By Sebastian Madlangbayan, founder of Cleonse: the world's cleanest 3-ingredient organic electrolyte.
Cleonse has three ingredients — organic fruit powder, organic cane sugar, French grey sea salt — with 500mg sodium per stick. Gatorade Thirst Quencher powder has ten, including Yellow 5, modified food starch, and artificial flavor, with 150mg sodium. Gatorlyte sticks add maltodextrin and Red 40 or Yellow 6.
I grew up on Gatorade. Every junior tennis tournament, every bench, every cooler. This isn't a takedown of a childhood memory — it's just what the panel says now.
Three labels, verified July 2026
Cleonse (Organic Lemonade) — 3 ingredients:
Organic Lemon Powder, Organic Cane Sugar, French Grey Sea Salt
Gatorade Thirst Quencher Powder, Lemon-Lime — 10 ingredients:
Sugar, Dextrose, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Calcium Silicate, Modified Food Starch, Yellow 5
Gatorlyte Powder Sticks — 11 to 12 ingredients depending on flavor: - Cherry Lime (11): Sugar, citric acid, salt, monopotassium phosphate, calcium lactate, corn syrup solids, magnesium oxide, maltodextrin, natural flavor, purified stevia leaf extract, silicon dioxide - Watermelon (11): Sugar, citric acid, salt, monopotassium phosphate, calcium lactate, maltodextrin, magnesium oxide, natural flavor, purified stevia leaf extract, silicon dioxide, Red 40 - Orange (12): Sugar, citric acid, salt, monopotassium phosphate, calcium lactate, modified food starch, magnesium oxide, maltodextrin, natural flavor, purified stevia leaf extract, silicon dioxide, Yellow 6
Gatorlyte is Gatorade's premium rehydration line — more electrolytes, lower sugar, and marketed as having no artificial sweeteners or flavors. That's a genuine step up from classic Thirst Quencher. It's still eleven or twelve ingredients with maltodextrin and, in two of three flavors, an artificial dye.
Side by side
| Cleonse | Gatorade Thirst Quencher powder | Gatorlyte powder stick | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | 3 | 10 | 11–12 |
| Sodium | 500mg | ~150mg per serving | ~490mg |
| Potassium | trace (from sea salt) | ~45mg | ~350mg |
| Magnesium | trace (from sea salt) | — | ~105mg (magnesium oxide) |
| Trace minerals | 85+ from French grey sea salt | — | — |
| Calories | 100 | ~80 | — |
| Sugar | 24g organic cane sugar | ~21g (sugar + dextrose) | ~10g |
| Sweeteners | Organic cane sugar only | Sugar + dextrose | Sugar + purified stevia |
| Artificial flavor | None | Yes ("natural and artificial flavor") | No |
| Dyes | None | Yellow 5 | Red 40 / Yellow 6 (flavor-dependent) |
| Fillers / flow agents | None | Calcium silicate, modified food starch | Maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, corn syrup solids, modified food starch |
| Organic | Yes | No | No |
| Vegan / gluten-free | Yes | — | — |
The sodium problem with classic Gatorade
Here's the thing nobody says out loud about Thirst Quencher: for its intended job, it's under-salted.
A serving of Gatorade Thirst Quencher powder delivers roughly 150mg of sodium. Sodium is by far the most abundant electrolyte in sweat. If you're doing a two-hour match in summer heat and losing a meaningful amount of sodium, 150mg per serving is not moving the needle much — you'd need several servings, and each one brings another ~21 grams of sugar with it.
Cleonse delivers 500mg of sodium in a single 30g stick. That's more than three times the sodium of a Gatorade serving, with roughly the same carbohydrate load and three ingredients instead of ten.
This is exactly why Gatorade built Gatorlyte. Gatorlyte Orange runs about 490mg sodium, 350mg potassium, 105mg magnesium, 120mg calcium and 1,040mg chloride per serving, with about 10g of sugar. On the electrolyte numbers, Gatorlyte is a serious product and it competes with us honestly. It's the ingredient list where we part ways.
Dyes: the part I can't get past
Gatorade Thirst Quencher Lemon-Lime powder lists Yellow 5. Gatorlyte Watermelon lists Red 40. Gatorlyte Orange lists Yellow 6. The ready-to-drink Gatorlyte bottle also lists Red 40.
Ask what a dye is doing in a hydration product.
It isn't replacing anything you sweated out. It isn't helping absorption. It isn't fuel. It exists so that lemon-lime looks like lemon-lime and watermelon looks like watermelon, because a colorless sports drink doesn't sell off a shelf.
You are drinking a coloring agent so that a liquid matches an expectation.
Cleonse doesn't need one. Organic strawberry powder turns the water pale pink. Organic lemon powder turns it soft yellow. The color comes from the fruit that's also providing the flavor. If our lemonade looks less neon than a bottle of Gatorade, that's the point.
Note for parents specifically: artificial dyes are one of the most common things people want out of what their kids drink after practice. Whatever you make of the broader debate, the practical answer is simple — you can just choose a product that doesn't contain any.
"Natural and artificial flavor"
That exact phrase is on the Gatorade Thirst Quencher powder panel. The "artificial" half means synthesized flavor compounds. The "natural" half is a legally protected umbrella term that can hide a proprietary blend of dozens of compounds.
Either way, you can't audit it. There is no version of that ingredient statement that tells you what you're drinking.
Cleonse's flavor is organic lemon powder or organic strawberry powder. One line. Auditable.
Gatorlyte deserves credit here: it uses "natural flavor" without the artificial half, and markets itself on that basis. Still an unauditable term, but a real improvement.
Fillers, flow agents, and maltodextrin
Between the two Gatorade products you'll find calcium silicate, modified food starch, maltodextrin, corn syrup solids, and silicon dioxide.
- Calcium silicate and silicon dioxide are anti-caking agents — they keep powder from clumping in a canister or stick.
- Modified food starch handles texture and flow.
- Maltodextrin is a cheap carbohydrate bulking agent — it adds carbs and volume without adding food.
- Corn syrup solids are dehydrated corn syrup, another cheap carbohydrate.
None of these are hazardous. All of them are there for manufacturing and cost reasons, not for you. Cleonse contains zero fillers, zero gums, zero flow agents, and zero preservatives — a 30g stick that's nothing but fruit, sugar, and salt.
Real sugar: where we actually agree with Gatorade
This is the part where I defend the competition a little.
Gatorade's original insight was correct: during hard exercise, you need fluid, sodium, and carbohydrate together. Carbohydrate is your primary training fuel, and sodium and glucose are co-transported across the intestinal wall — sugar and salt help water get absorbed. That's the science behind every sports drink, including ours.
The zero-sugar electrolyte trend swung hard against this and left a lot of athletes underfueling on purpose. Gatorade was never wrong about needing carbs during a match.
Where we differ is what kind and how honestly.
- Gatorade Thirst Quencher uses sugar plus dextrose, roughly 21g per serving, and pairs it with only 150mg sodium.
- Gatorlyte uses sugar plus maltodextrin plus corn syrup solids plus purified stevia, roughly 10g of sugar, and adds a high-intensity sweetener to make lower sugar taste like higher sugar.
- Cleonse uses one sugar: 24g of organic cane sugar, 100 calories, 26g total carbohydrate, paired with 500mg of sodium — and puts it on the front of the pack as fuel.
No dextrose. No maltodextrin. No corn syrup solids. No stevia to paper over the difference. One organic sugar, doing an honest job.
And the honest caveat, same as always: if you're not sweating, you don't need 24g of sugar in your water. Cleonse is built for training. So was Gatorade, originally.
Where Gatorade wins
Price and availability. It's everywhere and it's cheap. A canister of Thirst Quencher powder makes gallons for a few dollars. We can't touch that and I won't pretend otherwise — three organic ingredients cost more than ten industrial ones.
Gatorlyte's mineral profile. Roughly 350mg potassium, 105mg magnesium, and 120mg calcium per serving in dosed form. Cleonse's potassium and magnesium come only as trace minerals from grey sea salt and are not comparable doses. If a broad dosed mineral panel is what you want, Gatorlyte delivers it.
Team-scale logistics. If you're mixing coolers for thirty kids, the economics are the economics.
Institutional research history. Gatorade's sports science lab has produced a great deal of the hydration research the whole category relies on, ours included.
Where Cleonse wins
- Three ingredients versus ten to twelve. All food, all with a job.
- No dyes. Not Yellow 5, not Yellow 6, not Red 40, not any.
- No artificial flavors. Organic fruit powder, period.
- No fillers. No maltodextrin, corn syrup solids, calcium silicate, silicon dioxide, or modified food starch.
- No stevia. No high-intensity sweetener and no aftertaste.
- 3x+ the sodium of Thirst Quencher — 500mg versus ~150mg.
- 85+ trace minerals from unrefined French grey sea salt instead of isolated mineral salts.
- Certified organic, vegan, gluten-free.
- Free shipping on all orders and a 30-day guarantee.
Price
| Pack | One-time | Subscribe & Save 10% |
|---|---|---|
| 10-pack | $33 | $29 + free glass bottle |
| 30-pack | $66 | $59 + free glass bottle |
| 60-pack | $110 | $99 + free glass bottle |
Free shipping on every order. The Duo Assortment 10-pack is five Organic Lemonade and five Organic Strawberry. 30-day guarantee.
We're a premium product against a mass-market one. If cost per serving is your deciding factor, buy Gatorade — that's a legitimate answer. If what's in the stick is your deciding factor, read the two panels again.
Try The World's Cleanest Electrolyte™
Three ingredients. 500mg sodium. Nothing artificial. Free shipping and a 30-day guarantee.
Shop CleonseFrequently asked questions
Does Gatorade have artificial dyes?
Yes. Gatorade Thirst Quencher Lemon-Lime powder lists Yellow 5. Gatorlyte powder sticks list Red 40 in Watermelon and Yellow 6 in Orange; the Cherry Lime stick has no dye listed. Cleonse contains no dyes — its color comes from organic lemon or strawberry powder.
How much sodium is in Gatorade vs Cleonse?
A serving of Gatorade Thirst Quencher powder has about 150mg of sodium. Cleonse has 500mg per 30g stick — more than three times as much. Gatorlyte, Gatorade's premium line, is closer at about 490mg.
Is Gatorlyte cleaner than regular Gatorade?
Yes, meaningfully. Gatorlyte drops artificial flavors, delivers far more sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, and cuts sugar to about 10g. But it still runs eleven to twelve ingredients including maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, purified stevia leaf extract, and — in two of three flavors — an artificial dye.
Is Cleonse a good Gatorade alternative for athletes?
It's built for that. Cleonse pairs 500mg of sodium with 24g of organic cane sugar as training fuel, which is the same fluid-plus-sodium-plus-carbohydrate approach Gatorade pioneered, delivered in three organic ingredients with no dyes, artificial flavors, or fillers.
Why does Cleonse have more sugar than Gatorlyte?
Because Cleonse is fueling training rather than minimizing calories. 24g of organic cane sugar per stick is carbohydrate for sustained effort, and sodium and glucose are absorbed together. Gatorlyte hits its lower ~10g sugar partly by adding purified stevia leaf extract; we'd rather use one real sugar than a smaller amount plus a sweetener.
Is Gatorade bad for you?
No — for its intended use during exercise, Gatorade does the job it was designed to do, and the sugar-plus-sodium principle behind it is sound. The reasonable criticisms are the additives that aren't doing hydration work (dyes, artificial flavor, anti-caking agents, bulking carbohydrates) and, for classic Thirst Quencher, a sodium level that's low relative to what heavy sweaters lose.
Keep reading
- Are Artificial Dyes in Sports Drinks Bad? A Label Guide
- What Is the Cleanest Electrolyte? A No-BS Ingredient Guide
- Cleonse vs Liquid I.V.: 3 Ingredients vs 15
Written by Sebastian Madlangbayan, founder of Cleonse and a state champion tennis player. Not medical advice. Gatorade and Gatorlyte are trademarks of Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. / PepsiCo; this comparison is independent and not endorsed by them.
Editor's note on sourcing: labels verified in July 2026. Gatorade Thirst Quencher Powder Lemon-Lime ingredient statement and per-serving nutrition (80 cal, 21g carb, 21g sugar, 150mg sodium, 45mg potassium) from the Prospre ingredient database listing, cross-checked against the Smart & Final product listing, which states 80 calories, 150mg sodium and 21g total sugars per 12 fl oz prepared and labels the product "artificially flavored." Note our internal shorthand has long cited nine ingredients for Gatorade powder; the current lemon-lime powder statement we pulled lists ten, adding modified food starch — we've used the current count. Gatorlyte powder stick ingredient statements for Cherry Lime, Orange and Watermelon from Powder Mix Direct's published Gatorlyte sticks ingredients page; Gatorlyte Orange electrolyte and sugar figures (490mg sodium, 350mg potassium, 1,040mg chloride, 105mg magnesium, 120mg calcium, 10g sugar) from gatorade.com's Gatorlyte Orange single-serve sticks page. The ready-to-drink Gatorlyte bottle ingredient list (including Red 40 and glycerol ester of rosin) from the Fig/foodisgood product listing. Counts and colorants vary by flavor and format. Cleonse figures are from our own label. Formulations change without notice — read the current panel.