Day: August 15, 2025

• Adding salt to your water can help boost hydration by replenishing electrolytes lost through sweat.
• But a sports dietitian said most people don’t need extra salt, and it could backfire.
• Avoid added salt if you eat a lot of processed food, since too much sodium can raise blood pressure.

Every morning before my first cup of coffee, I sip a tall glass of water with a pinch of Celtic sea salt in the hopes of kickstarting my hydration for the day.

I’ve been doing this for years, but it’s having a moment on social media right now. Influencers on Instagram and TikTok are downing sea-salted lemon water in the hopes of achieving glowing skin, better sleep, and even faster weight loss.

So I asked a dietitian: Is expensive sea salt a legit health hack?

“This has definitely become a popular trend I’m seeing across social media,” said Angie Asche, registered dietitian with Eleat Sports Nutrition. “While it can be helpful for some, it’s pretty unnecessary for most.”

The question of whether to salt or not to salt your water depends on factors like your exercise habits, diet, and health history. Here’s what I learned.

Why longevity bros love sea salt

Salt water is a go-to for people in the longevity world looking to boost their hydration. I recently spoke to a longevity doctor who makes it part of his morning routine, and a veteran Navy SEAL who swears by it.

Sodium, the main nutrient in salt, is part of a class of minerals called electrolytes, which help regulate the fluid in our cells. Sweating a lot or drinking too much water without replenishing electrolytes can deplete or dilute the supply in your body. The consequences of electrolyte imbalance can range from a mild headache to a life-threatening seizure

It’s not just water that keeps you hydrated. Sodium, from food or supplements, helps maintain the balance.

Not all salt is the same.

Regular table salt is processed from salt mines, so it’s uniform in texture, color, and taste. Other salts from around the world can contain trace minerals that make them unique.

For instance, pink Himalayan salt is mined but often less processed, leaving larger crystals that contain iron, zinc, and magnesium.

Celtic sea salt, which I use, comes from evaporated seawater on the Atlantic coast and contains potassium, magnesium, and calcium.

However, Asche said the nutritional difference between table salt and fancy salt is small. She’s not convinced it’s enough to break the bank over, especially if you’re just adding a pinch.

“These are in such small amounts that they really do not amount to much, especially when using just a pinch,” she said.

Should you add sea salt to your water?

I don’t really want to stop adding a salty little razzle-dazzle to my drinking water. Remembering a pinch of salt in my morning glass of water has become something of a ritual. It helps ensure I’m actually drinking a glass of water in the morning, and it seems to make me feel better overall.

Fortunately, Asche said I might be the perfect candidate for it.

“Heavy sweaters, highly active people, and people who eat a diet that’s primarily whole foods — with very little ultra-processed foods, which are often high in sodium — would likely see the greatest benefit to something like this,” Asche said.

I check all three of those boxes, training nearly every day, often for long hours in the heat, and cooking most of my own meals.

But should you be salting your water? That depends.

A pinch of salt is roughly 1/8 of a teaspoon, and about 300 mg of sodium. The typical recommended daily sodium intake for adults is 1,500 to 2,600 milligrams. Consuming more than that on a regular basis is linked to high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

If you eat a lot of packaged food or takeout, you probably get more than enough sodium already.

“Adding extra salt to your water could cause more harm than good,” Asche said. “I would keep this in mind and factor it into your total daily sodium intake to make sure you’re not overdoing it.”

The bottom line

• Asche’s big tip: Keep a tall glass of water by your bedside so you can start hydrating as soon as you wake up. This is great for your skin and overall health.
• It’s OK to drink electrolytes if you want to! Still, aim to get 75% of your daily hydration from plain water. The remaining 25% can have electrolytes.
• I plan to stay salty, if only because a fancy sprinkle of sea salt tricks me into drinking more water than I would otherwise.

• CEO Daniel Snell has been running a management consulting and social impact company for 20 years.
• Snell says that ignoring AI is the worst strategy for employees who want to protect their jobs.
• Instead, he says workers have to engage with AI and align with change leaders.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Snell, a 53-year-old cofounder and CEO of Arrival, based in London. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

As efficiency starts to improve, whether driven by AI or not, underperformers will get squeezed out.

I’ve been running my management consulting and social impact company, Arrival, for 20 years now. Lately, I’ve experienced investors and business leaders hoping that AI can unlock efficiency, productivity, and performance to get organizations growing again.

Having worked with senior leaders at companies like Tesco and GSK to help develop high-performing teams, I tell my clients that putting their heads in the sand is the worst strategy when it comes to AI.

To bulletproof yourself as an employee from the AI revolution, you have to get really engaged. Don’t get overwhelmed by it, and don’t buy into the narrative of fear.

1. Test AI for your company

Don’t limit yourself to what your business is giving you or what it’s doing with AI.

Run some projects, do some experiments, do some external research, and look at organizations that are using AI really well. Take those ideas to your manager and your boss and see if you’re allowed to get involved. Be solution-oriented. Don’t be problematic.

Think about how you can apply AI in an aligned way, immerse yourself in the executive strategy and intentions, and figure out what your company perceives as issues, opportunities, and challenges. Use that as a guide to test an AI model within your particular context and figure out how you can contribute real value.

2. Demonstrate the value of your work

Many people think that activity is productivity. Sharing lots of insights or working really hard has nothing directly to do with perceived value or productivity.

When you’re doing work, make sure you’re really clear on how it’s valuable to the company and how it’s aligned with the strategy. Don’t drift into projects or roles without testing in your own mind whether this project or this team is perceived as part of the organization’s future growth.

If you’re not clear about that, you can easily be put into a team or department that is not valued or not valued highly enough.

3. Align yourself with leaders who are part of the change

If you align yourself with a leader, a department, a project, or a division that is not about the future of growth, you won’t be visible. So, align yourself with leaders who are part of the change agenda.

It’ll be crushing to realize you’re not invited to the exciting conversations and you aren’t among those meetings where the best talent is going. It’ll be apparent. Just figure out how to get into those circles where the heat of the business is.

Bring a contribution or value based on how you’re going to establish better efficiencies, productivity, performance, and how AI can drive that.

4. Skip meetings and projects that waste time

Sometimes, you get into meetings and wonder why you’re there, what the purpose of the meeting is, or where it’s going. In many cases, it’s going nowhere.

Excuse yourself from meetings where you know there won’t be a clear decision or you won’t get any value. When I work with leaders, I tell them to just reject the meeting if nobody can clearly articulate what the decision is and why they’re there to make it.

Often, projects are started that aren’t attached to the business’s core strategic focus. You can get rid of those projects, and it makes absolutely no difference. In fact, it lifts performance.

Once you figure out what projects and meetings are unnecessary, you will bring exponentially better value and be rewarded for that. But if you think lots of meetings, activities, projects, and insights are going to deliver value, then you’re grossly mistaken.

Do you have career advice to share? Contact this reporter, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.