Many common drinks contain sodium, whether it’s added intentionally for hydration or flavor, or present naturally. Some are obvious, like sports drinks and rehydration solutions. Others are more surprising: club soda, tomato juice, diet soda, and even milk all carry measurable amounts of salt. Here’s a breakdown of where sodium hides in your glass.
Sports and Electrolyte Drinks
Sports drinks are the most familiar salted beverages, and they’re designed that way on purpose. Gatorade contains about 230 mg of sodium per 12-ounce serving, and Gatorade Zero has the same amount despite having no sugar. That’s roughly 10% of the World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit of less than 2,000 mg for adults.
The salt in these drinks isn’t just for taste. Your small intestine absorbs water more efficiently when sodium and glucose arrive together. Cells in the intestinal lining have a transport system that pulls sodium and sugar in simultaneously, and water follows. This is why rehydration drinks always pair salt with some form of sugar. It’s the same principle behind the oral rehydration solutions used to treat severe dehydration worldwide.
Rehydration and Medical Drinks
Drinks designed for illness-related dehydration contain even more sodium than typical sports drinks. Pedialyte has a sodium concentration of about 45 milliequivalents per liter, which is significantly higher than Gatorade. Other medical-grade oral rehydration solutions go higher still, with some formulations reaching 50 to 70 milliequivalents per liter. These are meant for situations like vomiting, diarrhea, or heat exhaustion, where the body is losing salt rapidly.
Electrolyte powder packets you mix into water, like Liquid IV and similar brands, also tend to have elevated sodium levels. If you’re drinking these casually rather than to recover from genuine fluid loss, the sodium adds up quickly throughout the day.
Tomato and Vegetable Juices
Tomato juice is one of the saltiest beverages you can pour from a carton. A standard 8-ounce cup of commercially made tomato juice contains around 600 mg of sodium, nearly a third of the WHO’s daily limit in a single glass. Vegetable juice blends like V8 fall in a similar range since they’re tomato-based and salted during processing.
Even unsalted tomato juice isn’t sodium-free. Tomatoes naturally contain about 25 mg of sodium per 8-ounce cup, which is low but not zero. If you’re watching your salt intake and enjoy tomato juice, look for versions specifically labeled “low sodium” or “no salt added,” and check the nutrition label to see how much sodium remains.
Club Soda and Sparkling Water
Club soda contains added sodium chloride and potassium bicarbonate, which give it a slightly mineral, almost salty taste compared to plain sparkling water. A 12-ounce serving of club soda has about 75 mg of sodium. That’s modest on its own, but if you’re using it as your everyday sparkling water or mixing multiple cocktails, it accumulates.
Seltzer water, by contrast, has zero sodium. It’s just water with added carbonation and nothing else. Sparkling mineral waters vary depending on the natural mineral content of their source, so some brands carry trace sodium while others don’t. The distinction matters: if someone told you to cut back on sodium, switching from club soda to seltzer is an easy fix.
Diet and Regular Sodas
Soft drinks aren’t usually thought of as salty, but many contain small amounts of sodium from ingredients used as preservatives or flavor enhancers. A 12-ounce can of Diet Coke has 40 mg of sodium. Diet Cherry Coke has 30 mg per can. Regular sodas carry similar trace amounts.
These numbers are small per serving, but they’re not zero. Someone drinking three or four diet sodas a day picks up 120 to 160 mg of sodium just from soft drinks. That alone isn’t alarming, but it’s a source most people don’t think to count when they’re tracking salt intake.
Milk and Dairy Drinks
Cow’s milk has naturally occurring sodium that comes from the animal’s biology, not from any added salt. An 8-ounce glass of whole or low-fat milk contains roughly 100 to 120 mg of sodium. Chocolate milk often has slightly more because of added ingredients in the flavoring. Buttermilk tends to be even higher, sometimes exceeding 300 mg per cup depending on the brand.
Plant-based milks vary widely. Some almond and oat milks are formulated with added salt for flavor and contain sodium comparable to cow’s milk, while others are much lower. The nutrition label is the only reliable way to know.
Coconut Water
Coconut water is often marketed as a natural electrolyte drink, and it does contain sodium, though less than you might expect. A cup of coconut water has about 40 to 60 mg of sodium, which is only 2% to 3% of the daily limit. It’s higher in potassium than sodium, which is why it’s a better source of that mineral than it is a salt replacement after heavy sweating.
Broth, Bone Broth, and Savory Drinks
If you count warm, sippable liquids as drinks, broth and bone broth are among the saltiest options available. A single cup of store-bought chicken broth can contain 800 to 900 mg of sodium, and some brands push past 1,000 mg. Bone broth products marketed as health drinks often fall in the 300 to 600 mg range per serving, depending on whether the brand has made an effort to reduce salt.
Miso soup, drinkable bouillon, and hot tomato-based drinks like warm V8 all fall into this category. They’re easy to overlook when you’re thinking about “drinks” versus “food,” but they contribute the same sodium to your daily total.
Putting the Numbers in Context
The WHO recommends that adults consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium per day, which works out to just under a teaspoon of table salt. Most people exceed this easily through food alone. Beverages don’t usually dominate someone’s sodium intake, but they can add a surprisingly large chunk when you combine a morning glass of tomato juice (600 mg), a midday Gatorade (230 mg), and an evening cocktail with club soda (75 mg). That’s over 900 mg from drinks alone, nearly half the daily limit, before you’ve eaten a single salty meal.
If you’re actively trying to lower sodium, checking drink labels is a simple place to start. Swap club soda for seltzer, choose low-sodium tomato juice, and save high-sodium electrolyte drinks for when you genuinely need them after exercise or illness.