Why We Built Ayda From Scratch

Notes from the Formulation Team — Scott Forsberg, Lead Formulator, Ayda Works

I've spent more than thirty years in supplement R&D — formulation, microbiology, quality systems, and a fair amount of time in front of regulators. In that time, we’ve watched a lot of products get built the easy way: take a few ingredients with some research or traditional use behind them, put them in a bag, price it competitively. It works often enough. It isn't how we built Ayda.

Most hydration powders were designed for someone else

The modern hydration category grew out of sports science. The problem it was built to solve was acute sweat loss, replacing what an athlete dumps over a short, hard effort (which is mostly sodium), and a lot of it. For a marathoner in August, those products do their job.

A good example is how some single-serve hydration products carry up to 1,000 mg of sodium, despite an American Heart Association ideal ceiling of 1,500 mg for the whole day. That's two-thirds of a day's budget in one glass of water. Ayda uses roughly 300 mg: enough to do the work, since a modest amount of sodium genuinely helps the body take up water, but not so much that a daily habit becomes a liability.

Moreover, that science was built almost entirely on data from men. Most people who reach for a hydration stick aren't mid-race and more than half of them are women. They're drinking one at a desk at two in the afternoon, on a plane, or after nine hours on their feet.

Women start from a different baseline than men: women carry a lower percentage of body water, so the same fluid deficit shows up sooner and feels more noticeable. Fluid balance also shifts with their monthly cycle. In general, women need to start hydrating earlier and more often, though with slightly less volume. Women also need less of some nutrients, like zinc and potassium, but a little more of others like calcium and iron.

The problems modern science had to solve

Calcium was the ingredient we most wanted to get right in Ayda. It isn't standard in this category, largely because calcium is difficult to put into a beverage without it going chalky or dropping out of solution. But bone density and muscle function matter enormously for women, and most women in this country fall short of their calcium targets. We used calcium lactate, which dissolves far better, and therefore absorbs quicker, than the carbonate forms you'd find in a tablet.

The same reasoning drove the rest of the mineral system: sodium, potassium and magnesium are included in the right ratios and as citrates rather than chlorides or oxides — more soluble, better tasting, easier on the gut.

Then there’s tapioca fiber. It's a prebiotic that feeds the gut microbiome, and it carries a mild natural sweetness, so we needed only a trace of stevia to finish the flavor. Because it also aids digestion, it helps ensure the other nutrients in Ayda are absorbed properly. That's the part of this work we enjoy — not stacking ingredients for the label, but choosing ones that reinforce each other.

Where the Ayurvedic ingredients earned their place

Aloe and ashwagandha are in Ayda because they hold up. Aloe has centuries of use in Ayurvedic practice and a long record of supporting the gut and the skin from the inside out. Ashwagandha is among the better-studied adaptogens available to us, and provides smooth, non-stimulant benefits. Paired with L-theanine — the amino acid in green tea behind that alert-but-calm state tea drinkers have valued for centuries — you get steadiness without caffeine's spike and crash.

Early in my career I spent time in Asia. What stayed with me is that traditional systems are the product of tremendous observational data: long-run, enormous sample size and refined over generations. History and tradition tell you something works, while modern-day science tells you why something works and how much to use. Good formulation treats both with the same reverence and the same skepticism.

The flavor was the hardest part

Honest answer: aloe, ashwagandha root, branched-chain amino acids and mineral salts are each, on their own, unpleasant to drink. Getting to three flavors somebody would want to drink every morning took longer than the nutrition did. Malic and citric acid do most of the balancing; a small amount of Reb M, the cleanest-tasting steviol glycoside, finishes it.

We also left out the anti-caking agents. Ayda takes a few extra seconds of shaking, and the unprocessed aloe and ashwagandha will occasionally settle. We would rather explain that than add ingredients that are not ideal for consumption.

Nature and science, not nature versus science

I'm an outdoorsman and a scientist, and I’ve never believed those two things were in tension. Over the eons, Nature has produced the most interesting, effective and balanced molecules we work with. Nature tells us which ones matter, and science tells us what dose, and in what forms and combinations. Ayda is what that looks like in a stick pack.