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Comment by righthand | Hacker News Reader

I sub 1T sugar for honey and add 1/2 Lemon when I make mine.

You’ll want the WHO recipe for Oral Rehydration Salts:

https://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm#recipe

Preparing 1 (one) Litre solution using Salt, Sugar and Water at Home Mix an oral rehydration solution using the following recipe. Ingredients:

2T Sugar

Half (1/2) level teaspoon of Salt

One Litre of clean drinking or boiled water and then cooled - 5 cupfuls (each cup about 200 ml.)

Preparation Method:

Stir the mixture till the salt and sugar dissolve.

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Addendum: I believe the basis for electrolytes is salt and water; the sugar is there for taste. You will find the WHO recipe has a similar Gatorade kind of taste. That’s the sugar and salt flavors mixed. Perhaps the sugar changes the water polarity? But you can do what ever you want after 1L of water + 1/2 tsp salt and some sort of sugars. 1/8 tsp (pinch) baking soda is another popular addition.

> An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that are electrically conductive through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water.[0]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte

I use cherry juice in my oral rehydration solution.

Seems like a lot of sugar.

if you cut out all processed sugar, this is a good amount. I only eat meat and veggies and adding small amounts of honey and fruit made a difference

Hence the honey, plus you get magnesium and potassium from honey.

Probably no more or even less processed sugar than packaged and processed electrolyte offerings.

You need to have the sugar because it is required to transport sodium across the cell membrane in the intestine. Without the sugar you will not absorb the salt, which is what helps maintain hydration and electrolyte balance. This discovery has possibly saved roughly as many lives as antibiotics.

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