SumGood Foods Inc. · Scientific reviewer: Dr. Bohdan L. Luhovyy, PhD, MSVU · · 8 min read
The biggest secret in the sports-drink aisle is who those drinks were actually designed for. Hint: probably not you. The standard sports-drink formulation came out of 1960s endurance research and was built for elite athletes losing 1-2 grams of sodium per hour. Then it was sold to everyone, the desk worker, the school-pickup parent, the once-a-week hot-yoga regular, with no recalibration.
Here's why the potassium-to-sodium ratio in your drink matters more than the brand on the bottle, why most Canadians have the inverse problem from what mainstream sports drinks address, and what to look for instead.
What's actually in your sweat?
Whole-body sweat sodium ranges 20-80 mmol/L (200-2,000 mg/L) and sweat potassium stays around 3-8 mmol/L regardless of intensity. Most everyday users lose far less sodium than mainstream sports-drink labels assume (Foo et al., 2025; J. Applied Physiology, 2023).
Sweat composition is mostly genetic and only partly trainable. Some people are "salty sweaters": you can taste it, you can see white salt residue on the brim of their hat after a hot run. Others lose far less. There's a 4x range in sweat sodium even within trained athletes doing the same protocol. So a single sodium recommendation for everyone is going to overshoot for some and undershoot for others.
Why are most sports drinks sodium-forward?
Mainstream sports drinks were formulated in the 1960s-70s for elite endurance athletes facing 1-2 hours of sustained exertion in heat. The 6% sugar / high sodium formula came out of Gatorade-era physiology research at the University of Florida, designed for football players in extreme conditions. It was never recalibrated for the recreational user.
Then came the marketing problem. Once a category exists for elite use, the natural expansion is downward: sell the same product to weekend warriors, then to families, then as a daily beverage. The formulation didn't change. The audience did. So now you have desk workers drinking 1,000 mg of sodium through their afternoon "hydration" because the bottle says it's an electrolyte drink.
This stops being neutral and starts being a cardiovascular risk if it becomes habitual. The Health Canada Tolerable Upper Intake for sodium is 2,300 mg/day for the general adult population. One elite-formulated electrolyte drink can hit half that without you noticing.
What's the case for potassium-forward?
More than 80% of Canadians fall below the potassium Adequate Intake (3,400 mg/day for men, 2,600 mg/day for women), and Health Canada now classifies potassium as a "nutrient of public health concern" (Health Canada / CCHS, 2021).
Potassium isn't an obscure nutrient. It supports nerve and muscle function, helps offset the blood-pressure effects of sodium, plays a role in cell fluid balance, and is required for normal heart rhythm. The shortfall in Canadian intake comes from the same place most diet-quality shortfalls do: not enough fruit, vegetables, beans, leafy greens, or starchy vegetables like potatoes and squash.
An electrolyte beverage isn't going to close the potassium gap on its own. Food is the foundation. But a potassium-forward drink can be one piece of a fuller strategy, especially if you're trying to limit added sodium at the same time. For more on the daily-hydration angle, see everyday hydration without the artificial junk.
How does SumGood's 5:1 ratio compare?
SumGood's freezies use a 5:1 potassium-to-sodium ratio, closer to coconut water (~12:1) than to Gatorade (~1:3) or LMNT (~1:5). The formulation was designed for everyday hydration, not elite endurance.
Important honesty: LMNT and Gatorade aren't "wrong." They're built for users with high sodium losses: ultra-runners, hot-climate manual labourers, athletes with documented salty-sweat profiles, anyone on a low-sodium diet supplementing under medical guidance. If that's you, sodium-forward formulations earn their place.
The case for SumGood's ratio is that most people don't fit those use cases. They sit on the everyday-user end of the spectrum, where the Canadian potassium gap matters more than chasing sweat-sodium losses they aren't actually producing.
Does the 5:1 ratio actually help in real-world use?
In a 2024 Mount Saint Vincent University clinical study (n=60), participants reported a 43% reduction in thirst (P<0.0001), 38% reduction in fatigue (P<0.0001), and 49% reduction in nausea (P=0.04) after consuming two SumGood freezies post-exercise (Luhovyy et al., 2024).
The MSVU study wasn't designed to isolate the contribution of the K:Na ratio specifically. You'd need a different protocol with sodium-forward and potassium-forward arms to do that. What it does demonstrate is that the SumGood formulation, ratio and all, produced measurable subjective effects in a peer-reviewable setting. For the full breakdown, see post-exercise hydration & recovery, what 60 adults taught us or download the full report on our Our Research page.
How do you read an electrolyte drink label?
A practical checklist for everyday hydration: sodium under ~200 mg per serving, potassium at least equal to or greater than sodium, no artificial dyes, no added sugar beyond what's naturally in fruit. Use these as a brand-neutral framework: the criteria are public, and any product can be measured against them.
On a Canadian Nutrition Facts panel: find the "Sodium" line and check the % Daily Value. Under 5% per serving is "low." Find the "Potassium" line (mandatory on Canadian labels since 2017) and prefer products where it isn't zero. Read the ingredient list start to finish. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so if "sugar" or any synonym sits in the top three, you're paying for sugar more than for fruit. Look for FD&C colour names; their absence is a positive signal.
Frequently asked questions
What is the ideal potassium-to-sodium ratio in an electrolyte drink?
It depends on use case. Elite endurance athletes losing high volumes of sodium-rich sweat benefit from sodium-forward formulations (1:3 to 1:5 K:Na). Most everyday users, who undereat potassium and sweat less sodium, benefit from potassium-forward ratios (5:1 or higher).
Why is potassium a "nutrient of public health concern" in Canada?
Because more than 80% of Canadians fall below the Adequate Intake. Health Canada uses the term to highlight nutrients where the population-level shortfall has measurable health implications (CCHS).
Can you have too much potassium?
Healthy adults excrete excess dietary potassium through the kidneys. Risk is real for people with kidney disease, certain blood pressure medications (especially ACE inhibitors and ARBs), or specific medical conditions. Always check with your healthcare provider if you're managing a condition.
Why is SumGood's ratio different from sports drinks?
Because SumGood was formulated for everyday hydration in the general population, not for elite endurance athletes. The 5:1 ratio reflects the Canadian potassium gap and the lower sodium needs of the typical user.
The bottom line
Electrolyte ratios matter more than brand marketing because they reflect who the formula was designed for. Recap:
- Sports drinks were built for elite athletes, not desk workers
- More than 80% of Canadians don't get enough potassium: the inverse of what mainstream formulas address
- SumGood's 5:1 K:Na ratio is calibrated for everyday users
- Read labels using public criteria, not brand promises
Try the format that was tested: Shop SumGood freezies → · Read more: everyday hydration without the artificial junk