The Secret to Great Workouts or the Secret to a Fat Stomach?

The energy drink category has experienced phenomenal growth in the last few years. These drinks target everyone from teens on sugar-highs to college students pulling all-nighters to exercise buffs looking for that extra burst of energy. Many have added caffeine, taurine, B-Vitamins, ginseng or other herbs to their formulas to make theirs sound better than the competing energy drink.

But what benefits do these energy drinks really provide to consumers? The biggest thing to consider is what your average energy drink is made of. Most are simply water with either high fructose corn syrup or aspartame used as a sweetener with a few additions like the b-vitamins or taurine mentioned above.

You will want to avoid any energy drink with high fructose corn syrup. Though simple sugars are calorie laden and offer only a short burst of energy, HFCS is the worst. It is cheap and has a high sweetness ratio which makes it the preferred choice of food manufacturers. This form of sweetener not only causes weight gain from unnecessary calories, the product itself is so far from its natural form that your body treats it more like an unwanted chemical instead of a food. Basically HFCS give you all of the negative side affects of too much sugar while also confusing your body’s hormonal chemical balance. Not a very healthy combo.

The other class of energy drinks uses artificial sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose. Though these are technically calorie free, your body does not recognize it as food and is therefore unsure of how to process these chemicals. Artificial sweeteners are so popular because they allow food manufactures to create foods that “health minded” people will eat. Because of this, these manufacturers have lobbied very hard to have the adverse side effects of artificial sweeteners hidden so that their cash cow will not be taken away from them.

Caffeine is the traditional energy drink additive. Caffeine is found naturally in foods like tea and chocolate, and of course coffee. It is a psychoactive substance that simulated the central nervous system. Caffeine can give you a boost in mental and physical energy but it is possible to become dependent on it or to even build up a tolerance to it.

An energy drink used only when needed can be ok but they will not help you have a more effective workout and should certainly not be part of an overall weight loss plan. A better idea for gaining energy would be to stay hydrated, get plenty of sleep, and to cut down and your refined sugar intake.