Enough With The Energy Drinks!
Every day, clueless PR folks don’t realize they are doing their junk food clients harm by sending us their latest pitches. That’s what they get for blindly distributing mass emails on their clients’ behalf. It’s a blast (pun intended)!
We recently got an email from an energy drink company called Hy Drive Energy. It’s a vitamin water copycat. Here’s some of the pitch:
As a pioneer in the hybrid beverage industry, HYDRIVE Energy Water provides consumers with a product that has the light, refreshing taste of a vitamin enhanced water with the boost of an energy drink at only 30 calories.
Each unique flavor contain formulas, such as Antioxidant, Recovery, Vitamin, Focus, Active and Extra Power to provide the consumer additional benefits.
For example:
Citrus Burst – Vitamin Formula: This citrus flavor is a vitamin formula containing B3, B5, B6 and B12 Vitamins and Vitamin A.
Time for a Fooducate look under the hood. As you may already suspect, the reason this drink has only 30 calories is not because a very low amount of sugar has been added. It’s because some sort of zero calorie sweetener has been used. Here is the ingredient list:
PURIFIED WATER, SUCROSE, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVOR, SODIUM CITRATE, CAFFEINE, POTASSIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVATIVE), POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), GUM ARABIC, MONOPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM CHLORIDE, SUCRALOSE, CALCIUM D-PANTOTHENATE (B5), NIACINAMIDE (B3), TAURINE, ESTER GUM, MAGNESIUM CHLORIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (B6), L-CARNITINE, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, CYANOCOBALAMIN (B12).
The one ingredient we like here is water. After that, it’s all downhill.
Sucrose is the scientific term for table sugar, but it’s probably more hip to list it as sucrose in order to fool people into thinking it is better or has fewer calories. The zero calorie sweetener used in sucralose. Read about the dangers of artificial sweeteners here.
Other problematic ingredients include controversial food colorings Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 (risk for carcinogenicity and hypersensitivity), and additives you won’t find in your kitchen or supermarket – potassium benzoate and potassium sorbate.
The vitamins can be obtained from real food with better bio-availability than the mega-doses in this drink. Most likely you will pee away the majority of the vitamins in this drink within hours of drinking it.
Bottom line: Crap in a bottle. Vitamin waters are a terrible waste of money with no positive benefits at all. If you want a “Citrus Blast”, eat an orange. Energy drinks are a public hazard. Need a boost in energy? Enjoy your coffee after a good night’s sleep and eat real food.