Not being funny, but if you just want hydration and maybe some salt replacement, then why not just water and salt with meals, like you say?
Maybe the terms are misleading you. "Isotonic" means the same concentration as your blood; that is to say an isotonic sports drink has as much sugar as possible just short of the point of being hypertonic that your stomach would start to pull water out of your blood by osmosis because it is a more concentrated solution . So pure water is hypotonic; that is to say there is osmosis from your stomach to blood because blood is the more concentrated solution - what you want to offset dehydration. Apologies if this is already clear to you.
After a quick search I see one website that suggests you could take at least some sugar, even though you don't feel you need much: "Where water replacement is the first priority an isotonic or moderately hypotonic solution containing glucose and sodium will be most effective."
Source
Edited: 05/05/2009 at 23:38