Happy 4th of July! Stay hydrated!

Happy 4th of July to all our American readers! And to all, I hope you’re enjoying your summer. As we progress deeper into the summer months, and people celebrate holidays like July 4th with outdoor festivities, it’s important to remember to stay hydrated. But there’s a lot of myths about what good hydration actually looks like.

The most popular is, of course, “Drink 8 glasses of water a day.” The particularly keen might hear that and ask, “But how big is a glass? How will I know that my glass was the right size?” But that myth is worse than just unspecific – it’s straight up false. It’s just some rhetoric from an old advertisement that got repeated so much that people started to treat it as truth. The real best indicator for when to drink water is “when you get thirsty.”

But you may have also heard “If you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.” Sadly, another myth, likewise started by advertisers trying to sell you more of their product. Thirst is your body’s built-in indicator for needing water, same as hunger. It’s like saying “If you feel hungry, you’re already starving.” It’s straight up not true.

Hydration health goes further than just dispelling those myths, though. Pure water isn’t all you need, as electrolytes play a significant role in it as well. But what exactly “electrolytes” are isn’t well-known either; most people are happy to just chug a Gatorade and call it a day. Electrolytes activate the body’s ability to absorb water and actually use it to function, and they consist of things like sodium, fructose, and glucose. But you don’t usually need to stress about them; for standard day-to-day activities, and even moderate exercise, most people get plenty from the food they eat. Much like vitamins, electrolytes aren’t something your body needs in high doses, and also like vitamins, the electrolyte supplement pills you’ll see advertised don’t actually help.

But sometimes you exert yourself more than your diet’s electrolyte intake can handle. Whether this means you’re doing heavy workouts or just spending the day in the high summer heat, consuming some electrolytes with your water is important to help you absorb that water efficiently and stay hydrated. To do this, you don’t need to, and probably shouldn’t, chug sports drinks. Instead, Dr. Stacy Sims, PhD, advises that you mix 1/16 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of maple syrup with 500 mL of water, and drink that over the two hours before starting strenuous activity. This mix of sodium and sucrose will give your body the electrolytes it needs to properly absorb the water you drink throughout the day.

Tracking your body’s hydration level is another important part of making sure you’re staying healthy and hydrated. Most people know that your urine should be clear to a light straw color, but that’s not the only metric. For example, if you chug a lot of water that your body can’t absorb due to a lack of proper electrolytes, that water will come straight back out uselessly. Your urine will be clear, but you’ll still be dehydrating. That’s why Dr. Sims gives the Thirst-Weight-Urine test to measure your hydration. Dehydration can cause your weight to fluctuate if you’re drinking too much water and not absorbing it properly. If you aren’t feeling constantly thirsty, your weight is relatively consistent throughout the day, and your urine looks healthy, then odds are good your hydration health is doing fine.

Even if you aren’t an athlete, the hot temperatures of these summer months can still dehydrate you pretty effectively. But as long as you take rests in the shade and keep your water levels up with the right amount of electrolytes in your body, you can enjoy those summer barbecues without issue.

Here’s to your health!