Is drinking tap water hydrating enough?

Ask any athlete - elite or amateur - what their hydration strategy is and the word electrolytes is almost guaranteed to come up.

For decades now, electrolytes have been marketed by Olympians and sold to sports enthusiasts in all forms, from sticky powders to blue-raspberry flavoured Gatorade. 

So you'd be forgiven to believe that these so called "sports drinks" are exclusively for exercise. The natural conclusion must then be that tap water is good enough for regular hydration. Let's take a look.

How good is tap water at hydrating?

The short answer is: not great.

A key element of hydration is, you guessed it: electrolytes. These are simply tiny minerals with an electric charge. This electric charge is important, as it allows our body to direct where fluids need to go: from our brain to our toes and everything in between. Pure H2O, which you could obtain by distilling your tap water, is totally void of electrolytes, and won't conduct any electricity.

The first thing you should know about tap water is that its quality, from a hydration perspective, varies greatly from one area to another. Take sodium as an example: while some areas of the country have nearly 60mg of sodium per litre of tap water, others have less the 3mg/L. 

Even so, let's look at the average across the UK. A 2022 PubMed study of tap water across the country noted the median concentrations of calcium (30mg/L), magnesium (3.6mg/L), sodium (15mg/L) and sulphate (30mg/L), with large variances across different areas of the country.  

For an idea of the scale, it would take 100 litres of this "median tap water" to get close to your daily magnesium recommendations. This certainly opens the door to potential deficiencies, depending on your individual diet and lifestyle.

Sodium levels in tap water are altogether inappropriate considering daily recommendations in the rage of 1,500 to 2,000mg. It's no surprise that sodium deficiency happens to be the most common type of electrolyte imbalance (PubMed).

How can you enhance your tap water?

The numbers above don't take into account water filters. If you use a filter such as a Brita to make your water taste, smell and feel cleaner, you are also inadvertently reducing levels of essential electrolytes.

The good news is you no longer need to resort to sticky powders or bubble-gum coloured water to get your electrolyte fix. 

Simply add a pump of Oshun's electrolyte concentrate to your glass of water, and you'll gain all the benefits of mineral-rich hydrating drink.

Recommendations for fixing your tap water

Here's our simple chart for enhancing your tap water with all-natural electrolytes:

Filter your tap water? 

Add 2-3 pumps of Oshun per litre in all the water you drink.

Drink mineral or tap water?

Add 1-2 pumps of Oshun per litre in all the water you drink.

Happy hydrating!