Spring Hydration: Why Water Alone Is Not Enough
The days are stretching out, the garden needs you again, and you are sweating a lot earlier in the day than you were a month ago. Here is what your body is actually losing, and how to put it back without a mouthful of sucralose.
Spring is the season people underestimate. It is not hot enough yet to feel like a hydration problem, so the water bottle stays half full while you are out pulling weeds, walking further than you did all winter, or standing on the sideline of a Saturday morning game. You lose fluid and minerals steadily through all of it. You just do not notice, because you are not thirsty in the obvious, mid-summer way.
Here is the part that catches people out. Sweat is not just water. It carries sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium out with it. So when you drink plain water to catch up, you are replacing the volume but not the minerals, which leaves what you have left more dilute than it was before. That is why you can drink all afternoon and still finish the day feeling flat, heavy in the legs, and craving something salty.
This is the gap an electrolyte drink is meant to fill. The trouble is that most of them fill it with sugar, sucralose and synthetic colours, which is a strange trade to make in the name of feeling well.
What is in the tub
Roots and Leaves Clean Hydration is the one I went looking for and could not find anywhere else at this standard. One scoop in 500ml of water covers the minerals sweat takes, with no sugar and nothing artificial.
Clean Hydration, per scoop
Mix 1 scoop into roughly 500ml of water or your drink of choice.
| Sodium (Himalayan pink salt) | 500 mg |
| Potassium (potassium chloride) | 400 mg |
| Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) | 200 mg |
| Magnesium (magnesium citrate) | 100 mg |
| Calcium (calcium citrate) | 25 mg |
Turn the tub around
Roots and Leaves make the point plainly on their own label: they use Himalayan sea salt rather than sodium chloride, and the flavour comes from real dehydrated fruit rather than anything lab created. As they put it, almost every other brand reaches for artificial flavours and artificial colours instead. Once you start reading ingredient panels side by side, it is hard to unsee.
| What you often find | Clean Hydration | |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | Refined sodium chloride | Himalayan pink salt |
| Flavour | "Natural flavours", lab created | Real dehydrated fruit juice |
| Sweetener | Sucralose, acesulfame potassium, dextrose | Stevia leaf extract |
| Sugar | Usually several grams a serve | None |
| Colour | Synthetic dyes | Turmeric, spirulina, beetroot |
Real fruit takes an extra thirty seconds to dissolve. That is the trade, and it is a good one.
There are two flavours, and they genuinely behave differently in a glass. Lemon Lime is sharp and clean, coloured with turmeric and spirulina, and it is the one that works in tea and sparkling water. Orange is rounder and softer, coloured with turmeric and beetroot, and it is the one children will actually finish.
Shop Lemon Lime → Shop Orange →
Five ways to drink it
A 275g tub holds 50 full scoops, and Roots and Leaves note that most people find half a scoop strong enough, which takes it past 100 servings and beyond three months. That is a long time to drink the same glass every morning, so here are five ways to keep it interesting.
The morning glass (Lemon Lime)
Half a scoop in 500ml of room temperature water, before coffee rather than after it. You have gone eight hours without a drink and coffee is a diuretic, so this one is doing the most work of any of them.
Citrus spritz (Orange)
One scoop into 350ml of sparkling water over plenty of ice, with a squeeze of fresh orange and a sprig of mint. The bubbles carry the flavour and it drinks like an afternoon soft drink without the sugar.
Iced green tea (Lemon Lime)
Brew green tea, cool it completely, then stir in half a scoop with ice and ribbons of cucumber. Add it once the tea is properly cold. Vitamin C does not love heat.
Icy poles (Orange)
One scoop into 500ml of water, stir through chopped strawberries, pour into moulds and freeze. The easiest way I know to get minerals into a child who has been outside all afternoon and refuses a drink.
The garden bottle (Either flavour)
Half a scoop in a 750ml to 1L insulated bottle, sipped across two or three hours. Steady beats one big glass, and it means the bottle comes outside with you instead of sitting on the bench.
A few things worth knowing
- Drink before you are thirsty. Thirst turns up after you are already down on fluid, which is exactly why spring catches people out.
- Start with half a scoop. Citrate minerals can feel brisk on an empty stomach if you are not used to them. Build up from there.
- Give it thirty seconds and a second stir. Real dehydrated juice dissolves more slowly than flavour powder. A little settling at the bottom is the fruit, not a fault.
- Do not mix it into boiling water. Let hot drinks cool first so the vitamin C survives the trip.
Spring changes faster than we do
The other thing spring brings is transition. Pollen arrives, the last of the winter bugs is still going around, windows open, children are back outside and back in each other's pockets. It is a lot of change in a short stretch, and it is worth thinking about before you are in the middle of it rather than after.
The Roots and Leaves Elderberry Gummies with Vitamin C and Zinc are the simplest thing on my shelf for that. Their 2026 formula carries 200mg of elderberry extract per serving, which the brand describes as the equivalent of 3,200mg of fresh elderberries, alongside vitamin C and zinc citrate. They have taken the citric acid out entirely, they are set with pectin rather than gelatin, and they do not need refrigerating once opened, so they travel well.
They also taste like something a child will ask for a second time, which matters more than any of the above if you have a picky eater in the house. Always read the label and follow the directions for use.
Shop Elderberry Gummies → Immune System Support →
The simplest spring routine there is
Half a scoop of Clean Hydration in the morning. Elderberry gummies with breakfast. A bottle that comes outside with you. That is it. No stack, no schedule stuck to the fridge, nothing you will quietly abandon by November.
Roots and Leaves is a small, woman owned, herbalist formulated range, and it took me a long time to find an electrolyte I was happy to put my name to. This is it.
Explore the Roots and Leaves range → Shop all minerals →
Here's to you Feeling Wildly Alive,
Katie Pinnick
Founder
Sage Wellbeing Co
I am not a doctor and cannot diagnose, treat or cure anything. If something is worrying you, please see your health practitioner. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, check with a qualified specialist before taking any supplement. Always read the label and follow the directions for use.
