I have a long history with energy drinks. I once went through a phase of being far too reliant on the things, including some of those Red Bull-style energy drinks packed with caffeine, taurine and other obscure chemicals and substances which were supposed to increase your alertness and energy levels. There was barely an energy drink I didn’t try. Also let me add that I was particularly sporty at this time, so felt fully justified
Now, many workers (including freelancers) gulp various beverages which they hope will give them a lift after a sleepless night. So, from my heavy drinking days (from which I still feel the side effects!) I feel well placed to offer a rundown of some of the healthier drinks currently on the market. A word about the Red Bull’s of this world a bit later.
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Lucozade sport (orange)
Lucozade works by providing B-vitamins, sugar – and of course water. It also contains sweeteners, including Aspartame which has been a cause of controversy over the years. Personally, I’ve never liked sweeteners anyway, they’re just a manufactured method of maintaining a sweet taste without the high calories of natural sugar.
Taste-wise, it’s a little too sweet for me. As it’s free of caffeine, the only boost I received came from hydration and sugar content. I could have got that with an orange cordial. There are plenty of Lucuzade’s which do provide caffeine (the fizzy version being one), however.
Calories: 28 (per 100ml)
Best for: the freelancer who loves the most established brands.
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Gatorade (orange)
My personal choice, Gatorade doesn’t have any colours or sweeteners or nasty added extras. The formula and logic behind the drink is pretty simple: offer the drinker hydration and an amount of glucose to provide the drinker with energy. There is no caffeine, guarana or ginseng so although it doesn’t offer an energy kick as such, it does provide you with the boost that any combination of calories and water will. They could make it cheaper though, usually retailing over a pound (as the rest do)
Calories: 24
Best for: the freelancer for whom simplicity is bliss. Probably has a home office set-up with just a chair, desk and computer in the middle of a large echo friendly room.
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Powerade (cherry)
Powerade’s a particularly sugary energy drink and also comes with sweeteners such as Aspartame. It’s free of caffeine, free of any other stimulants and B-vitamins. For me it’s rather similar to Gatorade with more unnatural ingredients so loses out to the former.
Taste-wise it’s rather synthetic, akin to drinking fruit juice from the food replicator on Star Trek (probably). So, not the most healthy or the most tasty.
Calories: 21
Best for: the power hungry freelancer who fancies themselves as the next Jean Luc Picard.
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Vitamin Water (Revive)
Coca Cola’s Vitmandrink has received a bad press of late after the Advertising Standards Authority banned the drinks giant from marketing it as nutritious. The reason for that is that it contains high amounts of sugar.
Revive is a supposedly fruity drink (though actual real fruit juice content is negligible) which contains vitamin c and various b-vitamins. It tastes fairly weak and doesn’t have any nasties. Nonetheless, referring to it as nutritious with the high amount of sugar present and tiny levels of vitamin content is stretching it.
Calories: 19
Best for: the uneducated freelancer who sees the words ‘Vitamin Water’ and thinks “hey that’s healthy!”
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Purdeys Multivitamin Drink
Wow, this drink is packed with healthy sounding stuff. Natural flavourings including Botanical Extracts (damiana and Chinese ginseng) plus b-vitamins and vitamin c. It also contains real fruit juices plus glucose for extra sweetness. It’s good to see there aren’t any added sweeteners or colours in this.
Taste wise it’s a fizzy grape and apple combination reminiscent of those Aqualibre drinks except packed with stuff that supposedly gives you a kick. There’s not much to criticise hear, but for some reason I always found Purdeys raised my temperature which is not exactly what I want from an energy drink, but that may just be a reaction to the apple content (I have a strange reaction to certain apples). Also I didn’t notice any increase in my energy levels.
Nonetheless, Purdeys is a pretty healthy option.
Calories: 32
Best for: the health and image conscious freelancer who prefers to drink multi-vitamins from a classier looking bottle.
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A word of warning: Red Bull and super-powered energy drinks
There are loads of drinks on the market with high caffeine and taurine levels which are designed to give you a sharp boost during a working day. Red Bull is obviously the best known. Others also promise a lasting boost by providing ginseng and guarana extracts along with the caffeine. And that’s not mentioning those ‘powershot’ type drinks which are usually located on the checkouts of grocery stores – these are packed by caffeine, stupidly high levels of B-vitamins, and often ginseng and other ‘natural’ energy boosters.
For all the above, my advice is leave them well alone no matter how tired you are. After suffering palpitations most likely caused by these energy drinks, I’ve had to give up caffeine altogether. I’m surprised at how little I’ve missed caffeine – proof that we’re all rather too reliant on the stuff. Even supposedly healthy and natural boosters like ginseng are thought of with some suspicion by doctors – my GP reckoned these may have been a key contributing factor to the palpitations and irregular heart rate, commenting on how surprising it is that certain energy drinks are freely available to buy over the counter.
Also, I should emphasise that I was particularly sporty while drinking energy drinks daily. I should also emphasise I didn’t drink more than one a day. So, I wasn’t drinking copious amounts and I wasn’t living an inactive lifestyle. Yet still, they had an adverse effect.
My advice would be to stick to the occasional cup of coffee (if you must) and ensure you get a good nights sleep in order to keep your energy levels high during the working day.
