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Comment by NathanielK | Hacker News Reader

Pocari Sweat is 67g/L of sugar and 490mg/L. This is on par with western sports drinks like Gatorade(59g/L sugar, 523mg/L sodium)or Powerade (57g/L sugar, 409mg/L sodium). This is less sweet than typical sugary drinks which can be 10-15% sugar, but normal for a sports drink.

Sports drinks certainly help if you are sweating moderately, but are inadequate for intense exercise in the heat. When you are sweating intensely (>1L/h of sweat), you can lose sodium at over 1000mg/L. Supplementing sodium and other electrolytes may be necessary.

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> Pocari Sweat is 67g/L of sugar and 490mg/L. This is on par with western sports drinks like Gatorade(59g/L sugar, 523mg/L sodium)or Powerade (57g/L sugar, 409mg/L sodium).

As a comparison, for oral hydration, WHO/UNICEF has 13.5 g/L of glucose and 2.6 g/L of salt (NaCL) in their formula:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy

That's about 6 teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt if all you have is volumetric measures.

For serious, medical dehydration use commercially-available oral rehydration salts: a homemade brew may not be enough (e.g., the packaged stuff also has potassium).

2.6g/L of NaCL ends up being ~1000mg/L of sodium, which sounds about right.

Nusalt or equivalent provides potassium.

Powerade and Gatorade both have sugar free alternatives

Note that sugar increases absorption of sodium[1] into the body, so sugar-free alternatives won't be as effective.

[1] https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(97)70034-9/...

I think this is mostly only an issue for people who need rehydration due to severe diarrhoea though.

It's important for any severe dehydration. Less severe dehydration means less water has been lost, and the loss of electrolytes is proportional to the amount of water loss. The absorbtion increase is important for cases of severe dehydration, but mild dehydration can often afford to wait for a meal to replenish the electrolytes fully.

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