America’s Weirdest Food Obsession Comes With A Surprise Benefit

If you’re relishing the rise of fermented cucumber these days, hold onto your gherkins. Not only are pickles clutch for charcuterie, but the brine can bring you back to life. 

There’s a time and place for Kool-Aid pickles and 24-layer pickle cake (that time may be never), but standard pickle juice can help your muscles recover faster than you can say “please pass the emergency cornichons.” 

This protocol played out in real time in front of nearly 70,000 people at Seattle Stadium during the World Cup. As the U.S. battled it out against Australia, field referee Felix Zwayer suddenly fell to the ground with a muscle cramp in the middle of the game. After a little stretching did nothing to quell the pain, Zwayer downed a shot of pickle juice and was back in the game. 

So was it some kind of miracle pickle-lixir? More like the right minerals at exactly the right time.

Muscle cramps can happen for a variety of reasons such as holding a position too long, pinching a nerve, or straining a muscle. But when you sweat out body-balancing electrolytes during exercise, your muscles freak out. That’s where pickle juice comes in. 

Pickle brine boasts concentrated amounts of potassium and sodium, both of which are essential for body function. Known as electrolytes, they serve as two key minerals that form an electric charge when mixed with body fluids, helping to regulate hydration and keep your cells nourished. Sodium and potassium, in particular, do the heavy lifting when it comes to muscle function.  

Since the brine also has no protein or fat, it’s quick to digest. FIFA Official Zwayer may have chugged something similar to Pickle Juice, which reportedly goes to work in 60 seconds.

Another factor may be the cheek-pinching flavor. If you’ve ever felt a pickle juice kick in the back of your throat, that’s precisely the characteristic this remedy leverages. Pickle Juice, the registered performance beverage, claims to interrupt the stressed-out nerve signals between your brain and your muscles (via zippy shock to your throat), thus lessening the pain of a cramp. Studies show that it works.

If straight pickle brine isn’t exactly your jam, a more palatable pickle lemonade offers the benefits with a refreshing twist. Providing sip-worthy recovery for runners and other athletes looking to replenish sodium more quickly than they would by drinking plain water, lemon and a little sweetener help the pickle juice go down. An added benefit? Unlike store-bought electrolyte drinks, a DIY recipe gives you more control over the ingredients you put in your body.

But this isn’t the only reason it might be time to swap that hot sauce in your bag for a jar of bread and butter chips. If you think the phrase “good for you” also applies to your soul, get ready because “pickle” is the flavor of the summer. 

Calling it a “pickle renaissance,” food trend spotter and author of the Snaxshot newsletter Andrea Hernandez says, “It’s not something that just feels gimmicky — it’s a major unlock for a category that has been sleepy for a while.” Contrasting the overdone mid-2000s bacon trend that was not-so-secretly engineered by Big Pork, she says the pickle rise was more of a grassroots initiative. Even snacks that were never cucumbers have gotten the pickle treatment.

There’s a world in which dill pickle-flavored popcorn, peanut butter, protein bars, jelly beans, pretzels, jerky, and canned tuna exists, and we’re already living in it. But more unexpected flavor pairings also seem to be fair game. 

Sam’s Club is so confident in the enduring popularity of its cake pops that it’s camouflaging “surprise” pickle pops among fan-favorite pineapple and blue raspberry flavors. And Smoothie King hopes to leverage the electrolyte craze with a pickle smoothie featuring fresh-blended Grillo’s Pickles spears. If that sounds weird, maybe the bananas and coconut water will help.

While pickles and ice cream may have been the pregnancy craving trope of the ’80s, it’s now what you’d call a thing. Whether you shave frozen pickles on top of a scoop of vanilla, or concoct a pickled syrup, it’s the sweet and savory combo to erase all other pairings from your mind.

Over in the drinks category, pickle juice is popping up in margaritas, and frozen pickles add dimension to a glass of white wine. Despite being a fan of wine-flavored wine, I had to see what all the pickle fuss was about. It’s also not beyond my talents to slice up a few gherkins, freeze them, and drop them into a glass of sauvignon blanc. I actually loved the briny contrast to the herbaceous citrus of the wine, and my frozen pickles kept things chill without diluting the flavor like ice. Five out of five stars, would recommend. (Snacking on room temp, wine-soaked gherkins I forgot at the bottom of the glass? Maybe not.)  

I fully reject pickle-flavored Oreos and peppermint stick pickles with the ferocity of a toddler who refuses to eat her favorite foods when they touch. But for further proof of a heartily embraced variation on the theme, look no further than the pickle festivals and state fair offerings that remain unapologetic about brazenly expanding your dill-pickled horizons.

As some of us prepare to pay our respects to Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, the official pickle queen of the World’s Largest Pickle Party in Texas, the Minnesota State Fair hopes to tempt visitors with dill pickle seltzer. Kentucky’s Dainty Fest already hosted a pickle juice-chugging contest that was less about balancing electrolytes and more about crushing the competition.

Traveling festivals such as Pickle Palooza offer mechanical pickle rides along with food creations like “Dilled Cheese,” “Dilly Cheesesteak,” and pickle candy. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania’s Picklesburgh leveled things up with pickleball and pickle-bobbing contests for anyone who thinks too many pickles is never enough.

Maybe we’re tipping into oversaturation in this current pickleconomy, but until then, brine on.

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This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.