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Sodium and potassium: the new 2019 guidelines and what they mean for athletes

The U.S. National Academies revised the reference intakes for sodium and potassium and, for the first time, introduced a category aimed at reducing disease risk. Let's break down how to read these numbers if you train for hours.

EG
Ekaterina Gromova

Salt gets demonized one day and rehabilitated the next, and it's easy to get lost in the noise — especially if you're not sitting in an office but running, cycling, or swimming for several hours a week. In 2019, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released updated Dietary Reference Intakes for sodium and potassium. The work was commissioned by six agencies in the U.S. and Canada — from the NIH and CDC to the FDA and Health Canada. Let's unpack what it actually says and how it applies specifically to an active person.

What changed with sodium

The headline number is simple: the Adequate Intake (AI) of sodium for everyone aged 14 and older is 1500 mg per day. This is a benchmark for how much the body needs at rest, not a ceiling.

The most interesting part is a new category. Sodium used to have a so-called Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). The update removed it because the committee didn't find enough data on the direct toxicity of sodium for healthy people. In its place they introduced the Chronic Disease Risk Reduction Intake (CDRR) — the first DRI category in history tied not to deficiency or poisoning, but to reducing the risk of chronic disease. The wording is soft and smart: if you consume >2300 mg of sodium per day, it makes sense to bring that number down. Not "you can't have more," but "reducing it will benefit your health."

For children aged 1–13, there are their own AI values (from 800 to 1200 mg) and their own, lower CDRR.

Potassium: only "enough," no upper limit

With potassium the story is shorter and more honest. Only an AI was set: about 3400 mg per day for men and 2600 mg for women (the exact number depends on age and life stage).

But neither a UL nor a CDRR was established for potassium. The reason is straightforward: not enough evidence. No reliable toxicological marker of excess potassium was found in healthy people, and there wasn't enough data to link a specific dose to reduced disease risk. That's an important signal: for a healthy person, potassium from ordinary food — vegetables, legumes, potatoes, bananas — is about "reaching the target," not "not overdoing it."

Why these numbers aren't about your long workout

Here's the key point that often gets missed. All these guidelines are calculated for a relatively healthy person in everyday life — that is, for baseline metabolism, not for hours of exertion in the heat. DRIs answer the question "how much does the body need on average per day," not "how much do you lose through sweat on a three-hour bike ride."

This leads to two common myths.

Myth 1: "Since the guideline is 1500 mg, I should cut salt to the minimum." For the couch — maybe. But sodium leaves with sweat, and for an active person daily losses can noticeably exceed the "sedentary" norm. AI is a baseline, not a ban.

Myth 2: "CDRR of 2300 mg is my daily limit." CDRR is addressed to the general population and to preventing hypertension on a national scale. It doesn't account for salt deliberately added to replace losses during a long session. Mixing everyday diet with working nutrition on the course is a methodological mistake.

How to apply this in practice

  • Separate the two contexts. Everyday life (what you eat between workouts) and exertion (what you drink and eat during long sessions) are different budgets. DRI guidelines are about the first.
  • The base is whole food. Vegetables, legumes, potatoes, and dairy cover potassium naturally. There's no need to deliberately "eat up to the UL" — for potassium there isn't one.
  • Salt as the situation demands. A short workout in cool weather usually doesn't need extra salt. Long work in the heat, heavy sweating, salt stains on your clothes — that's a signal that sodium is worth replacing.
  • A health benchmark, not dogma on the course. If in everyday life you're consistently >2300 mg, reducing it is a reasonable goal. In a race the priorities are different.
  • If you have hypertension or kidney disease, a doctor interprets the numbers, not a blog.

The bottom line

  • Sodium, AI: 1500 mg/day for everyone aged 14 and older — this is an adequacy benchmark, not a ceiling.
  • A new CDRR category (~2300 mg): reduce intake if it's higher, to help prevent chronic disease. The former upper level (UL) for sodium has been withdrawn.
  • Potassium, AI: ~3400 mg (men) / ~2600 mg (women). Neither a UL nor a CDRR — not enough evidence.
  • All the guidelines are for rest and everyday life, not for replacing sweat losses during hours-long exertion.
  • An athlete is better off thinking in contexts: a base of whole food on ordinary days and a separate sodium strategy for long sessions in the heat.

Source: National Academies — Sodium and Potassium DRI values updated. https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/sodium-and-potassium-dietary-reference-intake-values-updated-in-new-report

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