S1:E6 – The Frequently Asked Questions of Hydration
Show Notes:
James Mayo:
Hi I’m James, I’m your Chief Hydration Officer and welcome to the Most Hydrated Podcast. I’m here to give you 10 rapid-fire questions and answers in hopefully 10 minutes. And today it’s all about the top 10 questions I get asked as the Chief Hydration Officer of SOS. It’s helped even more since the last few days…I’ve come down with COVID. I have to say – I’ve heard the rumors, and I can feel for myself that taking SOS during it to help me recover has been pretty damn good.
So, question #1, and obviously, if I run out of time I’ll have to talk mighty quickly to get ourselves to the end. So, please, roll up, take an ear, and join me – here we go.
So what is SOS? SOS is an advanced electrolyte and hydration drink mix that helps speed water and electrolytes into your cells as fast as an IV drip. More importantly, it’s based off designs of the World Health Organization’s oral rehydration solutions, and you’ve heard of Liquid IV, Nuun, Pedialyte, and so on and so forth. But we’ve taken the science one step further.
There’s a magic part to that called the sodium-glucose co-transport system that relates to one molecule of sugar to one molecule of sodium. If you have that in the correct balance, you’re all hunky-dory and you’re hydrated happily.
However, Dr. Blanca still didn’t like the amount of sugar in an oral rehydration solution, which has 11 – 15 grams of sugar. So we lowered the sugar to 3 [grams] but kept that molecular balance, which means it’s even faster absorbing into your cells and therefore giving you a dose of happy goodness.
And the second thing is, that we changed the electrolyte concentration. An ORS is designed to treat sick people, well apart from today, we’re not always sick. So, we actually swapped around the electrolyte concentration for healthy people.
Where is SOS made? In the good old US of A. Over on the west coast, it gets its sunshine before it spreads itself over to you wherever you are in the United States, UK, Australia, or New Zealand.
Is SOS natural, vegan friendly, or gluten free? Well, I don’t like the word “natural” unless I literally pluck it from a tree. But SOS has the highest possible certification of Non-GMO which is “Non-GMO Verified,” so it means we put in clean ingredients – no artificial nasties, no artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, or preservatives. It is vegan friendly and it is gluten free. More importantly, it’s just good for you. And it’s low sugar.
How does SOS work? Well, I briefly alluded to that a minute ago in the fact that it activates the sodium-glucose co-transport system. Your cells and ours are more than 60% water and as a result, water is our life source, don’t get me wrong. But, water needs these happy sparkly bits of electrolytes because they’re the bits that make the water work, and without the electrolytes your body is flushed out and you feel terrible. So, part of having an electrolyte – water can’t survive without electrolytes. It’s as simple as that. So we’re there, as in SOS, to put it in and help you absorb water faster than anything else.
When should I take SOS? Well, to be honest, we’re preaching the whole pre-hydration. Most of us like our coffee, our alcohol, our sugary drinks or whatever. They all dehydrate, they’re all called diuretics. And that can be energy drinks as well. So we’re saying, if you start your day hydrated, take an SOS in the morning, it could be our ready to drink, which has vitamins and minerals for an immunity boost, or our kids’ version for your little nippers, or the adult powder – but I certainly start my day with a couple of SOS’s. And if I’m doing a workout, then I’ll take my SOS’s for my workout, and if I’m feeling like a dog’s dinner, which I currently am, then I’m definitely sipping as much SOS as I can feasibly get down to help me recover.
One of the questions- can I use SOS for a hangover? Now, first off – I don’t condone drinking. SOS was, funnily enough, created in a winery where we came up with the idea. I wish we’d have had the finished product when we left the winery, but we didn’t. However, it is good for a hangover. Alcohol dehydrates, as I’ve already mentioned, so by setting yourself up before you start drinking and certainly when you get home, have a couple of sticks next to your bed with a glass of water or just take a read- to-drink bottle. Take it, and I’ll tell you what – you’ll feel more than a million dollars the next morning compared to feeling like you’ve just been rolled over by a bus.
So, what’s the difference between SOS, other oral rehydration solutions, sports & energy drinks? Well, the first is the sugar content – and I’m not talking the “zero sugars” which have artificial sweeteners and all that stuff which is just as bad as real sugar. I’m actually talking about the fact that we’ve only got 10 calories and 3 grams of sugar per serving compared to the 11 – 15 [grams of sugar]. The second thing is, it’s been scientifically made and we’ve backed it in research rather than some company-specific science institute. We can rely on the WHO’s data, but we’ve taken that one step further.
So, the difference with SOS is that it’s faster absorbing, lower sugar, more electrolytes, we’ve got added vitamins and minerals as well, and compared to energy drinks, well, energy drinks just don’t hydrate. Sports drinks, they give you fuel – well, let’s go back to energy drinks. Energy drinks don’t hydrate; they give you, so to speak, “wings” and they get you up onto a little rocket ship and you’re all dancing around because of the buzz of caffeine. Sports drinks as well – there’s two different worlds, you’ve got fueling for sports drinks and you’ve got hydration for electrolyte drinks. We tried to keep those separate – the old science was, it’s all together, you combine it. But because we know that sugar helps to dehydrate you, let’s focus on sugar as a fuel.
So, in a triathlon, as an example, which I currently do, I’m taking fuel, ie sugar, in the form of gels or various things like that, to help me keep optimized on my carbohydrate levels. And then I’m taking hydration without all the excess sugar, in the form of an SOS, to ensure that I get the water and the electrolytes into my cells to give me optimum performance.
How do I know I’m dehydrated? Well, who here gets thirsty? If you’re thirsty, from a dehydrated perspective – dry tongue, feeling *augh*– you’re already 2% dehydrated. That 2% dehydration can lead to a 25% loss in cognitive and physical performance. So just think about that – here we are, going about our days, maybe not doing any sport, and already we are starting to dehydrate ourselves just by being thirsty. That means you’re going to feel grouchy, crabby, tired – think of that food coma hour about 2:00 in the afternoon – all of those are part of the reason for being dehydrated. Just sat in an air conditioned room – that helps you dehydrate. Running around, chasing after your little ones. And don’t forget, your little ones get dehydrated too, which is why we came up with the kids’ formula.
Is it useful for recovery? Well, there’s been thousands of people who’ve gotten in touch with us to say how good SOS has been from cold, flu, fever, sickness, diarrhea, vomiting, recovery from COVID – we’re not a cure for any of those by any stretch of the imagination, but, fever brings on dehydration, so does diarrhea and vomiting. And, generally, you need to replace an awful lot more water and electrolytes – because remember, electrolytes, the happy unicorns.
So, I’m proof in the works that, yeah I feel a little bit toilet to say the least. But, the SOS has been going down a treat and it’s certainly helping me come out the other side of [COVID].
I think we’re now very close to the 10th question, so, I’d love you to send back any questions you have because I’m sure I’ve missed a couple there, but these were the top 10 key ones that we’ve got. But as always, thanks very much for listening. Be sure to grab the notes at chiefhydrationofficer.com, for everything that was mentioned in this episode, and also to have a look at the other episodes that I’ve already recorded. Subscribe to the podcast—meet me back here for the next episode. And, I look forward to hearing from you. More importantly – cheers, and stay hydrated.