with synthetic ingredients, as well as a lack of transparency when it comes to the labeling. So someone asked me recently: what do you look for to know if the electrolytes are ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ (and let's be honest, there's definitely a spectrum here).
Why would we be looking to incorporate an electrolyte beverage into a summer routine anyways? The best time to have an electrolyte drink is during or after strenuous activities and heavy sweating. Think of the hot summer sun, and those long days when you just feel drained. In seasons of higher activity and more heat, we tend to sweat more, and in doing so, we lose more electrolytes. Not only will an electrolyte beverage support your body after an intense sweat, it also helps replace lost fluids and minerals and aids in faster physical recovery. I get lots of questions from moms of kids who are high activity level, looking for something better than Gatorade. Gatorade ranks as one of the worst for me – there are artificial flavours, colours a ton of sugar, and so many synthetic ingredients. Try to steer clear!
This is a really good time to start reading labels. I'm going to show you a couple of things that I definitely try to watch out for and avoid:
❌magnesium citrate or potassium citrate as well as citric acid – I am not a fan of citrate/citric acid because citrate has the ability to breakdown ceruloplasmin in the body, which is our master antioxidant protein for iron movement and reducing oxidative stress within our tissues. If you've been around my newsletter for awhile, you know how important this particular protein is and it is so important to be working on BUILDING it up, not BREAKING it down.
❌I try to avoid anything with synthetic vitamins. These include cyanocobalamin, cholecalciferol, beta-carotene, ascorbic acid…
❌I also stay away from artificial colours – these dyes are linked to ADD and ADHD, hyperactivity, allergies (and MORE) in kids.
❌Also! Sugar and sugar alcohols. Why do we need to spike our electrolyte beverages with sugar? This just keeps you (or your kiddo) on a blood sugar rollercoaster filled with emotional highs and lows.
Onto the good stuff…
The daily adult requirements for sodium and potassium are 2300 and 4500 respectively. Most adults aren't coming anywhere near the potassium requirements so we add insult to injury when we are highly active and sweating more in the heat of summer. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey follow-up study, American men are consuming between 2,900 and 3,200 mg of potassium on the average and American women are getting roughly 2,100 to 2,300 mg a day. Remember: this is the average. In my practice, I rarely see adequate potassium show up via HTMA testing and potassium is a tough one to budge once it is really low. As a society, we are chronically stressed, and many of us have spent many years supplementing synthetic D3 (*see note below) and depleting the potassium levels in the body. So I'm a big fan of incorporating electrolyte beverages to boost potassium as well as potentially tracking intake from foods for these very reasons.
ONE CHOICE: PICKLEBALL COCKTAIL: I do love this option because of the convenience. It's done for you, and has a great ratio of sodium to potassium. This still doesn't get a 100% vote because of the flavouring in here. But this would be one of those things that would be so much better than the gas station options, and if you're in a pinch, you know you're taken care of for your electrolyte ratios. This one has 800mg of potassium and 90mg of sodium – it's also got magnesium and chloride in it. I am always looking for options that are higher in potassium, because sodium is more readily available in the diet and it's easy to add a splash of sea salt to any beverage, anytime. If you do sweat excessively, you might want to consider doing that with this beverage. It's available from Jigsaw Health (you can add my discount code: HEARTFELT10) or you can grab it from iherb.ca (no discount code here).
ANOTHER CHOICE: MAKE YOUR OWN: Just like adrenal cocktails, you can EASILY make your own electrolyte beverages (and you can get creative by adding a little potassium chloride, real salt, magnesium etc to smoothies, popsicles and ice cubes). It's fun to be creative with what's available and in season. You can also make an electrolyte snack: Slice up some watermelon and sprinkle with ¼ tsp Redmond's real salt. Watermelon has quite a bit more potassium per serving than a banana (640mg in one serving!)
So you can also make a drink and freeze it into popsicle molds. I will link a silicone option that I got on Amazon last year. Kids love it and it works well. We've done Pickleball and also frozen fruit smoothies. CLICK HERE
When making my own electrolyte drinks, I like to use coconut water as a base. Coconut water even on it's own is rich in electrolytes, but for athletic and replenishing purposes, you may need to tweak it and add a few things in. Redmonds real salt for sodium and either potassium bitartrate or potassium chloride will work for potassium sources. I like the Magnesium bicarbonate from LifeBlud and I just mix that into sparkling water and then add it by the teaspoon.
I love the Costco brand coconut water and I've been using that water as a base for my electrolytes for years! I'll just add ¼-½ tsp of Redmonds sea salt and then if I really want to make it well rounded, I'll do a splash of homemade magnesium bicarbonate. Flavour it up with squeezed oranges, lemons or grapefruit and it's truly chefs kiss. It comes in two sizes (1litre bottles and a handheld size):
If you have any of your own electrolyte recipes, I'd love to try them! I will share more ideas on instagram through the summer so be sure to follow along there as well. Thanks for being here and we'll see you in a couple of weeks!
