Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I will be completing a project to research which drinks are the best for proper hydration after exercise using concepts from the electrolyte challenge from this site. It is intuitive that orange juice will likely have more electrolytes than sports drinks. Based simply on level of electrolytes, it would then stand to reason that orange juice is the best. However, since orange juice has more carbs it is harder to digest. Therefore, it may not be the best. As a result, I would like to compare electrolyte levels but then also review that in relation to level of carbs and/or calories, almost like an "electrolyte" per carb or per calorie view, which I think will make the argument of "which one is best for hydration" make more sense versus just level of electrolytes. However, I don't think there is really such a concept as "electrolytes per carb or per calorie" because I don't think electrolytes change based on either of those. However, it still seems that there should be a way that I can factor carbs and/or calories relative to electrolytes in order to really make an argument as to why one drink is better than the other. Is there a way that I can say electrolyte level of juice was X per carb? Or is there a way to factor carbs and/or calories in? Or am I making it too complicated? I just think that if I try to argue that more electrolytes are better, and juice is the one with more electrolytes but it is harder to digest, etc. then really how is that better? In addition, that seems to then introduce another issue or variable in the conclusion which seems odd to me. If my argument is that more electrolytes are better, but then I say that the juice with the most electrolytes is actually not better because it has more carbs or sugars, then it seems like a disconnect between my argument and my conclusion. That is why I thought perhaps my argument should be something like “ the best drink for hydration after exercise is the one with the most electrolytes per carb or sugar which is a sports drink” or “ the best drink for hydration after exercise is the one with the most electrolytes and the least carbs/sugar”. Is the latter too general for science? Do I need an “electrolyte per carb” figure to make it more quantifiable and scientific?

Hi,

Thanks for the very detailed description of your project. It helps us to answer your questions better.

You have made a lot of statements and asked a lot of questions, so let me try to comment on them in order.
First, I disagree with “it is intuitive that orange juice will likely have more electrolytes than sports drinks.” Sports drinks are formulated to contain salts to replace those that are sweated away during a game or practice and will have more of these salts than OJ. I found a website where a person made a homemade device to measure the conductivity of a solution (http://www.instructables.com/id/Finding ... sports-dr/) and compared OJ, sports drink and water. They found that the OJ was slightly more conductive than the sports drink.

The problem I have with this ‘experiment’ is that conductivity measures ALL charged ions including citric acid which OJ has a lot of. But the electrolytes that your body needs during a workout are sodium, potassium and chloride (http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/f ... u-exercise) and OJ does not provide as much sodium as a sports or energy drink. Eight ounces of OJ has 473 mg of potassium but only 2 mg of sodium (http://www.orangejuicefacts.com/nutrition.html) which is one of the main things the body sweats out.

If you are interested in a natural homemade juice drink to replenish electrolytes, I found this site. There are others: http://foodbabe.com/2012/07/10/the-secr ... naturally/

When a person is exercising vigorously or playing sports they are burning up carbs at a pretty rapid rate. That’s why sports and energy drinks contain sugar to replace what the body uses up. OJ also contains sugar but some of it is fructose which is less likely to cause an insulin spike. Sports drinks vary a lot in how much sugar they have. The whole sugar question is complicated and controversial http://www.discovergoodnutrition.com/20 ... -in-fruit/

Sugar, especially glucose, is easy for the body to digest, but too much sugar can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes. You can check this site for how many carbs a football player needs as an example of the increased needs for barbs to replace muscle glycogen lost during heavy exertion: http://www.livestrong.com/article/32486 ... l-players/

Hydration, the replacement of water that has been sweated away is just as important as replenishing electrolytes and one study recommended that athletes drink 20-40 ounces of water for each hour of play. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/f ... se-fitness

I think your idea of determining the optimal carb to electrolyte ratio is a good one but you are going to need to do some research into how much water, electrolytes and carbs a body needs for various levels of activity. Then I would make a list of the main sports drinks with their electrolyte and carb amounts and see which one is closest to the optimum that you calculated. You could also compare this to OJ and to a homemade juice made in a blender from various ingredients. Maybe making your own sports drink is the best way to go to get the electrolytes, vitamins and other goodies you need without getting too many calories.

I think I wrote too much but I wanted to answer your questions as best I could. Let us know what you plan to do and we will try to help.

Good luck!

Sybee

baseball0104 wrote:I will be completing a project to research which drinks are the best for proper hydration after exercise using concepts from the electrolyte challenge from this site. It is intuitive that orange juice will likely have more electrolytes than sports drinks. Based simply on level of electrolytes, it would then stand to reason that orange juice is the best. However, since orange juice has more carbs it is harder to digest. Therefore, it may not be the best. As a result, I would like to compare electrolyte levels but then also review that in relation to level of carbs and/or calories, almost like an "electrolyte" per carb or per calorie view, which I think will make the argument of "which one is best for hydration" make more sense versus just level of electrolytes. However, I don't think there is really such a concept as "electrolytes per carb or per calorie" because I don't think electrolytes change based on either of those. However, it still seems that there should be a way that I can factor carbs and/or calories relative to electrolytes in order to really make an argument as to why one drink is better than the other. Is there a way that I can say electrolyte level of juice was X per carb? Or is there a way to factor carbs and/or calories in? Or am I making it too complicated? I just think that if I try to argue that more electrolytes are better, and juice is the one with more electrolytes but it is harder to digest, etc. then really how is that better? In addition, that seems to then introduce another issue or variable in the conclusion which seems odd to me. If my argument is that more electrolytes are better, but then I say that the juice with the most electrolytes is actually not better because it has more carbs or sugars, then it seems like a disconnect between my argument and my conclusion. That is why I thought perhaps my argument should be something like “ the best drink for hydration after exercise is the one with the most electrolytes per carb or sugar which is a sports drink” or “ the best drink for hydration after exercise is the one with the most electrolytes and the least carbs/sugar”. Is the latter too general for science? Do I need an “electrolyte per carb” figure to make it more quantifiable and scientific?

Thanks for such a nice information.