Coconut water for post-exercise rehydration 🥥

A natural sports drink alternative?

Rehydration After Exercise-Induced Fluid Losses: Comparing Flavored Water, Coconut Water, and Carbohydrate-Electrolyte Sports Beverage

Study Details

This new study recruited 8 recreational athletes to establish the rehydration potential of either…

💧 Flavoured water (FW)

🥤 Carb-electrolyte sports drink (CES)

🥥 Coconut water (CW)

Across 3 trials participants cycled until dehydrated (-1.36% body mass loss) and rehydrated with each beverage with 150% of body mass losses 📉

(e.g. 1 kg body mass loss = 1.5 L rehydration)

Key Findings

🚽 After rehydration, FW produced the largest total urine output (530 ml) vs CW (170 ml) and CES (170 ml)

🥥 Participants retained the greatest fluid volume with CW

…but fluid status post rehydration was not statistically significant between all beverages ❎

🧠 Perceived thirst was significantly greater for FW and CES at 0 minutes of rehydration

Conclusion

Coconut water (which is potassium rich) offers a natural alternative to carb-electrolyte sports drinks for post-exercise rehydration ✅

Palatability, athlete preference or simply product fatigue can factor into the decision for using coconut water and/or more traditional sports drinks 📝

Reference

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41359932/

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