Best ingredients for hydration

A generic electrolyte blend is a placeholder for an unspecified mixture of sodium, potassium, and magnesium salts (sometimes with calcium and chloride) used in hydration and endurance powders.

Typical: 500–1,500 mg

A sulfur-containing amino acid abundant in muscle, heart, and brain, and a familiar ingredient in energy drinks and pre-workouts.

Typical: 1–3 g

Ordinary salt, about 39% sodium and 61% chloride by weight, and the primary electrolyte lost in sweat.

Typical: 200–1,000 mg

The most concentrated common potassium source at about 52% elemental potassium, and the salt used in most blood-pressure trials of potassium supplementation.

Typical: 99–500 mg

Rock salt mined mainly from the Khewra region of Pakistan, tinted pink by trace iron oxide.

Typical: 200–1,000 mg

Potassium bound to citric acid, about 36% elemental potassium as the monohydrate.

Typical: 99–500 mg

Dehydrated coconut water, made by spray- or freeze-drying the liquid of young green coconuts, sometimes with a maltodextrin carrier.

Typical: 2–10 g

Potassium bound to gluconic acid, a mild-tasting salt with only about 16.7% elemental potassium, so it is bulky per milligram of potassium.

Typical: 99–300 mg

A generic descriptor for low-sodium mineral concentrates made by solar-evaporating inland sea or seawater brine, leaving a liquid or dried powder rich in magnesium chloride with smaller amounts of potassium, sulfate, lithium, boron, and dozens of other elements.

Typical: 100–500 mg

A highly soluble magnesium salt sold as the hexahydrate, which is about 12% elemental magnesium.

Typical: 100–300 mg

An extract of the deep red calyces of Hibiscus sabdariffa, the plant behind hibiscus tea, used in heart-health and hydration formulas.

Typical: 500–1,000 mg

The root of the common dandelion, used in traditional practice as a bitter digestive and liver tonic and in modern formulas for liver support and water balance.

Typical: 500–2,000 mg

GlycerSize is Glanbia Nutritionals' stabilized glycerol powder containing 65% glycerol bound to silica, made to replace older 10–25% glycerol monostearate grades in pre-workouts and hydration products.

Typical: 2–5 g