this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five

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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?

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[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

Salts. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Edit: Not interchangeable. All three are essential.

Gatorade is a bad source of electrolytes. It's loaded with sodium but that's about it. You're better off drinking coconut water and taking a magnesium citrate suppliment for hydration. Stay away from Gatorade. It's sugar water.

EDIT: Yes there are others too. Chloride, Calcium, Phosphates, and Bicarbonate. I only mentioned the major ones. Apologies for that.

[–] 2piradians@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Years ago I read that magnesium oxide has a very low absorption rate in the body, so it mostly passes in urine. The source said magnesium malate or citrate have much higher absorption.

[–] DeviantOvary@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been taking the malate variety, but decided to switch to oxide midway through, because I got a bottle of it for free. It took me a week to realize that magnesium oxide was the one causing diarrhea. So yeah, there's definitely a difference between magnesium varieties.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sometimes free is too expensive.

[–] DeviantOvary@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Free as in my mom bought it and gave it to me together with some other vitamins.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

(Since showing context isn't working properly atm, going off of memory of what was being talked about for this reply, sorry if I'm wrong and it doesn't make sense)

Too expensive as in the results were the real cost, not what you paid or didn't pay at a store.

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