According to a report by The New York Times, in 2024, the market of the electrolytic drinks It was valued at about 38,000 million dollars. These energy products are designed for consumption before, during and after physical exercise, and manufacturers claim that they optimize hydration and performance.
Electrolytes are minerals – like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium – that carry an electric charge that influences the way the water moves through the body. “They help maintain the balance of liquids. They help the liquid between and exit from your cells and They regulate blood pressure, heart rate and muscle and nervous function”, He explained Amy Westmedical sports medicine specialist at Northwell Health.
“When you sweat, you lose both liquid and electrolytes, and if you lose enough liquid, you can dehydrate. The volume of blood from your body decreases and your heart has to pump with more force to circulate the same amount of blood,” he said Heidi SkolnikNutritionist of the Special Surgery Hospital.
Experts agree that it is probably not needed to resort to a sports drink during usual training. Even if those training are strenuous or take place when it is hot, drinking water when you are thirsty is enough to stay hydrated. In addition, sugar and carbohydrates that contain many sports drinks can certainly help competition athletes to maintain their energy, but electrolytes have little impact.
In the 1990s, the Standard Medical Council recommended sodium -rich drinks for athletes during any exercise that would last more than an hour. Recent research has discovered that, although sodium is lost through sweat and urine, the body maintains the concentration of sodium in the blood. In several studies, athletes did not usually report a performance difference between exercising with water or with electrolyte drinks, even after five hours of low heat.
“It is well established for at least a decade that electrolytes do not contribute much to performance, but marketing strategies of sports beverage companies are more powerful than those of researchers,” he said Ricardo da CostaAssociate Professor of Sports Dietetics at the Monash University of Australia.
In that sense, professionals indicated that the recovery of electrolytes naturally occurs at the time of food and recommended that before consuming sports drinks verify at sugar level in the product. “You must check the amount of drinks of drinks, which can be almost as high as that of some soda,” they suggested.
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