Electrolytes for Prepping: What Type Should You Store?

Water is one of our most basic preparedness supplies. But there are situations where replacing water alone may not be enough.

Heavy sweating, prolonged heat, vomiting, and diarrhea can cause the body to lose both water and electrolytes. If those losses become significant, having an electrolyte product on the shelf could be very useful.

For preparedness, I would look beyond ordinary sports drinks. One particular type of product deserves attention: oral rehydration salts.

It is inexpensive, lightweight, stores easily, and mixes with ordinary drinking water. There are lots of electrolyte formulations out there. While researching electrolyte formulas, I came across TRIORAL packets, which use the World Health Organization’s oral rehydration formula.

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→ TRIORAL Oral Rehydration Salts, WHO Formula

That makes an interesting addition to home emergency supplies, first aid supplies, vehicle kits, and bug-out bags.

Why Electrolytes Matter During an Emergency

The main electrolytes we hear about are sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride. They help regulate fluid balance and are involved with normal nerve and muscle function.

Under ordinary conditions, most people get plenty of electrolytes from food.

An emergency can change the situation.

Imagine working outside for hours during summer heat. You may lose a surprising amount of salt through sweat.

Illness can be an even bigger problem. Vomiting and diarrhea can rapidly remove both water and electrolytes from the body. Drinking plain water replaces the water, but not everything that was lost.

That is where an electrolyte solution can help.

👉 The Chronically Dehydrated – Symptoms and Prevention

Oral Rehydration Salts Are Different From Sports Drinks

There are hundreds of electrolyte powders today. Some are excellent products. However, there is an important difference between a general electrolyte drink and an actual oral rehydration solution.

Oral rehydration salts contain both electrolytes and glucose in specific proportions.

The glucose (sugar) is there for a reason (see below for alternative situations). The small intestine has a sodium-glucose transport system that helps pull sodium and water across the intestinal wall. In other words, sugar isn’t simply there to make the drink taste better.

The WHO formula contains glucose along with sodium, potassium, chloride, and citrate in specific concentrations intended for oral rehydration. That is different from many sports drinks and everyday electrolyte powders.

A typical sports drink may contain electrolytes, but usually in very different concentrations. Some electrolyte powders also contain very little sodium, while others contain lots of sodium but almost no carbohydrate.

Those may be perfectly good products for everyday hydration. They simply serve a somewhat different purpose.

A Good Oral Rehydration Salt Product for Emergency Supplies

One simple option is TRIORAL Oral Rehydration Salts.

One packet is mixed with 1 liter of water (33.8 fluid ounces, about 1.06 quarts).

You don’t need laboratory precision, but follow the packet directions reasonably closely. A small difference in water volume isn’t likely to matter much, but using substantially too little water can make the solution overly concentrated. Too much water simply dilutes it and makes it less effective.

Packets are also handy from a preparedness standpoint. They take almost no room compared with bottled electrolyte drinks.

You still need the water, of course. Electrolytes don’t change the basic rule that water storage comes first.

→ TRIORAL Oral Rehydration Salts, WHO Formula (Amazon)

I would store the packets somewhere cool and dry and rotate them according to the date printed on the package.

What If You Want Electrolytes Without Sugar?

The glucose in oral rehydration salts serves a specific purpose. It helps the intestine absorb sodium and water, which is why the WHO formula includes sugar.

But you may not need that type of formula for ordinary electrolyte replacement.

For hot-weather work, heavy sweating, hiking, or a low-carb or keto diet, a sugar-free electrolyte mix may be a better fit. For example, LMNT provides 1,000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, and 60 mg magnesium per packet, with no sugar.

→ LMNT Zero Sugar Electrolytes (Amazon)

That gives us two somewhat different preparedness supplies:

Sugar-free electrolyte mix: Useful for replacing electrolytes lost through sweat or for people who prefer to avoid sugar.

Oral rehydration salts: Intended for more serious fluid loss, especially from diarrhea or vomiting, where the glucose-sodium combination helps improve rehydration.

People with diabetes should be more careful about both dehydration and blood glucose during illness. For routine hydration, water and sugar-free fluids are often appropriate. Significant dehydration, persistent vomiting or diarrhea, or very high blood sugar may require medical attention.

What About DripDrop, Liquid I.V., LMNT and Other Electrolyte Powders?

This is where it helps to think about the job you’re asking the product to do.

A product intended for sweating, hiking, outdoor work, or general hydration does not need to match the WHO oral rehydration formula.

For example, one stick of DripDrop Original mixed into 8 ounces of water currently provides about 330 mg sodium, 180 mg potassium, 40 mg magnesium, and 7 grams of sugar. The formula uses the same sodium-glucose transport principle behind oral rehydration therapy, although its formulation and concentration are different from WHO.

DripDrop could make sense for a vehicle, backpack, or emergency work supply where taste and convenient single servings matter.

→ DripDrop Hydration Electrolyte Packets (Amazon)

Other popular electrolyte powders may be designed around heavy sweating or low-carb diets. Some contain a lot of sodium and almost no sugar.

Again, that’s not necessarily bad. Just don’t assume that every package with the word “electrolyte” on it is the same thing as Oral Rehydration Salts.

For my preparedness supplies, I would separate them into two uses:

Routine electrolyte replacement: hot weather, heavy physical work, hiking, chainsaw work, cleanup after a storm, and similar situations.

Oral rehydration: significant fluid loss from vomiting, diarrhea, or other circumstances where dehydration has become the primary concern.

A household could reasonably keep products for both.

You Can Make an Emergency Rehydration Solution From Salt and Sugar

There is another useful preparedness angle here.

If commercial oral rehydration salt packets are unavailable, the World Health Organization provides a very simple emergency mixture using ingredients that are already stored in many kitchens.

Homemade Emergency Rehydration Recipe

Mix:

6 level teaspoons of sugar
1/2 level teaspoon of table salt
About 1 quart of water (1 liter is 33.8 fluid ounces)

Stir until completely dissolved. WHO gives this simple salt-sugar-water mixture as a backup when commercial oral rehydration salt packets aren’t available.

This is worth writing down rather than trusting yourself to remember it years from now.

This homemade version is also not identical to packaged WHO Oral Rehydration Salt. It lacks potassium and citrate, and kitchen teaspoons aren’t nearly as precise as a factory-measured packet.

Think of it as a useful backup rather than a reason not to stock the real thing.

How Many Electrolyte Packets Should You Store?

There isn’t one number that works for everyone.

Fortunately, electrolyte packets take so little space that storing a reasonable supply isn’t difficult.

Think about the number of people in the household and the kinds of emergencies you’re preparing for. A hot-weather evacuation or several days of heavy cleanup work creates a different need than sitting inside during a short winter outage.

Illness is harder to predict.

This is one reason I like the idea of keeping some Oral Rehydration Salts with the regular household medical supplies instead of treating it as specialized outdoor gear.

It can also make sense to keep water and a few electrolyte packets in places where dehydration problems might actually occur:

• Vehicle emergency kit
• Bug-out or evacuation bag
• First aid kit
• Camping or hiking gear
• Workshop or outdoor work supplies
• Home emergency medical supplies

Check the expiration dates during your normal preparedness inventory and rotate older packets into everyday use.

Know When Dehydration Has Become Serious

Electrolyte powder isn’t a substitute for medical care.

Severe dehydration can require intravenous fluids, particularly if the person cannot drink enough to replace ongoing losses.

Warning signs that deserve prompt medical attention can include confusion, unusual drowsiness, severe weakness, persistent vomiting that prevents drinking, dizziness, and very little urine. Seek medical care when a dehydrated person cannot take enough fluids or has severe diarrhea or other serious symptoms.

People with kidney disease, heart disease, fluid restrictions, or medical conditions affected by sodium or potassium should also ask their health-care provider what type of electrolyte product is appropriate.