Nutrition myth buster: Do you really need electrolyte drinks to stay hydrated?

Jennifer Bowden

Nutrition writer·New Zealand Listener·

7 Sep, 2026 06:06 PM4 mins to read

‌

Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.Subscribe now

‌

SaveShare this article

Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter/XLinkedInReddit

Whether it’s a Pilates class, a corporate office or a school pick-up, half the adults now carry giant drink bottles, many with brightly coloured electrolyte sachets dissolved inside. Photo / Getty Images

Once reserved for marathon runners and people with gastro bugs, electrolyte powders are now a wellness staple. Whether it’s a Pilates class, a corporate office or a school pick-up, half the adults are carrying giant drink bottles, many with brightly coloured electrolyte sachets dissolved inside. The supplement industry has
turned hydration into a lifestyle. Electrolytes are genuinely important, but whether healthy people sitting at desks in a New Zealand spring need flavoured salt water to optimise their day is another matter.

American college football team the Florida Gators were the inspiration for the first specialised sports drink, created in 1965 by scientists at the University of Florida College of Medicine. The Gators’ coach wanted to help players replace body fluids lost during training and games in the heat of Florida, so the university designed an electrolyte-containing drink that came to be known as Gatorade.

Electrolyte-containing sports drinks, like the original Gatorade, are beverages consisting of a mixture of water, sodium, sugar, potassium, phosphate and flavourings. In other words, an electrolyte-containing drink with glucose added for fuel. The addition of the electrolytes, in particular sodium, is crucial as sodium promotes the uptake of sugar and water, boosting energy levels and hydration.

Electrolyte sachets and drinks typically contain a combination of sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. While they may sound like a complex nutritional intervention they’re largely just a delivery system for sodium, the mineral we’ve spent decades being told to limit.

Sodium is the essential electrolyte that ensures the sports drink, or electrolyte sachet, functions, because sodium stimulates the uptake of sugars and water from the small intestine into the body, encouraging rapid refuelling and rehydration. Sodium also stimulates thirst and replaces sodium lost through sweat. Concentrations of sodium in drinks are specifically tailored to optimise this process.

Many people believe that electrolytes provide energy. They don’t. Calories provide energy while electrolytes help regulate fluid balance and nerve/muscle function. The “boost” people feel after drinking an electrolyte drink may be because they were mildly dehydrated, or the product they consumed also contained sugar or caffeine.

As with many nutritional supplements, the idea that the more electrolytes you consume the better is becoming commonplace. Yet many electrolyte products contain surprisingly high levels of sodium. Sports drinks and electrolyte sachets typically contain around 100 to 125mg of sodium per 250ml of water. However, many of these drinks and sachets are designed for 500ml or larger servings – meaning the drinker consumes 40-50% of their daily sodium target in their drink. For decades we’ve been told to cut back on sodium in food and drinks, now wellness influencers are encouraging us to add it back into drinks. Do we actually benefit from all that sodium in a drink?

There’s a big difference between an American football player training in a muggy, hot climate in Florida, or a builder working on a hot roof in a New Zealand summer, versus an office worker spending eight hours at a desk in an air-conditioned office. Context matters – electrolyte drinks may be beneficial for athletes or manual workers who experience heavy sweating, but they’re typically unnecessary for many sedentary people or those doing low-impact exercise.

Research clearly shows that dehydration can impair sports performance. For athletes involved in prolonged, high-intensity exercise, replacing fluid and electrolytes may be beneficial. But sports scientists are equally clear that for most people, including those doing moderate exercise, water is usually sufficient.

The electrolyte boom reflects a familiar pattern in contemporary nutrition: turning an ordinary physiological need into a commercialised product promising optimisation. Electrolytes should be used for what they are designed for: rehydrating marathon runners and roofers working in the hot summer sun. For most of us, however, water is more than adequate. In the quest to optimise every aspect of health, we may have forgotten that sometimes the simplest solution is also the most effective.

SaveShare this article

Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter/XLinkedInReddit