Electrolytes are one of those things you’ll hear a lot about this time of year. The term will usually crop up after a big night out, possibly the office Christmas party, when WhatsApp groups will become alight with talk of the stuff. “Have you had yours yet?” one person will ask. “I downed some when I got home,” another will reply. “Wait, sorry, does anyone actually know what electrolytes are?” a third will inevitably chime, prompting a series of shrug emojis and laughter faces.
Despite few people actually knowing what they are and how they work, electrolytes are everywhere. We can get them naturally, of course, from a healthy diet and lifestyle; the body even produces some on its own. But that's not why we know about them. It's because they are currently being aggressively marketed by manufacturers producing products containing them. In recent years, electrolytes have inveigled their way into breakfast smoothies on the morning commute and beauty supplements popped before bed. They’ve become so common you might find them in small sachets dispensed into water bottles after a night on the town, or even in tents pitched on the muddied fields of a festival.
