It’s not the drink you think, gin, vodka, wine, or beer that improves your golf performance… they just make you think you’re getting better on the course!
When exercising for an hour or less, eating healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, high fiber carbs like beans, sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and nuts and seeds, have plenty of nutrients inclusive of electrolytes to support your body’s hydration needs.
When exercising for over an hour in high heat environments, like playing golf for four plus hours, or caddying for golfers, the body needs help in staying hydrated and that means more than just water. Adding an electrolyte-based drink for the duration of a round, either store bought or homemade, will enhance golf performance and make all the difference.
What are Electrolytes Anyway?
Electrolytes are positive and negative charged ions that when added to fluids support cellular hydration, maintain the body’s core temperature in high heat environments, and keeps the muscles loose and moving. Electrolytes will also keep the body’s energy levels up and help the brain stay mentally focused through a full round of golf. The main electrolytes are sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Sodium is the most important and first one to replete because it is the primary electrolyte lost in sweat.
Electrolytes, if depleted from significant sweating and only drinking water, can be a dangerous situation and force you to stop play. In severe cases it can also land you in the emergency room. I have personally seen players at times that heavily drank the night before, had no breakfast, only drank water, and by the back nine were so sick they had to stop play. Those are extreme cases, but it is a common occurrence to feel drained and lose strength and focus playing during the heat and humidity. With the support of a well-designed electrolyte drink, getting sick can be avoided.
Signs of Dehydration
How would you know you are not getting enough electrolytes during a round of golf or other activities that last more than an hour?
Common symptoms of dehydration past the first hour of activity are increasing fatigue, dizziness, lowered swing performance or strength to hit the ball as the round continues, possible muscle cramping, heart palpitations.
Bad Habits can Dehydrate You
Several bad dietary habits negatively affect hydration, such as consuming over four cups of caffeine daily, consuming too much alcohol the night before play and or during a golf round, high-sodium foods such as cured meats and processed foods, and drinking beverages with a high-sugar content like soda or undiluted fruit juices.
Sometimes even healthy habits can cause dehydration. A high protein diet, (more than two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight), will require a higher fluid intake. High protein intakes require more water to metabolize the naturally occurring gases in protein. Certain vegetables, such as asparagus and artichokes, if consumed in excess, can have diuretic properties that can cause the body to lose extra fluid.
Water Output/Losses:
On an average day we lose anywhere from 1-3 quarts of water, mostly through kidneys, but also through sweating and expired air.
When we are exercising for extended periods of time, we need to replace this loss with two to three times this much fluid. Each pound of body weight lost is 16 fl oz. of fluid lost.
How Much Fluid You Need on the Course?
A quick way to figure out your daily fluid needs:
Your weight divided by 2. This is the fluid in ounces you need to drink daily. With exercise and high heat and humidity, you will need at least 1.5 -2 times that amount.
Example:
Female: 150 lb. woman divided by 2 = 75 fl. oz. daily. Approximately 8.4 cups + 4-8 extra cups for the round of golf.
Male: 225 lb. male divided by 2 = 112.5 fl. oz. = 3.5 quarts + 1.5 – 3 extra quarts for the round of golf.
It takes a lot of fluid to stay hydrated. Water alone will deplete sodium and chloride coming out predominantly in the sweat. If you have what is called sweat rings on your shirts after golf, you are sweating out lots of sodium chloride. If you don’t, you are still losing these electrolytes through sweating, just not as much. We lose much less potassium, magnesium, and calcium in sweat because they are primarily found in plasma and muscles. If you are prone to cramping in muscles, make sure your diet is rich in potassium and magnesium rich foods. Fruits, vegetables, nuts seeds, legumes, are all rich in these electrolytes will usually prevent muscle cramping.
When Not To use an Electrolyte Drink
Please note if you have chronic kidney disease, or are on an ace inhibitor cardiac medication, where you must limit your daily amount of sodium, potassium and magnesium, have your physician approve your use of the electrolyte drink you may want to use.
Electrolyte Rich Beverages and Foods
Salty foods like salted nuts, pretzels, crackers, salted trail mix, granola bars, and fruits are good snacks that are easy to take on the course. Snacking on these throughout the round could provide the electrolytes you need along with water. A homemade version of an electrolyte beverage would include a high potassium juice like orange, apricot or prune juice with added salt and diluted with water. Choosing an electrolyte beverage in tablet or powder form that you can add to a water bottle is desirable because it is a standardized amount you know you are drinking.
One of the original electrolyte drinks is Gatorade. It was named after the Florida Gators to improve their athletic performance on the field during the hot Florida summer weather back in 1965. What is unique about this electrolyte drink is that it has sugar in the form of quickly absorbable carbohydrates. The carbohydrates enable the fluid and electrolytes to keep you hydrated longer and delivers more available energy to the working muscles. Newer sport science has found that the amount of sugar in Gatorade is a little too high and a smaller amount of sugar added works better in an electrolyte beverage.
For every one gram of carbohydrate, your body will hold four grams of water. Carbohydrates create a built-in hydrating system. The opposite of this is the “miracle” weight loss of omitting all carbohydrates from your diet for a week to lose weight quickly. Unfortunately, the weight lost is water weight, only to come back quickly once a diet including carbs comes back on board.
Many of the electrolyte formulations today make a point to say “no added sugar”. If you do select one of those products, remember to eat some healthy carbs through the round, i.e., raisins, dried fruit, apple, banana, granola bar, half peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
One of the most dangerous combinations is to be on an extremely low carbohydrate “keto” diet, less than 20 grams daily, and take electrolytes with zero carbs in the formulation. The electrolytes will not be as effective in keeping the body hydrated and the body will have a tough time staying hydrated during hot humid days.
Caffeine added to an Electrolyte beverage
Some electrolyte products have caffeine in amounts like a cup of coffee- 100 mg. / 8 oz. Caffeine is considered an ergogenic aid in that it can increase performance and mental focus. It does this by releasing glucose from the liver into the blood steam upon consumption. If you are sensitive to caffeine, be aware that is might be in the formulation you select.
Using Coconut Water for an Electrolyte Beverage
This may sound like a clever idea, but 8 oz. of coconut water can have 22 g of sugar, the equivalent of over 4 tsp., not enough sodium at 70 mg. and 940 mg of potassium. You could dilute this and add some salt to this to better balance the drink. Not my first choice.
The Golf Beverage Cart
Golf beverage carts can be a lifesaver when it comes to getting your electrolytes. Electrolyte drinks are generally available as well as some of the salty snacks discussed. Get water, electrolyte drinks and snacks if you didn’t bring your own.
Guidelines in Electrolyte Product Selection
The following guidelines will help you choose a good electrolyte repletion product to have on the course. I have created a chart of many electrolyte products sold at grocery stores and on the internet. It is by no means exhaustive. For the products that don’t have any carbs…add snacks! The downside to buying electrolyte drinks in the bottle rather than packets, are the plastic bottle waste and artificial colorings in the products.
Guidelines in order of importance per 16 oz. serving:
- Carbs- 3-5 grams from sucrose, maltose, or maltodextrin
- Sodium: 150-250mg
- Potassium: 50-200mg
- Magnesium: 30-50mg
- Calcium: 30-100mg
Potassium Rich Foods
- Bananas, cantaloupe, raisins, prunes, kiwi, oranges, tangerines, avocado,
- Kale, collards, spinach, romaine, cilantro, broccoli,
- All nuts
- All beans- chickpeas, black beans, lentils, split peas, white and red beans, edamame, and all soy
Magnesium Rich Foods
- Cocoa, almonds, all nuts
- All beans- chickpeas, black beans, lentils, split peas, white and red beans, edamame, and all soy
- Leafy green veggies
Nutrition Keys:
- 5 grams of sugar is equivalent to 1 tsp.
- 1 gram of carbohydrate holds 4 grams of water
- 1 tsp. of salt (any kind) is equivalent to 2250 mg. of sodium chloride.
- Keep the fluid cold- better hydration and absorption with cold beverages
- Each pound lost during exercise stands for 16 fl. oz.
- The most reliable measurement of fluid lost during exercise is weighing yourself pre and post workout.
- Urine output should have a light yellow or straw color, not concentrated dark yellow or clear. Clear could mean you are hyperhydrated, (too much fluid).
- High humidity reduces the body’s ability to dissipate heat by sweat evaporation.
References:
- Kreider et al. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2010, 7:7 https://www.jissn.com/content/7/1/7 Page 9 of 43
- Benardot, D. Sports Nutrition. A Guide for The Professional Working with Active People 2nd ed. 1993. Pp.38-47.
- Wolinsky, I., Hickson, J. Jr. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport. 2nd ed. 1994. Pp.246-247, 252-256, 264, 296-299, 288-329.
- LPGAwomensnetwork.com
- Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutrition (SCAN), a practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Hydration Handout.2016.
- Totoro, J. Time to Think About Hydration Differently. USA Hockey. 2018.
- Electrolyte Product Cost and Breakouts
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