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Europe is melting, the eastern US is currently trapped in a “heat dome,” the Midwest has the corn sweats to look forward to, and if you’ve never felt the oppressive, sticky misery of monsoon season in Asia — consider yourself blessed. But as folks duke it out on social media about who has it hotter (and whether air conditioning is ethical), it’s time to address a nonnegotiable truth of surviving summer: hydration.
Surely, staying hydrated isn’t a controversial topic. Something as simple as drinking water can’t possibly be twisted by the wellness wild west. But alas, a recent TikTok search proved me wrong. “Sometimes water alone just isn’t enough,” an influencer named Grace, a “holistic nutritionist,” says in a partnership video with Liquid IV. She mixes a packet in, stirring with an aesthetic glass straw while spitting general truths about why electrolytes are important. “It’s about what your body does with the water that matters.”
Next, I was blasted with a clip of actress Mayim Bialik’s podcast emblazoned with the words “You’re hydrating wrong!” In it, Bialik’s guest, who is billed as an “exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist,” claims that drinking a lot of water won’t hydrate you properly. You’ll just pee it out, she says, because plain water doesn’t have the “ideal pressure” due to a lack of sodium and glucose. Rounding out my cursed TikTok search, another so-called nutritionist stated that ice water is actually dehydrating based on traditional Chinese medicine principles because the “body cannot hold onto the water.”
These are all peak examples of the wellness grifter playbook.
It’s true that the body needs electrolytes, minerals that hold a positive or negative electric charge when dissolved in water: things like potassium, magnesium, and sodium. (Sugar isn’t technically an electrolyte, but it too is necessary for hydration.) They’re important because they help maintain appropriate fluid levels within your cells, contract and relax muscles, and play into several other chemical reactions within your body. You lose electrolytes when you sweat and whenever you pee as waste products. These are all facts that influencers and wellness brands use to establish credibility by letting you in on the “real science” of how hydration works.
The next turn in the playbook is then convincing you that “drinking more water” — a long-established, common-sense way to hydrate that’s often recommended by doctors — is not good enough. There is a more optimal way, a secret that you’re about to be let in on. To finish it off, you’re either fed a dubious but harmless hack (e.g., room-temperature water is better for hydrating than cold water) or told the electrolyte powder they’re shilling will hydrate you so much better or faster than plain water could.
Liquid IV can be useful to have around. This presentation, however, is a bit of science-washed marketing. Screenshot: Liquid IV
Take Liquid IV’s science page. “Hydration is essential,” the site says, as a video of stylish scientists clad in chunky glasses and crisp lab coats plays in the background. “We elevate it with science.” Specifically, “breakthrough technology, clinical programs, and scientific leadership.” Scroll a bit further down the page, and you’ll see the words “Water is the least studied nutrient” and “Just add science … We love water (it’s a phenomenal hydrator), but sometimes water alone isn’t enough.”
The site then goes on to describe Liquid IV’s four-step hydration philosophy. It boils down to: (1) making drinks tasty so you drink more; (2) adding “hydration multipliers,” aka a proprietary blend of electrolytes; (3) taking credit for sodium in the mix helping you retain water; and (4) taking credit for the mix’s other electrolytes doing what electrolytes do. A separate page for its clinical study results says that Liquid IV helps people rehydrate quicker and retain fluids longer than water alone. Which, again, is how electrolytes work. It also says that the sugar-free version doesn’t spike blood glucose levels, which, to state the obvious, is an expected result from a sugar-free beverage.
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