Redmond Re-Lyte Electrolytes: In-Depth Review
Benefits, uses, and ingredient breakdown.
Electrolytes, along with Vitamin D, are on the short list of supplements that almost everyone could benefit from. I’m not talking about commercial “sports drinks” though, I’m talking about American-mined “real salt.”
Supplements in General:
I have to keep emphasizing the root word, supplement.
(noun) something that completes or makes an addition.
It would be wonderful if every nutritional requirement and optimization could be achieved through food / environmental sources alone. Notice, I didn’t say “chemical” or “natural.” Literally everything in the “natural” world is made of “chemicals.”
The distinction is in origin, organic vs. synthetic for example. Arguments are often made around “ancestral congruence.” Though things like electricity, refrigerators, automobiles, and the internet are ancestrally incongruent, but generally make our lives better.
It’s also not very ancestrally congruent to do radical things like strangle your friends (jiu jitsu) or climb mountains for fun, lest we digress into arguments about “exercise being an unnecessary risk factor.” Excellence is, most certainly, a risk factor and I will choose to pursue it anyway. You’ll have to decide for your self.
My point is that supplements should be used sparingly as augmentations rather than replacements. The list of things you “need” or even gain benefit from, hopefully without side effects, is exponentially less than the thousands of products at GNC or Vitamin Shop.
However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any benefit to any product or that we should rule something out based on principle alone — that’s literally the opposite of science. Try. Do. Learn.
Why Electrolytes?
All humans need electrolytes (ref.). Humans have higher electrolyte needs when they:
live in hot / humid climates,
as they increase activity levels,
as they consume low-carbohydrate diets, and
as these factors compound.
There’s plenty of literature out there on why electrolytes are important, particularly sodium in spite of it’s villainization by three-letter-agencies (ref., ref.).
If we’re looking for “supplementation” we should be wanting to fill or meet a specific need without added junk; just the things we want and none of what we don’t — dyes, fillers, sweeteners, etc.
In this review I’ll be taking a close look at Redmond Re-Lyte Hydrate (affiliate disclosure at bottom).
Sodium:
Sodium is our largest electrolyte need. The tolerable and optimal ranges can vary drastically based on one’s climate and activity level. This will require some experimentation to find out how much salinity (saltiness of water) you need to hydrate with. A commonly referenced starting point is 3 - 5 g / day — though we can lose 0.25 - 2 g / hour during training.
Obviously that doesn’t all have to come from Re-Lyte. You can add salt (of course, I prefer Redmond’s Real Salt!) to your food or water as well.
Magnesium:
Magnesium is a co-factor for 300 bodily functions (ref.) including roles in nerve / brain health and digestion. Earlier this summer I wrote an article on the benefits of magnesium and Vitamin D for testosterone support. Re-Lyte uses two of the most bio-available sources of magnesium, glyceinate and malate (ref., ref.).
The reference range for magnesium is 300 - 400 mg / day, but as I’ve discussed before, optimum ranges can be 8 - 10 mg / Kg of body weight / day. There’s 50 mg in each serving of Re-Lyte which isn’t a ton, but it can definitely help to round out your sources.
Potassium:
We need about 3.5 - 5 g of potassium per day (ref.). Approximate ranges for sodium : potassium ratios in our body are as follows (ref.):
Blood, > 15:1
Sweat, 3:1 - 5:1
Whole Body, 1:3
Therefore, our bodies do need a lot of potassium in general, but if we’re sweating (or bleeding) a lot, we especially need to focus on sodium.
If you’re comparing similar products, LMNT — also, of very high reputation — has the same amount of magnesium as Re-Lyte, a little more sodium, and about half the potassium.
Re-Lyte 2:1 (sodium : potassium)
LMNT 5:1 (sodium : potassium)
Regarding potassium variants, Re-Lyte is on point here again when we compare potassium citrate vs. potassium chloride (ref.), the former being more favorable.
Other Ingredients:
Citric Acid:
I had a client ask me where the citric acid in Re-Lyte was sourced from because they were sensitive enough to corn that if that was the source, it was a no-go. Fortunately, Redmond has already addressed this in their FAQ (ref.).
90% of food / pharmaceuticals / supplements with citric acid as an ingredient source from “manufactured citric acid” — from mold in China (ref.). This is very different from what’s found naturally in citrus fruit.
For the purposes of Re-Lyte, their citric acid is sourced from non-GMO yuca root. Per their FAQ, they still grow mold on the yuca root, but test their final product for contaminants including yeast and mold. If you’re still skeptical, the capsule and unflavored powder forms of Re-Lyte do not contain citric acid.
Stevia:
Stevia is a sugar substitute that comes from the plant compound steviol and is about 200 times sweeter than sugar (ref.). In general, it’s a better option than aspartame, and has no caloric load.
Stevia can act as a vasodialator (ref.) and diuretic, but may also have negative effects on endocrine function (ref.). Studies on the gut biome effects of Stevia are limited to in vitro and animal studies, where the negative effects are sometimes more credible to a poor diet / lifestyle than Stevia consumption (ref.).
There’s about 130 mg of Stevia in one serving of Re-Lyte powder (ref.) and it is sourced from China (ref.) — again, the capsule and unflavored versions have none if this is an issue for you. The dosing of 130 mg / serving is very small, considering the “safe limit” is 12 mg / Kg of body weight (ref.).
Natural Flavors:
Re-Lyte uses a proprietary blend of natural flavors that are sourced from dehydrated fruit (ref.). While the exact flavoring recipe / combination is proprietary, Redmond does disclose allergen warnings (ref.).
Other Questions:
Redmond has a very detailed FAQ section for anything I haven’t addressed here — https://kb.redmond.life/re-lyte — and they’ve always been very responsive on social media (@redmondrelyte).
About The Company:
I’ve mentioned before that I’m too honest to be a good salesman. So, I have to rely on reputation and integrity to get things done. That means I’m very picky about brands / companies / products I endorse.
I’ve joined forces and severed ties with a few companies over the past few years, not all due to bad blood though mind you, sometimes you just touch and go your separate ways.
My inclusion criteria is as follows:
Have I used it?
I can’t / won’t endorse something I haven’t used myself. Not every product I endorse is in my current rotation / regimen, but it has been through my body and I’ve reported my first hand experience before making a recommendation. I’m not a shill.
Does it work?
I’ve tried a lot of things over the years. Some things work, some work for a while, some don’t work at all, and some work for different needs / reasons. If something doesn’t work, I won’t continue using it and therefore won’t recommend it (see above).
Who are you?
My DMs blow up with everything from “Your Brand Here” Chinese supplement manufacturers to Pakistan gi manufacturers. Before I waste my time testing, and anyone else’s time advertising, I need to know what your values are and what your vision is — and I need those things to align with my personal mission.
As for Redmond then:
Re-Lelyte is an American Company owned by Redmond Inc.
Their products are mined and made in America, though some ingredients are imported.
Their salt has third party testing.
The test data is publicly available (link).
Redmond supports a variety of missions and adventurous lifestyles.
They have great customer support.
Affiliate Disclosure: I receive a commission for sales made on the Redmond website through links on this page.