[quote=YogaMaster;10783]It is true that a liquid with a high concentration of salt will dehydrate you,… (SNIP)
So, in the end, it’s all about balance, just like yoga. When your body sweats, you lose electrolytes, like salt. In order to stay hydrated, you have to put back the water and the electrolytes that came with it, again like salt.
If you drink a salty solution, you are basically just consuming but your body got rid of at some other point during the day. That’s basically what gatorade is. The guys at gatorade analyzed sweat, made synthetic sweat, then they put a bunch of sugar in it to cover up the salty taste, and Eureka!, you have a tasty, expensive, possibly overrated rehydrating solution. That said, I drink gatorade, not exclusively, but I do drink it. :)[/quote]
Taking this to a level higher, electrolyte balance is more than just a bottle of gatorade or pinch of salt in the am…
Here’s a link to a bit more comprehensive roundup of exercise chemistry (as relates to electrolyte balance).
Daily Peloton - Pro Cycling News
Absorption rate is a limiting issue…
and regards to this article, it is reference for very high level athletics and prolly shouldn;t be directly interpreted to most daily lives. But the relational info is still valid.
other important notes there: “*Sodium is listed because it is the electrolyte lost in sweat at the highest rate. Other electrolytes lost include chloride, potassium, magnesium, and manganese.”.
And Colgan’s theory of “Biochemical Individuality” - very important. Each person has a variable rate of loss and absorption for various electrolytes. And these can be quite high and restricting variables for high performance athletes (and will also affect functions for ‘normal’ people).
Add the state of the small intestine, and the water and electrolyte absorption can be highly variable.
I.E. - a person goes to a diet of much higher fiber content and doesn’t accommodate with proper water intake. The state in the small intestine changes and water actually gets drawn out of the body in great volume, causing a dehydrated state. With reprocussion for electrolyte levels all the way down to the cellular level.
More Fiber is always a good thing, but very few simplistic blurbs on health also mention that one needs to accompany increased fiber with a higher intake of water/fluid (other than coffee, tea or other diuretics).
there’s so much more…
re - IA’s valid comments about pectin… great stuff, but needs to be considered in rehydration, since it is ‘fiber’.