Homemade Electrolyte Drink: An Easy Recipe (and When to Use ORS Instead)

"Electrolyte water at home" and "electrolyte drink at home" are some of the most searched electrolyte queries in India, and nimbu pani with a pinch of salt is what most of our grandparents would have suggested anyway. You can make a perfectly good sweat-replacement drink in your kitchen. Here's a recipe with the maths shown, and the one situation where you shouldn't use it.

Homemade electrolyte drink recipe (500 ml)

• 500 ml clean drinking water
• ¼ level teaspoon salt (about 1.5 g, which is about 590 mg sodium)
• 2 level teaspoons sugar or honey (about 8 g)
• ½ lemon, squeezed, for taste and a little potassium
• Optional: swap 100 ml of the water for coconut water to add potassium

Stir until the salt and sugar dissolve. Taste it: it should be faintly salty, like tears, not like sea water. Drink within the day.

The maths behind it

Sodium

Table salt is sodium chloride, and 39.3% of it by weight is sodium. A level teaspoon of fine salt weighs about 6 g, so ¼ teaspoon is about 1.5 g of salt, or roughly 590 mg of sodium. That's in the range athletes lose per litre of sweat: about 825 mg on average, from roughly 420 to 1,630 mg.²

Sugar

About 8 g of sugar in 500 ml gives a 1.6% solution, similar to WHO ORS (6.75 g of glucose per 500 ml).¹ A small amount helps sodium and water absorb through the SGLT1 transporter, while too much slows water absorption.³ Table sugar is sucrose, half glucose, so it's a little less efficient than the pure glucose in ORS, but fine for sport.

Potassium

Lemon juice adds a little. 100 ml of coconut water adds about 165–250 mg.⁵

Indian variations

• Nimbu pani / shikanji: the recipe above, often with roasted jeera. Kala namak (black salt) works in place of table salt; it's also mostly sodium chloride.
• Chaas (buttermilk) with salt: adds sodium, potassium and some protein. ICMR lists buttermilk among recommended drinks.⁴
• Salted coconut water: a pinch of salt in a tender coconut balances its high potassium with sodium.

When not to use a homemade drink

For diarrhoea, vomiting or dehydration from illness, especially in children, use packet WHO-formula ORS. ORS has a precise balance of sodium, glucose, potassium and citrate. Kitchen teaspoons vary too much: too much salt or sugar can make diarrhoea worse and be dangerous for a small child.¹ Published "home ORS" recipes also disagree with each other, which is exactly why the packet is safer. See ORS vs electrolyte drinks.

Homemade vs a sachet

Homemade wins on: cost, simplicity and control over ingredients.

A sachet wins on: an exact dose every time, magnesium and calcium as well as sodium and potassium, portability on a long run or a trek, and taste you'll actually drink at the 30 km mark.

A Flow sachet carries 1000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, 60 mg magnesium, calcium and chloride, with 6.9 g glucose in 500 ml. That's more sodium than the homemade version, designed for long, sweaty efforts. For a regular sweaty day, the kitchen recipe does the job.

How much to drink

Sip it during long or hot activity and afterwards. After heavy sweating, drinking about 1.25–1.5 litres for every kg lost, with sodium, restores fluid balance far better than water alone.⁶ If you're not sweating much, remember ICMR's cap of 5 g of salt a day from all sources.⁴