Does hydration of the body require sugar?

(ryancrawcour) #1

A kiwi company today has fallen fowl of the NZ Govt after a complaint was lodged (by a competing product) that they cannot call their hydration sports drink such because it does not contain enough sugar.

Either they need to increase the sugar FIVE times, or remove any references to the product hydrating or being an electrolyte drink.

Is there any science backing up claims that in order for someone to claim this hydrates (better than water alone), that’s it’s an electrolyte drink that there needs to be sugar?

That sugar and salt have to be balanced else the body can’t absorb the salts?

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #2

Depends, if glucose is still in the body then nope. But if someone has diarrhea, they will need some sugar added. This article is helpful

(ryancrawcour) #3

“if glucose is still in the body” … we always have some glucose in the body, if we’re not eating it our livers are producing it. so can a keto person hydrate effectively without sugar? can a non-keto person hydrate effectively without additional sugars in their hydration drinks?

how much sugar is needed?

(Crow T. Robot) #4

None for a healthy person. Only if you are rehydrating a serious diarrhea patient. I still think that’s doubtful, but at the moment it’s in the official guidelines for treatment. They feel that it absorbs faster with glucose in the drink.

(ryancrawcour) #5

“They feel” this isn’t good enough when govts are now bullying product manufacturers that are choosing not to add sugar. It makes me so angry. This is why I asked for “show me the science” either proving that I need a LOT of sugar in order to absorb electrolytes (in a healthy active person) or show me science proving that this is baloney (which is my initial thought, cause how the hell have people stayed hydrated all these millions of years before we started adding sugar to our water?)

(ryancrawcour) #6

What also angers me, a lot, is that “we” go after companies like this but we leave Cocoa Cola and Pepsi alone when they push PowerAde Zero and Gatorade Zero … both of those are marketed as electrolyte hydrating sports drinks and yet neither of those have sugar. So what the actual f**k!?

(Crow T. Robot) #7

That’s a good point. How do the big companies get away with it? I assume lobbying and/or “sponsorship”.

(Griffin Mekelburg) #8

Helps when you bought out science in the 60s and created laws making it where they HAVE TO have a certain amount of sugar to be called a hydration drink in the first place. So sick how systemic the whole issue has become, such a tough fight we have ahead, but hey they will all have lunch and pass out as we march on ROFL

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #9

hmm…ascorbic acid / vitamin C is very close to sugar, in molecular terms. I wonder if it would be at least as effective ( instead of sugar) in this therapy?