Historical Electrolytes — pls see text in comments

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I was brought up to eat bananas before and after a fast, by someone who didn’t know what electrolytes were. My great-grandfather told me to drink salt water in summer if I felt dizzy. He wouldn’t have known about electrolytes either. I’m pretty certain electrolytes existed before we decided on a name for them, and were used in the same way we use them now.

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EtA: Thanks for all the responses!

People have been fasting for various reasons for years, decades, centuries, millenia. But it seems that I’ve only become aware of talk about electrolytes and fasting in the past 2 months. Or is it just that I’ve been unaware?

A couple more possibilities:

1. Diet science has recently become aware of the importance of electrolytes, so now we can apply the new understanding to making fasting better, safer, more pleasant.
2. My daughter suggested another possibility: Soil and dietary deficiencies were not so bad in previous decades, centuries, and millenia, so people could fast safely without considering electrolytes. But now….

I got some surprises when I checked up on frequency of mention (popularity) for fasting and electrolytes for the past couple centuries (see Ngram above). Fasting has been a front runner most years as expected. Fasting enjoyed a peak year in 1842; electrolytes peaked in 1962 and actually beat out fasting that year.

But my main question remains: How did we fast so well and for so long without considering electrolytes? Thoughts?

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You have been unaware. I don’t know how people historically took care of electrolytes, but as long as I’ve been reading about fasting people have been talking about it. I don’t know how you have avoided seeing it.

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What your source of information OP?

Who was recording electrolyte consumption and fasting days in 1800’s or even in mud 1900’s.

This is very granular record keeping. I am seriously doubtful of its accuracy.