How to Eat Your Water and Electrolytes for Better Hydration
If you’ve ever run too long and hard without electrolyte-infused water—H2O that’s been enhanced with specific minerals—then it’s likely you know some of the symptoms of dehydration: a racing heart, dizziness, and feeling like you hit the wall with fatigue and muscle heaviness.
That’s because water and electrolytes, electrically charged minerals that help regulate the balance of fluid in the body, play an essential role in how your body functions, especially when challenged by intense exercise that makes you sweat.
Electrolyte Functions
Electrolytes work in combination, and their role in good health is myriad. These are just some of their functions:
- Bicarbonate: Carries CO₂ from your muscles to your lungs to delay fatigue
- Calcium: Supports generating force in the leg muscles and brings oxygen to working muscles
- Chloride: Keeps runners hydrated and works with sodium to regulate fluid balance
- Magnesium: Converts carbs and fats into energy
- Phosphate: Helps red blood cells release oxygen to working muscles as part of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule muscles use for energy.
- Potassium: Supports nerve signals that control movement and enables leg muscles and the heart to contract normally
- Sodium: Assists in hydration and delivers oxygen to working muscles
It’s easy to see why, without the right electrolyte balance, you will feel fatigued and heavy when you run.
But are liquids the only way to reap the benefits of electrolytes? Watermelon, for example, is 92 percent water and has potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate, and sodium. If you eat some before a run, can you forgo carrying water to which you’ve added electrolyte powder?
No! That’s not an efficient or reliable plan.
“While whole foods can contribute to hydration, as well as your vitamins and minerals intake,” says Carissa Galloway, RD, “we should never overlook the value of what we need in terms of liquid hydration.”
Electrolyte- and hydration-rich foods, Galloway adds, are absorbed similarly to water, even those with added electrolytes, but they are harder to track. However, according to 2020 research published in Nutrients, adding water-rich foods into your diet has been shown to increase the intake of not only water but also, depending on which food you eat, the amount and type of electrolytes. This is important, as approximately 25 percent of the adult population are chronically dehydrated and fall short in electrolyte consumption.
Dehydration and electrolyte loss can lead to reduced performance by making you have to work harder. More significant health issues can pop up, too, such as cramps and heart dysregulation (your heart will beat faster or slower).
This is especially true if you sweat a lot. The most common test to determine if you are prone to dehydration is to weigh yourself before and after a run. If you lose more than 2 percent of your body weight after a run, then you are a heavy sweater, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
Without medical testing, it is impossible to know which electrolytes you need to replenish, but you can start with adding some watery, electrolyte-rich snacks into your diet. Adding the foods in our quiz (below) to your prerun and postrun routine may help you feel good on a long, hot run, too.
This or That? The Electrolyte Quiz
This quiz, with nutritional data from the USDA, will help you learn which foods are highest in water and specific electrolytes, as well as some information on how each electrolyte helps your performance. Choose which food you think is higher in electrolytes, then reveal the answer in the dropdown.
Donna Raskin has had a long career as a health and fitness writer and editor of books and magazine articles. A certified run coach who has practiced yoga for many years, she also loves to lift weights, dance, and go for long walks with her hound dog, Dolly.