How Much Baking Soda in Water? Dose Chart by Use

Label dose, daily maximum by age, minimum water volume and sodium per spoonful, in one dose chart by use, plus the limits and who should skip it.

Baking soda in water is the same thing as a plain antacid powder, and the advice online often mixes doses without saying where they come from. This page puts the sourced numbers in one chart: what the label says, how much water it needs, and how much sodium each spoonful adds. If you came for weight loss, our baking soda recipe for weight loss and does baking soda help you lose weight cover what the research does and doesn't show.

Dose chart by use

Everything in this chart comes from a label, a drug information page or our own arithmetic, and each row says which. We measured nothing ourselves.

The gram weights and sodium figures in the daily maximum rows are our multiplication of the label's spoon counts at 4.6 g per teaspoon. The label itself gives no grams and no sodium.

How much baking soda dissolves in water is a separate question, and we found no sourced figure for it, so the chart gives none. For infants there is no sourced data either, and the only age limits we found are the ones in the chart.

The Food Science / Lab Kitchen Note

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Stomach acid is an acid, so when the two meet, the bicarbonate neutralizes some of it and gives off carbon dioxide gas. That's why the powder works as an antacid, and why the gas is the catch. The Journal of Eating Disorders review describes gas from bicarbonate reacting with stomach acid as a possible trigger when the stomach is already stretched.

Dilution is the other half of the rule. MedlinePlus says to dissolve the powder in at least 4 ounces (120 milliliters) of water. Our 8 fl oz (240 mL) glass is simply our recipe, double that minimum for half the label dose. It is not a medical threshold.

Sodium is the number most pages skip. USDA FoodData Central lists baking soda at 27,360 mg of sodium per 100 g, as mirrored by getfoodfacts.com. At 1.15 g for 1/4 tsp we calculate about 315 mg, and at 2.3 g for 1/2 tsp about 630 mg. As a cross-check, a Kroger-brand label lists 160 mg of sodium in 1/8 tsp (0.6 g), 7% of the Daily Value, which doubles to about 320 mg for 1/4 tsp.

How much sodium each spoonful adds

The FDA gives a Daily Value for sodium of less than 2,300 mg per day, and the Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults limit sodium to less than 2,300 mg. The FDA also says Americans eat about 3,400 mg per day on average, and limits for children under 14 are lower. By our arithmetic against 2,300 mg:

That sodium arrives on top of whatever else you eat. The label maximum for adults is a ceiling for treating indigestion, not a target.

Three doses compared (data only)

This is a comparison of published and calculated data, not a taste test or a trial of our own. Where a cell says "no sourced data," we found nothing to put there.

The pretzel bath is the only culinary ratio with a source, from King Arthur Baking's Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels. It is far stronger than anything you'd drink, which is why it never belongs in a glass.

The sports dose is a different thing and sits on its own line. The ISSN position stand names 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight as the optimal single dose for exercise performance and 0.2 g/kg as the minimum effective dose, taken 60 to 180 minutes before exercise. At 70 kg that is 14 to 21 g, about 12 to 18 times our 1/4 tsp. It is an athletic protocol, not a kitchen dose, and not equivalent to anything in the tables above.

What the sources say

Start with the strongest warning. A 2022 paper in the Journal of Eating Disorders reported two case studies and reviewed 36 published cases of spontaneous gastric rupture. Ten of the 36 involved sodium bicarbonate, and overall mortality was 41.6%. The setting was mostly binge eating, so it's a warning about large amounts on a very full stomach. It is a case review, not a trial, and it can't tell you a threshold for a normal glass.

On the other end, a 2008 case report describes a single patient: a man with severe metabolic alkalosis who took 10 to 15 g of baking soda daily for about 40 years, rising to more than 50 g daily. He also had seizures, rhabdomyolysis and end-stage renal failure, though the authors judged baking soda alone unlikely to have caused the kidney failure. One patient is not a dose benchmark. The 2021 ISSN position stand, a consensus statement, lists bloating, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain as the most common side effects at sports doses and says part of the performance effect seems placebo-driven.

The usage directions come from MedlinePlus, a drug information page rather than a study. It describes sodium bicarbonate as an antacid for heartburn and acid indigestion and gives no specific dose amounts, which is why the amounts in this chart come from the manufacturer label.

Common mistakes

Skipping the stir. Undissolved powder is the usual slip. The label says not to drink it until it has completely dissolved.

Taking a "shot." Concentrated versions skip the dilution rule. Keep the water at 4 fl oz (120 mL) or more.

Taking it on a full stomach. The label says not to take it when overfull from food or drink, and the review above explains why.

Reaching for baking powder. Baking powder is a different product and not a substitute. Check that the label says baking soda or sodium bicarbonate alone, food-grade and aluminum-free.

Storage and safe use

Mix one glass and drink it. We found no sourced shelf life for the mixed drink, so we don't give one. If you want a flavored version, our baking soda and lemon water and baking soda and apple cider vinegar pages show the ratios and the sodium. For timing, see best time to drink baking soda water, and for the full list of effects, baking soda side effects.

Nutrition note

Values on the recipe card are estimates calculated from typical USDA FoodData Central values for baking soda, per glass, not measured. The glass is water and 1/4 tsp of baking soda, so calories, carbohydrate, protein, fat, sugars and fiber are all zero. The only number that moves is sodium, about 315 mg.