How much sugar is in your energy drink?

According to an article in the Daily Mail last week well known energy drinks such as 'Red Bull' and 'Monster' can contain up to 3 times the recommended daily maximum amount of sugar for an adult in just one can! A lot of people are using them to gain an edge in sport but increasingly people are using them just to get through an average working day. These products can have massive dosses of caffeine, which in small amounts can help with performance both physically and mentally but if consumed in large amounts can cause restlessness, palpitations, insomnia and anxiety. A survey of 197 energy drinks found 78% would get a red label for high sugar content when using Food Standards Agency guidelines. Due to our increasingly busy life styles, these energy drinks can be seen as an inexpensive and fast solution to this problem. However due to the high amount of sugar content such as 'Rockstar' Punched Energy + Guava Tropical Flavour which has 15.6g of sugar per 100ml, meaning if a person consumes a 500ml they would have drank 20 teaspoons of sugar and 335 calories! Others with high levels were Red Devil at 15g per 100ml and some Lucozade Energy drinks at 14g per 100ml. The worst offender was Sainsbury's own brand Orange Energy with 15.9 per 100ml. Sold in 1 litre bottles this equates to over 20 teaspoons per 500ml! With such high amounts of sugar and caffeine, there are concerns from health officials that it's contributing to the obesity epidemic as large amounts of sugar can be consumed in next to no time, leading to increased waist lines and risk of type 2 Diabetes. Not surprisingly they're being condemned as the 'new tobacco'. A cup of 170ml coffee contains approximately 71mg of caffeine. Some of these energy drinks can contain more caffeine than 2 cups of coffee per can. 'Rockstar' and 'Monster' were found to contain 160mg per 500ml can, with a 473ml can of 'Red Bull' containing 151mg. A healthy alternative would be 'Lift Off' energy drink from Herbalife. This comes in two flavours, orange and lemon and lime. Each serving is only 9 calories with all the energy coming from Vitamins C and B group. These help to fight tiredness by unlocking the energy from foods. You get your daily amount of Vitamin C in one serving and 70.5mg of caffeine to help boost your immune system and give you a pick me up. Also from Herbalife is Thermo Complete, a supplement tablet which has all the benefits of green tea and Vitamin C, with each tablet containing 71.5mg of caffeine. You take 1 or 2 tablets (I take only 1 and that's enough for me- and I'm a coffee drinker) mid morning and mid afternoon to help fight the mid morning and afternoon slump. Unlike energy drinks you don't experience the instant rush of energy and then the sudden crash, causing you to grab yet another high calorie drink, adding to that increasing waist line but is a slower process where you slowly become aware that you are more awake and concentration levels are heightened and you slowly descend, avoiding that sugar crash. So next time you feel the need to boost those energy levels maybe you should try these healthy supplement products instead. If interested in trying these or any other Herbalife products, get in touch via e-mail or mobile. For further details check out the link on my website at www.titanfreestyle.com