Osmolality: What is it, and why does it matter?
Osmolality is the measurement of how concentrated a solution is, for example: your sports drink! Every liquid has a certain osmolality measurement, even our blood.
So, what’s floating around in our liquids that give some higher or lower osmolality than others? The answer is: solute particles...which are way less scary than they sound. Examples could be: sodium, carbohydrates, potassium or chloride. In fact, these are the exact solute particles that make up the osmolality of Nuun products!
Why does all of this matter?
As living, moving, consuming beings, our bodies are constantly absorbing the nutrients from the things we put in it. Our blood stream is able to absorb certain things (in this case, liquids) easier than it can absorb others. The ease of absorption is based on...you guessed it, osmolality.
Hydration is all about the absorption of the h2o that we consume. As athletes, we know how important proper hydration is for training and performance. What some of us might NOT know is that the osmolality reading of plain h2o is not as optimized for absorption into our bloodstream as is h2o with the right balance of solute particles.
Nuun products have been designed to provide optimum levels for quick and efficient absorption, while also minimizing waste in our bodies (goodbye cranky GI tract)! This means, we reap the benefits of our sports drink: better, faster and cleaner than we would with alternative sugary sports drink options.
Key Osmolality Values
| Blood | ~275-295 mOsmol/kg |
| Ideal range for rehydration or exercise-based hydration | 225-275 mOsmol/kg |
| Ideal range for General Hydration or low(er) intensity exercise | ~100-115 mOsmol/kg |
| Nuun Performance | 251 mOsmol/kg |
| Nuun Electrolytes | ~99 mOsmol/kg |
| Nuun Electrolytes + Caffeine | ~112 mOsmol/kg |
| Nuun Vitamins | ~105 mOsmol/kg |
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