As a Nutritionist, I am a big believer in only using sugar when you need it. However most hydration solutions include glucose in their formula.
Most people in the Western World consume far too much refined sugar which causes your insulin to spike, gain weight and metabolic disease or dysfunction. Glucose can aid in hydration. In situations of extreme dehydration, glucose can help to shuttle sodium and water through your gut and into your bloodstream. As a result, many hydration brands add glucose as the "secret ingredient," suggesting it's necessary for daily hydration.
Do you really need glucose in order to absorb electrolytes? The short answer is NO, but is of course context dependent . Most people do not need the extra glucose to aid in hydration. This is why we don’t include this in the Elyte.
So why would sugar be added?
With the rise of metabolic issues skyrocketing over the last 20 years adding MORE sugar to your drinking water is just unnecessary in the vast majority of cases.
Let’s explore a little deeper why sugar would be added in the first place, as mentioned above it can aid in the absorption of electrolytes via the sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT-1). This is a molecular pump in the wall of the digestive tract (or gut), specifically the small intestine responsible for transporting electrolytes through to the bloodstream. When these proteins encounter a 2:1 ratio of sodium to glucose molecules, the transporter proteins are activated. This causes the sodium and glucose molecules to be pumped into the bloodstream.
While glucose does support electrolyte transport it also has a lot of potential down sides when consumed daily, including increased risk for hypertension, heart disease and stroke, inflammation, weight gain, tooth decay, microbiome disruption.
It is a rare requirement when glucose is of benefit to hydration support.
Chronic illness and endurance exercise (if you are not fat adapted) are the times where added glucose can be beneficial and even life saving! But is that you?
Most of us do not fall into that category, and are better off increasing our electrolytes without all the extra calories and blood sugar spikes.
Good News....
Adding glucose is not the only way that electrolytes can pass through the gastrointestinal system to the bloodstream effectively, and, given the vast negative side effect of excess sugar we believe it is worthwhile using some of these other transport systems to get electrolytes into your cells without spiking blood sugar!
There is another way!
Electrolytes can also gain access to cells via passive diffusion into the bloodstream, additionally electrolytes can gain access to the bloodstream with support of other nutrients, nutrients that don’t cause disruptions to your blood sugar and will give you all the positive benefits of an electrolyte formula!
Amino acids help you absorb electrolytes more efficiently, as well as potassium & chloride via the Na-K-2Cl transporter and phosphorus.
Additionally, having a healthy microbiome bugs help produce good levels of butyrate, thereby increasing electrolyte absorption
Wrapping up
Hydration is fundamentally about ensuring you have adequate electrolytes and water intra and extracellularly, and maintaining these levels on a daily basis. Whether you are a busy at home mum, an athlete, or just want more energy to get through your day to day life. Hydration is not about blood sugar volume, while there are cases where glucose may be of use for electrolyte transport it is not the only way electrolytes can gain access to the blood.
As for added sugar, we believe the risks outweigh the benefits. We are focused on your overall health and right to choose if you want extra sugar or not.
-Jess Wharton, Gut Health Functional Nutritionist
