Beat the Heat – Hydration, Electrolytes and Beyond

By: Jean Johnson for Body1

Back in graduate school I had a friend who was in such great shape that she prevailed against both genders in a university-wide racquetball tournament. Watching this formidable champ make surgical strikes on the courts was instructive enough. Seeing her around the department where our offices were, though, was yet a further lesson in how someone who cares about their physical condition operates.

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Staying Healthy in the Heat Reuter recommends a half liter of fluid awhile before people start to work out as well as continuing to drink water or other hydrating liquids during the activity. Caffeinated drinks are diuretics and rob the body of fluid. These include coffee, black and green teas. Many carbonated soft drinks, as well as beer, wine, and spirits are also diuretics. Good sources of hydration are water and herb teas like mint, chamomile, and lemon verbena. Using pinto or black beans instead of beef in many dishes, especially Mexican dishes, is a crowd-pleasing way to ensure potassium intake. Reuter admits that one of the great things about her job is that she gets to talk about food. She suggests that people will enjoy healthy food more if they learn to make marinades, sauces, and salad dressings. “It’s a skill that many people don’t have any more,” she said. “My personal favorite is roasted garlic with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It goes great on salads and I put it on vegetables too.”

There was no taking the elevator down to the ground floor to the overly bright soda machines or the equally enticing candy machines for her. In fact, if this woman ever even got into an elevator it was news to the rest of us. More to the point though, this queen of the courts took her hydration in the form of cool, clear water, not in syrupy shots chugged from aluminum cans.

I remember it well. It seemed like she was always stopping for a few sips of water at the nearest drinking fountain. The rest of us might have not noticed our thirst developing and would wind up stuffing dollar bills into the machines by the day’s end, but not her.

Why we didn’t take a hint back then is anyone’s guess – lack of knowledge, no athletic ambitions, no will power perhaps. Still, even though we didn’t get on the bandwagon then, according to Cindy Reuter, N.D., L.Ac., R.D., naturopath and acupuncturist at Providence Medical Center’s Integrative Medicine Program in Portland, Ore., there’s no time like the present. Also, Reuter says that there was good reason why those of us not lined up at the drinking fountain tended to head off to the machines.

“If you wait until you’re thirsty, you’re probably dehydrated. That can be a problem because people don’t have a good sense of their thirst and tend to confuse it. Instead of realizing they need fluids, they think they’re hungry,” said Reuter.

The plot thickens says Reuter when, in addition to being dehydrated, a person’s blood sugar gets low. From this weakened vantage point, it’s often just a short slippery slope into the land of sweet treats – sodas, ice cream, or at the very least cereal and milk made oh-so-fun by a spoonful of brown sugar.

Staying Hydrated in Hot Weather

If you’d like to rescue yourself from the tempting doldrums, Reuter advises to drink early and often. Take a short drinking fountain break, try a cup of herbal tea, lift your water bottle for a long swig, and consider some juice or even a sports drink.

As Reuter puts it, “A sports drink wouldn’t be a bad idea if you’re exercising and sweating quite a bit. But depending on their philosophy, some people may want to avoid the commercial types that have simple sugars (glucose, sucrose, and fructose) and artificial colors.”

But when Reuter has patients she knows are going to want sports drinks, she tries to at least alert them to alternatives available in natural food stores. “These are versions made with juice and water. They have electrolytes – a range of minerals that include sodium, chloride, and potassium – added just like the more common sports drinks, but are free of the added sugars and artificial coloring.”

And if her patients aren’t interested in drinking processed concoctions in any form? Not to worry, says Reuter, good old fashioned water will work every time – and electrolyte replacement can come just from eating a variety of unprocessed foods.

Electrolytes

“Most people think that in hot weather they just need to replace water,” Reuter said. “But among the minerals you lose when you sweat are sodium, chloride and potassium.”

That said, the naturopathic physician isn’t too concerned about the NaCl part of the arrangement. “The good news about sodium and chloride is that – depending on the patient – they’re probably not going to need to eat extra foods there. Particularly people eating what we call the ‘standard American diet’ [SAD] get more than enough salt.”

Reuter adds that even those who’ve gravitated over to the health food stores but are still buying packaged foods fall into this category. “A healthful meal from the frozen dinner section of a natural foods store can have 800 milligrams of sodium in it, and I like to have people under 2,000 mg a day,” she said. “The other interesting piece of it is that high-sodium foods are often markers for foods that aren’t the best nutrition anyway. This applies to fast foods and prepared foods, even if they are organic and from health food stores.”

For those who eat what Reuter calls a "whole foods diet," simply sprinkling some sea salt onto a nice piece of cod or a plate of sliced summer cucumbers, or having a bowl of miso soup generally takes care of sodium and chloride requirements. Also, as far as using non-commercial sea salts that are not iodized, Reuter explained that, “since iodine is in many common foods like seafood, milk, eggs, and often in baked goods like bread from iodine containing dough conditioners, deficiency isn't all that common. Marginal intake is more of a problem.

“I like the taste of sea salt, and like the spectrum of trace minerals it provides, though it does not have iodine. One could use iodized salt when cooking grains or other foods in which the taste won't be so apparent, and use sea salt in dishes where the taste is more readily apparent. Of course one could always be sure to have foods known to be iodine rich, like milk and seaweed.”

Potassium is another matter, although Reuter points out that there are many sources for this mineral other than the bananas most of us tend to think of immediately. “Potassium-rich foods are cooked dried beans, cucumbers, dried fruits like apricots and raisins. Most people say bananas, but I think way better choices are the ones I mentioned. Also, avocados, broccoli, cabbage, grapefruit, and certain greens like kale are good sources as well.”

Relying on Your Body for Electrolyte-Depletion Signals

“I read some where that you should let kids eat what they want since their bodies are giving them messages about what they need,” said Celeste Dimitri of Portland, Ore.

Dimitri is curious to know, then, is if we can also count on the body to tell us when it’s short on electrolytes like potassium, sodium, and chloride.

“It’s a very interesting question,” said Reuter. “And after all these years, I don’t have a very good answer. We talk about the kind of tooth a person has: Sweet tooth, salt tooth, fat tooth. The science of those food cravings, though, don’t have a lot of back up in terms of solid studies.”

Given the state of the science, Reuter suggests taking a proactive stance toward making sure the body is fueled with electrolyte minerals both in the hot weather and throughout the year. It shouldn’t be difficult she adds, especially if people start doing more of their own cooking and using a range of foods that will ensure adequate potassium, the mineral that is more likely to plunge in summer than the omnipresent sodium chloride.

Last updated: 16-Aug-06