Check Your Health- What You Eat Makes a Difference in Hydration

Summer is here, which means people will be enjoying the outdoors and athletes will be taking part in their favorite sports. Recent high temperatures require people to focus on their hydration, but not all of that needs to come from drinking fluids.

Ashley Hagensick, a sports dietitian at Intermountain’s Orthopedic Specialty Hospital says eating certain foods can help with a person’s hydration status and help supplement their water consumption. For athletes, what they choose to eat can also have a big impact on their performance.

Hagensick says for most people a good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces per day. So a 200 pound person would want to drink 100 ounces of any beverage, not just water.

“While 100 ounces may seem like a lot that’s just an average for what most people need,” said Hagensick. “People need to increase that intake if it’s hot outside, they’re at altitude, of if they’re doing rigorous exercise outside for more than an hour.”

She notes not all this needs to come from liquid beverages. Eating certain foods high in water content like melons, peaches, or grapes can contribute to hydration. Other items like soups can also help people reach their hydration goals.

While severe dehydration is rare, Hagensick says even mild dehydration can lead to headaches, sleepiness, dizziness, and constipation.

Here are some tips from sports dietitian on staying hydrated throughout the day:

Take a water bottle with you everywhere you go, so you can drink a little bit at a time no matter where you are. Invest in sturdy bottle you can reuse. It’s important not to chug lots of water at once, especially before doing hard physical activity. Remember to drink before you exercise, during exercise and after exercise.

Hagensick says you can also put a small amount of sodium in drinking water to help better absorb and pull water into the body’s cells, or incorporate a sports drink which has sodium.

• Drink other beverages too - Milk, juice, coffee, tea, even soup—it all counts toward your daily total.
• Set a reminder on your phone to drink something every hour. This will help you stay hydrated all day long.
• Just because someone is staying hydrated doesn’t mean they can’t still be susceptible to heat related illness.

Here are signs to help spot and avoid heat related illness:

There are several types of heat-related illnesses including, mild issues like heat rash or heat cramps. The more extreme cases include heat exhaustion and even heatstroke which can be fatal.

Symptoms for heat exhaustion and heatstroke include:

• Heavy sweating
• Cold, pale, and clammy skin
• Muscle cramps
• Dizziness
• Fast, weak pulse
• Nausea or vomiting

If you have any of these symptoms it’s important to rest in a cool, shaded location, and drink plenty of water. A more severe symptom of heatstroke is a body temperature of 103 degrees or higher, and in that case a person should cool down quickly, either in an ice bath or using ice packs and seek emergency medical attention.

• Here are a few additional tips to avoid heat-related illnesses:
• Do outside activities in the early morning or late evenings.
• Avoid the hottest parts of the day which is usually between 3-5 pm.
• Avoid workouts on artificial turf or concrete. The temperature can be much higher on those surfaces due to sun exposure.