knowmad wrote:Coconut water is hands down the best electrolite rehydration drink.
Ya, sure, except for the extremely nasty taste it's pretty much perfect.
And can I go back to this for a minute?
ygmir wrote:with K and Na being such close cousins, and, as I understand, K will usurp the position of Na in body chemistry, but is "better" for you.
Unless it's the fact that K has stronger reactions, to the same set of circumstances than Na.
No Na is added to vitamins, for obvious reasons.
and, yeah, anything overdone, can be poisonous, for sure.
K being highly water soluble, I'm sure it's shed fairly rapidly.
I'm not advocating taking a lot of K. Just wondering, where the warning for it comes from, if compared to Na.
Sodium (Na) and potassium (K) ions are more than close cousins, they are paired partners.

They jump across your cell membranes in the little do-si-do dance that keeps everything moving. As long as they are reasonably balanced on both sides (intracellular and extracellular), you continue to live. Having too many of one or the other in the crowd there on your dance floor will introduce delays in the dance that can be fatal.
And yeah they are water soluble, so, are balanced by the flow of water through your kidneys. That is why dehydrated people feel weak: K overload slows down the dance. This can actually stop your heart, which is why K is used in open-heart surgery and execution of criminals.
If you have ever felt stronger and more energetic after a big drink of water, well, you probably saved your own life right there.
