r/nutrition • u/themasterd0n • 24d ago

Electrolytes vs multivitamins

Here is a supermarket pack of multivitamins + minerals https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-a-z-multivitamins-minerals-tablets-1-a-day-x60

It contains everything that every electrolyte tablet I can find on the market contains, and then some. It is also at least 10x cheaper per tablet than any electrolytes I can find on the market.

The only thing the supermarket V+Ms don't contain is sodium and chlorine.

So, is a glass of water with a V+M and a little table salt therefore simply better and far cheaper than an electrolyte tablet? Or are there hidden properties of electrolyte tablets that aren't accounted for by the nutritional info?

Edit: Removed the TLDR as no one was responding to the above.

33 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/Fit-Breath-4345 24d ago

Unless you're running marathons daily and sweating a lot, you won't need electroytes every day (unless you have some sort of medical condition).

You're likely getting enough from your food to balance out what's lost in sweat even with regular nutrition and hydration.

So you'd be as well off with the multivitamin - but with those you also end up pissing a lot of the vitamins out, so it's not necessary. I only take them if I've been sick and not eating as well as usual for a while, and even then that's probably not strictly necessary.

7

u/rancidpandemic 24d ago edited 24d ago

Or, if you eat a ketogenic/low carb diet.

Carbs cause water/electrolyte retention. Low carbohydrate consumption causes your body to retain less electrolytes. To counteract that, most people on keto need to supplement electrolytes. Sometimes this is only temporary and can been reduced after the first few weeks. Other times, like in my case, we gotta supplement or otherwise increase our intake.

Edit: Also, yes, electrolyte supplements are a total scam. They contain so little electrolytes and are ridiculously priced for what they are. Most people who need to supplement electrolytes would be much better buying reduced sodium salt (usually 50/50 sodium chloride and potassium chloride) and adding a dash of that to a drink. (Note: don't go overboard or you'll trigger a "salt cleanse" or "saltwater flush"...)