You know the importance of location, location, location when buying a house, establishing a restaurant or setting up a retail business, right? Well, I had a similar education around the importance of hydration, hydration, hydration while doing my first hike across the Grand Canyon from rim to rim last Fall!
This epic hike had been on my bucket list without a clear idea for how I would get it done. I knew it would involve a shuttle and be unlike any other hike. Then came an unexpected invitation to join some friends who were about to give it a go. The organizer had just done it himself with another group of friends as a way to understand the logistics before taking on the coordination responsibility himself.
What timing… I was so in! I knew my legs, lungs, heart and head were ready to take on such a grand adventure. 20+ miles with over 5,000 feet of elevation that would only begin to climb near the end.
What I didn’t expect from this experience was the harsh lesson I learned about hydration.
Drinking Plain Water Does Not Hydrate
I had my 3L CamelBak filled with water and was sipping from it throughout the day. Topping off at Phantom and refilling at Manzanita, I thought I was doing great since this is what I always do while hiking. Then my calves started cramping up with 5 miles still to go. All of a sudden, I was struggling.
Group Leader: “Have you been hydrating?”
Me: “Of course! I’ve been drinking water all day.”
Group Leader: “What’s in that water?”
Me: “What do you mean, what’s in that water? Nothing. Water.”
Luckily someone had a shot blok that helped me make it over the finish line in a timely manner (10.5 hours total from South Kaibab to the North rim). On the way home, I learned much about unrefined natural salt and how it supports healthy hydration. Before then, I knew nothing about electrolytes and thought sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade were good for you. What an eye-opener!
A Distinction Between Refined and Unrefined Salt
According to Real Salt, Celtic Salt and Himalayan Salt, there first needs to be a distinction made between refined and unrefined salt. Dr. David Browstein says:
“They ‘lump’ all salt together as a bad substance. This is a terrible mistake. There are two forms of salt available in the market place: refined and unrefined. Refined salt has had its minerals removed and has been bleached to give it the white appearance that we are accustomed to seeing with salt. It is the fine, white salt that is available at almost any restaurant or grocery store. Refined salt has been bleached and exposed to many toxic chemicals in order to get it to its final product. It has aluminum, ferrocyanide, and bleach in it. I believe this refining process has made it a toxic, devitalized substance that needs to be avoided.”
“Unrefined salt, on the other hand,” Brownstein continues, “has not been put through a harsh chemical process. It contains the natural minerals that were originally part of the product. Its mineral content gives it a distinct color. The colors of unrefined salt can vary depending on where it is taken from. This is due to the changing mineral content of the various brands of salt. It is the minerals in unrefined salt that provide all the benefits of this product. 
The minerals supply the body with over 80 trace elements needed to maintain and sustain health. Furthermore, the minerals elevate the pH (correct acidity) and lower blood pressure. Our maker gave us salt to use in our diet—unrefined salt—with its full complement of minerals. It should be the salt of choice. It is a vital ingredient that needs to be part of everyone’s diet.”
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The delicate dance between sodium and potassium
“Sodium is an energy carrier. It is also responsible for sending messages from the brain to muscles through the nervous system so that muscles move on command. When you want to move your arm or contract any muscle in your body, your brain sends a message to a sodium molecule that passes it to a potassium molecule and then back to a sodium molecule etc., etc., until it gets to its final destination and the muscle contracts. This is known as the sodium-potassium ion exchange. Therefore, without sodium, you would never be able to move any part of your body.”
By the time I started cramping, I had lost a lot of minerals through sweat and had nothing to replenish it.
Starting My Day with a Drink of Solé
From this Grand Canyon experience and all the research about hydration that followed, I have incorporated the new daily routine as suggested in Real Salt, Celtic Salt and Himalayan Salt. I now start my day with a drink of Solé (so-LAY). Here’s how to prepare this Himalayan salt water solution:
“Solé is a mixture of water and salt. The object is to saturate the water with dissolved salt so it can’t hold anymore. You’ll know that you’ve created Solé when there are undissolved salt crystals in the water. You can’t oversaturate the water with salt. The crystals will simply drop to the bottom of the container.
Place several Himalayan Crystal Salt stones or Himalayan Crystal Salt granules about an inch deep in a glass container (a canning jar works well).
Cover the salt with two to three inches of pure, spring water. Let the salt dissolve for 24 hours.
If all the salt dissolves in 24 hours, add more salt to the container. The Solé is finished when the water can no longer dissolve the salt and the salt crystals drop to the bottom of the container. There will always be salt crystals in the jar. It doesn’t matter if you have only a few crystals or many. The water is saturated and is now Solé.
Cover the container to prevent the water from evaporating. Since salt is a natural preservative, the Solé will keep forever. It can’t spoil or go “bad.”
The vibrational energy of the Himalayan Crystal Salt remains in your body for 24 hours.
A teaspoon of Solé contains 480 mg of sodium, or 20% of the Daily Reference Value of 2400 mg based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.”
I have also started throwing a splash of this solution in my CamelBak for every hike. Getting proper hydration down to the cellular level has made a BIG difference for me and how I feel the next day.
The Problem With Sports Drinks
So what’s the problem with sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade?
Here’s the list according to A Sugary Drink With A Toxic Secret:
- Too much sugar
“A single serving of Gatorade contains 14 grams of sugar. This isn’t the simple table sugar your familiar with, but a potent mix of heavily refined sucrose syrups, think liquefied empty calories, and glucose-fructose. According to modern statistics, Americans already eat 2.5 pounds of sugar weekly. Diseases, including conditions of the heart, joints, bone, brain, blood, liver, and connective tissue, have all been implicated in the use of various sweeteners.”
- Not enough or improperly balanced electrolytes
“What about all those important electrolytes? Yes, Gatorade does have them, but in unreliable amounts. Gatorade, which actually contains more than twice as much sodium than potassium, is an unlikely candidate for any beneficial electrolyte restoration. When the body experiences short periods of exhaustion and fatigue, the last thing it needs is more sodium*.”
- Toxic food coloring
“Add loads of colorings to the growing list of ingredients, and you have mystery cocktail of unknowing health consequences. In fact, yellow number 5, used in many tropical flavors, have been implicated in asthmatic health issues.”
- Use of BVO
“Like other sugary drinks on the market today, Gatorade uses bromine brominated vegetable oil (BVO). BVO, used to increase fluidity and uniformity, is also used to create lead dissolving additives for gasoline, photographic paper films, fire-extinguishing materials, and agricultural fumigants. And if that wasn’t a call for alarm, more than 100 countries have outlawed the substance altogether.”
- Dr. Salerno’s advise:
“Whether you play sports or just love to stay active, it’s important to eliminate all dietary toxins including so-called sugary sports drinks from your diet.”
*I’m going to assume they’re not talking about healthy sodium here. If Gatorade/Powerade is essentially a chemical concoction, why would I think they would be using healthy unrefined salt here? I’ll assume the reference is to refined white salt (i.e. commercial table salt).
