From Liquid IV’s Super Bowl commercial to constant influencer endorsements, electrolyte drinks have become a daily ritual for millions. Doctors, scientists, athletes, and beauty influencers uniformly promote packages of minerals, salts, artificial flavoring, and vitamins as essential for hydration, performance, and mental acuity.
But the constant, almost hyperbolic endorsement by top influencers isn’t about hydration as much as it is about the profit margins of companies selling cheap, shelf-stable ingredients to social media audiences at high markups.
The rise of electrolyte hype has proven dangerous. Blair Huddy moved to Colorado from California in 2024 and turned to electrolyte drinks because she felt dehydrated in the drier climate. Following the recommended dose of one Liquid IV packet daily, her health deteriorated rapidly.
“The first thing to go was my sleep. So, I’m a regular 8 and a half, 9 hour sleeper and suddenly I was down to 1 hour a night,” Huddy explains. “I developed tinnitus. So, I was having auditory and visual hallucinations. I developed head to toe neuropathy.”
When she ate chicken liver at a restaurant, the high vitamin B content triggered an immediate reaction. Blood tests revealed her vitamin B6 levels were more than twice the upper limit at 40 nanograms per milliliter. After stopping Liquid IV, her levels dropped to 11 within a month, though symptoms persist.
According to accredited practicing dietician Danielle Shine, most people don’t need electrolyte supplementation. “The average American salt consumption is almost a full gram over what your body actually needs,” she notes. “There’s a lot of wellness rhetoric around you can’t absorb water without electrolytes or you absorb water better with electrolytes and that’s actually not true. Water is regulated really well in the body and it’s absorbed very effectively in the gut without electrolytes.”
The business model explains the aggressive marketing. Unlike liquid Gatorade, electrolyte packets contain shelf-stable salts costing pennies on the dollar.
A big reason these products spread so quickly is the credibility borrowed from high-profile wellness figures. Andrew Huberman, for example, frequently recommends LMNT electrolyte drink mix to support hydration, cognitive function, and physical performance, especially for people fasting or following low-carb diets. He’s mentioned using a packet containing 1000mg sodium, 200mg potassium, and 60mg magnesium mixed into water in the morning or during workouts.Huberman has also publicly endorsed AG1, describing it as a daily “non-negotiable” that gives him energy and reassurance that he’s covering his nutritional bases.
Both products retail around $2.50, but the markup on powdered packets allows companies to spend heavily on social media marketing and Super Bowl commercials. Like AG1, electrolyte companies can offer influencers a full third of the price and still profit enormously. This marketing-first approach has grown the global electrolyte market to a $39 billion valuation.
The health claims aren’t new. In the 1960s, Coca-Cola was marketed as a health drink endorsed by doctors, while Babe Ruth promoted high dextrose levels for energy. In the 1920s, companies even sold radioactive radium-infused tonics that resulted in jaw cancer de aths.
Beyond wallet damage, the rise in vitamin B overdoses is concerning. Nationwide, 439 cases of non-fatal vitamin B exposure were reported in 2024, up from 369 in 2019 and 311 in 2014, according to national poison data system records. The real numbers are likely much higher since many cases never reach medical attention.
Electrolyte companies sell hydration but differentiate on taste, transforming vital nutrients into lifestyle products. Liquid IV advertises nine different flavors, while Element’s recipe page encourages making alcoholic cocktails with their hydration packets, counterproductively since alcohol dehydrates you.
Why include potentially dangerous B vitamins at all? B vitamins, particularly niacin, produce skin flushing, itching, burning, or warmth. These sensations may create a placebo effect when connected to ideas of hydration and energy, keeping customers returning to buy more product.
Bottom line: most people don’t need electrolytes. Just like AG1, the fascination mostly comes down to profitable business models. Companies manufactured the idea that everyone is dehydrated and needs to pay for something beyond ordinary tap water. Take electrolytes only if sweating profusely, and avoid anything with B vitamins.
