Electrolytes are the easiest label audit in the category because the doses are already public. The leading stick pack names all three actives — sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium malate — at quantities you can weigh on a kitchen scale. No proprietary blend, no 'hydration matrix.' When a brand shows its work, the audit is arithmetic: $1.50 of packaging against $0.08 of salts.
The 30-second label audit
Step one: find elemental sodium per serving — the milligrams, not 'salt' as a bulk ingredient — and check it against the research-backed window of 500–1,000 mg per liter of fluid. Anything far below that floor is flavored water wearing a hydration label.
Step two: look for potassium and magnesium disclosed in milligrams. 'Proprietary blend' or a token pinch at the bottom of a long 'matrix' is how a label hides an empty formula. Step three: divide the box price by the stick count and compare it against the clone cost below.
Panel tells on electrolyte labels
- Sodium listed only as 'sea salt' or 'Himalayan salt' with no elemental milligrams — an undisclosed dose
- 'Hydration blend' or 'electrolyte matrix' — prop-blend framing; the real dose is whatever they say it is
- Sodium far under the 500 mg/L floor — underdosed for the use it's marketed for
- Every active disclosed down to the salt form — the LMNT standard; if they publish it, you can clone it
The clones
The LMNT clone
PUBLISHED RECIPE| Sodium chloride | 2.5 g → 1,000 mg Na | $0.02 |
| Potassium chloride | 385 mg → 200 mg K | $0.02 |
| Magnesium malate | 390 mg → 60 mg Mg | $0.04 |
≈ $0.08 per packet
Dissolved in 16–32 oz of water. Mix a 100-serving jar once — 250 g salt, 38.5 g potassium chloride, 39 g magnesium malate — and it's a three-month supply.
Kitchen Gatorade
PER LITER| Table sugar | 40–60 g | $0.05 |
| Table salt | 2 g → 800 mg Na | $0.01 |
| Water + citrus squeeze | 1 L | $0.04 |
≈ $0.10 per liter
The endurance-standard 6% carb solution at a tenth of the shelf price. Same fueling, no dye.
WHO rehydration base
CLINICAL| Sodium chloride | 2.6 g | — |
| Glucose (or 27 g sucrose) | 13.5 g | — |
| Potassium chloride | 1.5 g | — |
| Trisodium citrate | 2.9 g | — |
≈ $0.05 per liter
The literal clinical formula — 75 mEq sodium, 20 mEq potassium. For real dehydration, not just the gym.
The intra-workout
ENDURANCE| Cyclic dextrin or maltodextrin | 30–60 g | $0.50 |
| Essential amino acids | 10 g | $0.70 |
| Sodium + potassium + magnesium | 500 / 200 / 100 mg | $0.05 |
≈ $1.25 per liter
Sip every 10–15 minutes through the session. The $4 'intra' tub is this, minus the honesty.