energy drink you can buy enough fruit for a week.
And for the average office worker, eating a snack
every afternoon in addition to regular meals is going
to mean some weight gain (unless they are compen
sating with smaller meals at night).
Once you hit the store, you’ll have plenty of popu
lar energy-boosting products to choose from, so we
asked for Gazdag’s take on a few.
Red Bull Energy Drink
Tagline: "Gives you wings"
Tastes like: Liquid gummy bears
Cost: $2.04
While Red Bull may have the cachet of being the
drink of choice for ravers worldwide, according to
Gazdag, the only ingredients in Red Bull that
boost energy are the carbohydrates (the simple
sugars glucose and sucrose) and caffeine. “Caffeine
stimulates your nervous system, so you may feel
more alert,” she says. “Some people feel much
more productive but others get jittery and can’t
focus.” Red Bull also touts a special ingredient—
taurine—an amino acid that occurs naturally in
the body (a synthetic version is used in the drink)
and is supposed to assist with “detoxifying,” or
cleansing the body. But Gazdag says that’s not a
valid claim. “Detoxifying your body is not some
thing that an ingredient in a food can do for you.”
Red Bull will certainly provide a kick (about the
same as a cup of coffee), but it is not the best
choice from a health perspective because it offers
pure carbohydrates and no nutrients. “It’s basic
ally soda,” says Gazdag.
PowerBar (banana flavor)
Tagline: "Fuel for optimum performance"
Tastes like: Banana taffy
Cost: $1.49
“It’s about image,” says Gazdag. “Not many people
eat energy bars as a snack because they taste good.”
PowerBars were developed for endurance athletes
who needed something convenient to eat while exer
cising—not for the average office worker. “Energy
bars tend to be super-supplemented with a lot of
vitamins and minerals, and unfortunately that gives
people the impression that they are a healthy snack,”
she says. According to Gazdag, just because a food
has a lot of vitamins and minerals added to it
doesn’t mean that your body can or will absorb all
the nutrients listed on the package. While PowerBars
won’t give you a buzz like Red Bull, they do contain
a good amount of carbohydrates, along with some
protein and a bit of fat, which make them a healthier
choice. Still, Gazdag advises against thinking of your
PowerBar as a multivitamin. “People think they are
getting everything they need because they have an
energy bar, and then they don’t pay attention to
their diet for the rest of the day.” Energy bars
shouldn’t replace meals. If you routinely skip lunch
and then find yourself at the convenience store at
slump time, you’d be much better off concentrating
your efforts on bringing or buying a decent lunch.
Fresh Samantha Protein Blast
Tagline: "A protein fruit drink"
Tastes like: A slightly chalky fruit smoothie
Cost: $2.49
Compared with Red Bull and PowerBars, Gazdag
says that Fresh Samantha is the healthiest energizing
snack for the simple reason that it is more “real
food” than the other two products (it’s closest to
actually eating an apple, a banana, or an orange).
“When we talk about making healthy food choices,
we are really talking about trying to choose fruits
and vegetables, and products that are less processed,”
she says. Gazdag points out that the added ingredi
ents (like the soy protein in this product) don’t pro
▼ experlence.com
Learn some simple tricks for boosting your
energy all day—without using these products—
at www.experience.com/energize.
vide extra value, because there is usually not enough
to provide the same health benefits that a supple
ment would provide. “Just drinking the Fresh
Samantha with St. John’s wort doesn’t mean that all
of a sudden you are going to feel a little less
depressed,” she says.
Gazdag believes that the popularity of energy
snacks is due to the premium that we place on time
in our hectic lives. “If we had healthier lifestyles in
general, independent of our diet, we might find that
we were less drawn to energy boosters.” Maybe the
nap isn’t such a bad idea after all. O
Danyel Barnard is the editor of experience magazine.
She experimented with various energy boosters while
writing this article.
www.experience.com