radical transparency, explained
the naked label.
what is on the packet is what is in the packet. here is how to read any supplement label, the tricks the industry plays, and the ones we refuse to play, including on ourselves.
no proprietary blends. no “natural flavors” hiding a lab. no trace-dusting to pad the label.
every ingredient and every amount is right there for you to read, and to check. this page is the reading lesson.
how to read “% daily value.”
the daily value is a single reference amount per nutrient that the fda sets for labelling, so that every product in the country is measured against the same yardstick.1 the ones that matter on our packet:
| nutrient | fda daily value | a classic packet | so 100% would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| sodium | 2,300 mg | 25% DV · ~575 mg | four packets. do not. |
| potassium | 4,700 mg | 20% DV · ~940 mg | five packets. do not. |
| magnesium | 420 mg | 100% DV · ~420 mg | one packet, which is the daily limit. |
three things the daily value is not. it is not a target for you personally; the national academies publish separate intake references by age and sex, and yours may sit above or below the label figure.23 it is not a safety limit; those are the tolerable upper intake levels, which are different numbers (350 mg a day for supplemental magnesium, for instance).4 and it does not say anything about whether the form of the nutrient is absorbed well. a label can be 100% honest and still mislead you if you read the percentage as a prescription.
servings, and the packet trick.
the figures on any label are per serving, and the manufacturer chooses the serving. a common trick is to make the serving smaller than what anyone actually consumes, so the sodium and sugar look modest. we do the reverse. a packet is two servings, and we print both numbers: the per-serving figure, and the whole-packet figure in case you tip the whole thing into one bottle. you should never have to multiply.
the tricks we don’t play.
proprietary blends
a “blend” on a supplement label lets the maker list ingredients in descending order with a single total weight, and never say how much of each is inside. it is legal, and it is how a product can print “magnesium” on the front while containing a pinch. we list every amount, so you can see the potassium and magnesium are really there.
fairy-dusting
adding a trace of a premium ingredient just to print it on the label. our doses are functional, not decorative; the ingredients page explains what each one is for and how much of it there is.
“natural flavors”
a legal catch-all that can cover dozens of undisclosed compounds, solvents and carriers, provided the starting material was at some point a plant or animal. we flavor with real, named fruit instead. if a flavor is strawberry, there is strawberry in it, and we can tell you the farm.
the clean-label halo
“natural” and “clean” are not regulated words. so rather than say them, we show you the actual ingredients and let you decide.
and we won’t oversell it, either.
transparency cuts both ways. a few popular selling points are thinner than they sound, and we would rather tell you than spin you.
about “natural” vitamin c
natural (acerola) and synthetic (ascorbic acid) vitamin c are the same molecule; your body cannot tell them apart, and the research comparing them finds no meaningful difference in bioavailability.5 we like acerola for its whole-food bioflavonoids and tart flavor, not because it is magically “more absorbable.” and a gram of it is more than you will use; above a couple of hundred milligrams the body absorbs a smaller share and excretes the rest.6
about salt’s trace minerals
real salt does carry trace minerals, but in a pinch of salt they are a bonus, not a meaningful dose. the real win is what is not in it: no anti-caking agents, no added dextrose.
about caffeine
caffeine is caffeine, whether it comes from a coffee bean or a lab. we just tell you the exact milligrams, 75 per squared² packet, which is two servings, so you can dose it like a grown-up against the usual guidance of up to 400 mg a day for healthy adults.7
about magnesium and cramps
the most common electrolyte claim in the business is that magnesium stops cramps. the cochrane review says it probably does not, for ordinary cramps in adults.8 magnesium is in the packet because you lose it and most people run short, not because of that claim.
about beetroot
the beetroot research that shows performance effects used concentrated juice at nitrate doses a spoonful of powder does not reach.9 beetroot is in squared² as a real, named, organic ingredient for colour and flavor. we print no claim on it.
make it yourself.
the ultimate proof: you do not have to take our word for it. we list every ingredient and a link to buy each one. build salty smiles in your own kitchen if you want. we think once you price it out and taste the difference, you will happily let us do the mixing.
see the ingredient sources every ingredient in depthstudies & sources on this page
- U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels. FDA, updated for the 2016 label rule.
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Press, 2019.
- Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride. The National Academies Press, 1997.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Magnesium: fact sheet for health professionals. National Institutes of Health.
- Carr AC, Vissers MCM. Synthetic or food-derived vitamin C — are they equally bioavailable?. Nutrients, 2013; 5(11): 4284–4304.
- Levine M, Conry-Cantilena C, Wang Y, et al.. Vitamin C pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers: evidence for a recommended dietary allowance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1996; 93(8): 3704–3709.
- U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Spilling the beans: how much caffeine is too much?. FDA consumer update.
- Garrison SR, Korownyk CS, Kolber MR, et al.. Magnesium for skeletal muscle cramps (Cochrane systematic review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020; 9: CD009402.
- Jones AM. Dietary nitrate supplementation and exercise performance. Sports Medicine, 2014; 44(Suppl 1): S35–S45.
every study above is linked to the original record. the full library is on the studies page.