A viral claim from fitness researcher Stacy Sims has drawn sharp pushback from Dr. Layne Norton, who argues she is overcomplicating basic hydration science to the point of misleading everyday people.
In a video clip that circulated online, Sims stated that plain water “is not absorbed very well” by the body, explaining that the intestines require a specific osmotic pressure to function properly.
She argued that drinking plain water forces the body to pull sodium and glucose from other areas just to process it, and suggested people add a small pinch of salt to their water to improve absorption.
Norton was quick to point out a glaring contradiction in her reasoning. “She literally just said if you drink plain water, the body has to pull salt and glucose from other areas to absorb it,” he noted. “Now she’s saying that sodas are bad because they have so much glucose. But you’re providing glucose with the water, which you just said would help because it would help absorb the water. So which is it?”
He also invoked a simple but pointed counterargument: humans have survived for hundreds of thousands of years drinking water from broadcasts and natural sources, without any added electrolytes. The idea that plain water is inherently poorly absorbed contradicts the entire arc of human survival.
Beyond the logical inconsistency, Norton challenged the real-world relevance of the advice. The United States already has sodium intake levels that run well above recommended amounts. For the average person who works at a desk, is not training intensely, and is not sweating heavily, adding more sodium serves no meaningful purpose.
“You sit at a desk all day, you are not sweating, you already eat more sodium than you need, you don’t need extra sodium,” he said.
Where Norton does grant some validity is in the context of serious athletic performance. For athletes training hard in the heat over extended periods, electrolytes paired with a small amount of glucose can genuinely improve hydration.
Research does support that combination for osmolite absorption. The problem, he explained, is that the electrolyte industry has largely removed glucose from its products in order to market them as sugar-free, which ironically makes them less effective for the people who actually need them. And the people most concerned about a few grams of glucose in a sports drink are typically not exercising hard enough to need electrolytes in the first place.
Norton’s concern is that this kind of content takes a narrow, context-specific truth and applies it universally, making ordinary people feel their lack of progress is due to how they fill their water bottle rather than more fundamental habits.
“Most people are not hydrating wrong because they’re not putting salt in their Stanley’s,” he said. “They’re hydrating wrong because they’re worried about this kind of stuff when they’re not exercising hard enough.”
