Electrolytes & hydration, in plain language.

What are electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge when they dissolve in water. The main ones in your body are sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. They help control your fluid balance, send nerve signals, and let your muscles contract.

You lose electrolytes mainly through sweat, with sodium lost in the largest amount. That is why, during exercise, heat, or illness, replacing fluid alone is often not enough. Replacing some of those minerals helps your body actually hold on to the water you drink.

Hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic: what they mean

You will see hydration drinks labeled hypotonic, isotonic, or hypertonic. The words describe one thing: how concentrated the drink is, meaning how many dissolved particles, mostly sugars and electrolytes, it carries compared with your blood. Your blood sits at a fairly fixed concentration, and where a drink falls relative to that affects how your body takes it up.

Hypotonic drinks are less concentrated than blood. With less sugar and salt per sip, fluid tends to leave the stomach and absorb quickly, so they are aimed at fast fluid replacement rather than fueling.

Isotonic drinks are roughly the same concentration as blood. Most traditional sports drinks are built this way to deliver fluid and a moderate dose of carbohydrate together, which suits longer or harder efforts.

Hypertonic drinks are more concentrated than blood, usually because they are high in sugar or salt. They empty from the stomach more slowly and can pull water into the gut at first, so they are really about delivering carbohydrate or sodium, not quick hydration, and can sit heavily if you are using them just to rehydrate.

Here is the part the labels skip: none of these words means "healthy." They describe concentration, not quality. A drink can be isotonic and still be loaded with added sugar and salt. So "isotonic" on a can tells you how it is balanced, not whether it is good for you. For an everyday drink, what matters more is what is actually in it, and how much.

Athleton's approach is to keep added salt and sugar modest and let a coconut water and prickly pear base do the work, rather than treating a concentration label as a selling point.

Coconut water vs traditional sports drinks

Coconut water is naturally rich in potassium and brings some natural sugars and fluid. It has become a popular base for cleaner hydration drinks because it is a recognizable, plant-based ingredient rather than a lab formula.

Traditional sports drinks are typically built on added sugar plus added sodium and potassium salts, often with artificial colors and flavors. The trade-off many people dislike is the sugar load and the long ingredient list. Because coconut water is naturally lower in sodium, clean drinks that use it often add a small amount of a sodium source like sea salt to better match what sweat removes.

Why prickly pear?

Prickly pear is the fruit of the nopal cactus. In drinks it is valued for its flavor and for what it naturally carries: antioxidants such as betalains and vitamin C, along with electrolytes including potassium and magnesium. It is also a notably water-efficient crop.

Most clean hydration brands pick one plant base. Athleton uses both coconut water and prickly pear, so the drink draws on the potassium and familiarity of coconut water alongside the antioxidants, electrolytes, and character of prickly pear.

Sodium and magnesium: the two we add

Sodium is the electrolyte you lose most through sweat and the one that most helps your body retain fluid, so a modest sodium source is standard in hydration drinks. Athleton uses sea salt for this. The aim is enough to support hydration, not the heavy salt load some drinks pass off as "isotonic."

Magnesium is an electrolyte involved in normal muscle and nerve function. Athleton's added magnesium comes from magnesium malate, which is magnesium combined with malic acid. We keep the added electrolyte list short and simple on purpose.

Magnesium comes in two broad types: organic forms such as malate and citrate, and inorganic forms such as oxide. Across peer-reviewed studies, the organic forms are consistently more soluble and better absorbed than magnesium oxide.⁶⁷ Magnesium malate is an organic, well-absorbed form.

Potassium, the third major electrolyte, we do not add at all. It comes for free from the coconut water base, which is naturally rich in it, so there is no need for the added potassium salts, like potassium citrate or chloride, that many other drinks rely on.

How much sodium do you actually need?

Sodium is the electrolyte you lose most in sweat, so some sodium genuinely helps you hydrate. But there is a wide gap between "enough to replace what you sweat out" and the very high doses some products now market.

The American Heart Association recommends adults stay under 2,300 mg of sodium a day, with an ideal of under 1,500 mg. For children the limits are lower still, an ideal under 1,500 mg a day and around 1,200 mg for the youngest.¹ Yet a single serving of some popular electrolyte mixes now carries about 1,000 mg of sodium, close to half an adult's daily limit, and most of a child's, in one drink.

That much sodium is designed for endurance athletes and people sweating heavily for hours. For everyday hydration, or for women and younger drinkers who are not training at that level, it is more than the body needs, and a steady excess of sodium is linked over time to higher blood pressure and cardiovascular risk.¹ The "more salt is better" idea some brands lean on rests on contested evidence, not settled science.

Athleton takes the balanced route: a modest sodium source from sea salt, plus the sodium and potassium naturally in coconut water and prickly pear. Enough to help you hold on to water, without turning a daily drink into a salt load.

Electrolyte drinks without artificial sweeteners

Many "clean" or "zero sugar" hydration drinks still rely on high-intensity sweeteners such as sucralose, stevia, or monk fruit, or on sugar alcohols like erythritol. These deliver sweetness without sugar, but plenty of people dislike the aftertaste, sugar alcohols can be hard on the stomach, and there are growing questions about how several of these sweeteners affect the gut (more on that below).

If you want to avoid those, read the ingredient list, not just the front of the can. Athleton's position is simple: sweetness only from natural sources such as honey or dates, and none of the synthetic sweeteners or sugar alcohols.

What the research says about sweeteners

"Zero sugar" does not always mean "nothing to think about." A growing body of research is examining how non-nutritive and high-intensity sweeteners interact with the gut and the rest of the body.

Sucralose. In a randomized controlled trial, sucralose shifted the gut microbiome and impaired blood-sugar control in healthy adults.² Separate laboratory work found a related compound, sucralose-6-acetate, was genotoxic, and that sucralose increased the permeability of gut-lining tissue, a marker of so-called leaky gut.³

Erythritol and sugar alcohols. A study of about 4,000 people linked higher blood levels of the sugar alcohol erythritol to greater risk of heart attack and stroke, with lab work showing it made platelets more likely to clot.⁴ Sugar alcohols can also cause bloating and digestive upset.

Stevia. Stevia altered the microbiome in the trial above, and a separate lab study found it interfered with quorum sensing, the chemical signaling gut bacteria use to communicate.⁵ Human evidence is mixed, with some trials finding no change, so this remains an open question.

Monk fruit and agave. Pure monk fruit extract has little direct evidence against it and may even be mildly prebiotic, though it remains one of the least-studied sweeteners, with limited long-term human data. The common caveat is that tabletop monk fruit is often blended with erythritol. Agave is very high in fructose, so in the body it behaves much like added sugar.

Athleton's answer is simply to skip the category: it sweetens only with whole foods such as honey or dates, in small amounts, rather than isolated or synthesized sweetener compounds.

The research here is still emerging, and regulators including the FDA consider these sweeteners safe at approved levels. It is offered as context, not medical advice.

Hydration for youth athletes

For most active kids, the main needs during sport are water and, during heavy or long sweating, some sodium and a little carbohydrate. The cleaner choices are usually caffeine-free, with simple ingredients you can recognize and pronounce.

Athleton was built by parents who wanted a drink they would happily hand their own kids on the sideline. As with any product, parents with specific concerns should check with their pediatrician about what is right for their child.

Quick glossary

Electrolyte

A mineral that carries an electric charge in water (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride) and supports fluid balance, nerve signaling, and muscle function.

Sodium

The electrolyte lost in the largest amount through sweat; helps the body retain fluid. Commonly supplied by sea salt.

Potassium

An electrolyte found naturally in coconut water; works alongside sodium in fluid balance and muscle function.

Magnesium

An electrolyte involved in normal muscle and nerve function. Athleton's source is magnesium malate.

Magnesium malate

Magnesium combined with malic acid, an acid found naturally in fruit.

Hypotonic

A drink less concentrated than blood, with relatively little sugar and salt; tends to absorb quickly and is aimed at fast fluid replacement.

Isotonic

A drink with a dissolved-particle concentration similar to blood. The term is widely used in marketing; it does not by itself mean a drink is low in sugar or salt.

Hypertonic

A drink more concentrated than blood, usually high in sugar or salt; empties from the stomach more slowly and is aimed at delivering carbohydrate or sodium rather than quick hydration.

Antioxidant

A compound that helps protect cells from oxidative stress. Prickly pear contains naturally occurring antioxidants such as betalains and vitamin C.

Sugar alcohol

A sweetener such as erythritol, sorbitol, or maltitol. Calorie-light, but can cause digestive discomfort for some people. Not used in Athleton.

Sources

• 1. American Heart Association, sodium guidance for adults and children (ideal under 1,500 mg/day, upper limit 2,300 mg/day; lower limits for children): heart.org
• 2. Suez et al., Personalized microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance, Cell (2022): cell.com
• 3. Schiffman et al., Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B (2023): tandfonline.com
• 4. Witkowski et al., The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk, Nature Medicine (2023): nature.com
• 5. Markus et al., Anti-Quorum Sensing Activity of Stevia Extract, Stevioside, Rebaudioside A and Their Aglycon Steviol, Molecules (2020): mdpi.com
• 6. Bioavailability of magnesium food supplements: a systematic review, Nutrition (2021): sciencedirect.com
• 7. Higher bioavailability of magnesium citrate compared to magnesium oxide, BMC Nutrition (2017): link.springer.com

Want the clean version?

Athleton is coconut water and prickly pear, sea salt and magnesium, naturally sweetened. Nothing weird.

This page is general educational information about hydration and electrolytes and is not medical advice. For guidance specific to you or your child, talk to a qualified healthcare professional.