Naturally Powered: Superieur Electrolytes Harness Nature’s Minerals for Wellness

Seth Bovio was relaxing on the beach after an invigorating run in the sand when the idea came to him.

He already had decades of experience formulating healthful products for elite athletes and co-founding and selling a successful herbal products company with an Olympic runner as his partner. Looking out at the ocean on that day about 10 years ago, “I made up my mind that I was going to start another company,” says Bovio, a lifelong runner. “And this time, I decided, ‘We aren’t going to make any compromises.’”

That meant no changes in the pure ingredients he envisioned for an electrolyte drink sourced directly from nature. And he resolved to “do everything ourselves,” without third-party manufacturers, Bovio says. “We’re not going to bring on investors; we’re going to pay for it ourselves, and we’re going to do it right in front of my kids.”

Ten years later, Bovio heads a thriving business called Superieur Electrolytes. The company is named for the French spelling of Lake Superior, near where Bovio’s wife Vickie grew up, and she serves as art director. One of Bovio’s four sisters is a partner, a friend helps with packaging, and “early on, my kids were putting stickers on canisters and putting packets in boxes, and a lot of neighborhood kids helped,” he says. “It’s a family and friends business, and we all have fun doing what we’re doing.”

Reading the label of Bovio’s products is a nutrition lesson. “Our product is different from anything on the mass market. Sourcing from nature is our competitive advantage,” he says. Superieur Electrolyte powder contains Himalayan sea salt, which has 80 additional healthful minerals, compared with the two minerals, sodium and chloride, found in ordinary table salt in mass-market beverages. Flavor comes from the ascerola berry, the essence of raspberry, and extracts from stevia leaf and bamboo stems, leaving none of the super-sweet, metallic aftertaste of lab-made sweeteners in competing products. Superieur Electrolytes also contain magnesium sourced from inland seawater.

Research shows the body can’t always absorb minerals unless they are contained in food. Superieur Electrolyte powder has just enough carbs from organic white rice to enable its minerals to be absorbed in the intestine. This is another major failing of mass-market products, Bovio says. “If a good-looking person on TikTok says, ‘This is what I use,’ and if the label says ‘zero calories,’ then people’s reaction is, ‘I’ll have three of them,’” Bovio says. “People know they need electrolytes but don’t know what they are or where they come from. No foods from the garden or the tree, the ones we use, have zero calories. We need calories to get meaningful mineral absorption. And all the electrolytes are minerals.”

Bovio’s interest in the topic started when he brought his mother, an elite runner, bottles of electrolytes formulated especially for her. “She used to win every race she entered and beat most of the men she ran against,” he says. Bovio also formulated products for USA Track & Field earlier in his career. Users of Superieur Electrolytes include some elite athletes, but the bulk of sales are to older adults, including people with diabetes, neuropathy, cancer, and other ailments.

Bovio distributes Superieur Electrolytes worldwide in 70-serving containers and individual packets through chiropractors, yoga studios, cancer treatment centers, health food stores, and other outlets. The powder comes in seven flavors, including a new “Lola Lemon” formulated by Bovio’s youngest daughter.

He has also achieved his goal of showing his children what it takes to start a business. Bovio’s daughters, now 14, 16, and 20, lead busy lives and are doing well, he says. “If anything matters to me, it’s for them to be happy and strong and know that they can do what they want to do. I wanted to show them that I could do what I wanted to do. That’s the ‘why’ of this business.”