Before you go raiding your kitchen cabinets, keep in mind that the amount of baking soda that you'd need to consume (300 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight) in order to reap the benefits during exercise can be dangerous, and lead to some uncomfortable side effects, Dr. Weiss says. For example, if you were to drink or eat large quantities of baking soda, you'd most likely experience diarrhoea, vomiting, or both, he says. That much baking soda contains 7,000 milligrams of sodium , which is three times the daily recommended values, he says. And if that's not enough to dissuade you, sodium and bicarbonate are electrolytes that can "have effects on electrical activity in cells, including the heart," which could cause arrhythmias, he says.