I know gator-aid and its like advertise that they have lots of them. And I know sometimes I feel bad if I sweat a lot and just drink water. But are they just advertising… salt? Are there different kinds of electrolytes, and if so are they interchangable?
I’m no doctor, but as far as I understand it electrolytes are sodium and potassium, and they help your body get hydrated faster by helping you absorb water (more? Faster? Idk, one of the two.)
(Btw, you’re supposed to drink gatorade and water for this purpose, of course gatorade ads don’t tell you that part though. Nor will they tell you about Pedialyte which is better than gatorade for hydration, or Liquid IV which I’m trying out now so I’m reserving judgement until my testing is complete).
I think it’s water retention they help with. You should consider consuming electrolytes is you plan on sweating a lot (e.g high intensity sports) or if you consume large amounts of Caffeine.
My 2cents: Pedialyte (premade) still has that sweet taste whereas Liquid IV does not. The powdered Pedialyte contained (I haven’t bought it in a few years so I’m unsure if the formula has changed) artificial sweeteners that upset our guts - which was no good when I was giving it to kids with diarrhea because it just exasperated the issue.
It may be placebo effect but I feel like it does a really good job.
*I am also biased because they make one with caffeine and it’s helping me cut back on soda.
Imo some of the liquid IVs taste sweet enough, and some like golden cherry are even a touch sour, I love the taste of the ones I’ve had so far (which is only the aforementioned and the passion fruit one.) They do have Stevia leaf extract though. Honestly the bottled pedialyte is almost too sweet for me, and the powdered stuff is ok but for taste alone I definitely prefer the liquid 4. For hydration I’m still curious but I don’t have any pedialyte powder to compare ratios, though I do have an old bottle of the pre-bottled one, and that seems to have similar proportions of Na and K.
Actually, pedialyte seems to be 16% Na and 6% K per serving, opposed to liqvid IV’s 22% Na and 8% K. Buuuut if you drink the whole bottle, the pedialyte is 45% Na and 15% K.
Not sure I understand how the percentage of what is suspended in the liquid changes assuming that the solution is well mixed (I’d expect it to still be the same percentage, as no ingredients are added or removed beyond the total quantity of the solution as a whole), but whatever.
Seems a whole bottle of pedialyte is equivalent to 2.1125 liquid IV, which means that the liquid IV equivalent would be 47.35mg more Na and 22.75mg more K.
My amateur science
degreeallows me to now say with confidence liquid I.V. is better.Ah ok. I’ve been getting the pineapple and lemon lime ones and both are a tad sour and I like that.
Edit: the pineapple one is the one with caffeine
I’m going to go out on a limb and say a product sold as a powder, and called Liquid IV, when IVs are traditionally liquid, is not to be taken seriously.