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Health & Fitness

Fitness Forum – Energy Drinks: Another Crutch?

It seems everywhere you look these days someone is chugging or gulping some kind of energy drink.  I’m a big advocate of living a healthy lifestyle and putting quality foods and beverages into your system. That said, in my humble opinion, energy drinks/shots really don’t qualify as healthy beverages. Generally speaking, they’re loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners, ridiculous amounts of B vitamins, various stimulants, and probably a few goodies you’ve never even heard of. Not my ideal pick-me-up, pre-workout beverage, or thirst quencher. 

If I’m a bit low on energy on a given day, I would rather focus on other factors that I can control. How was my sleep the last few days…have I been consistently eating and drinking throughout the day…have I been under any stress as of late that may be bogging me down? These are things that I can probably remedy with subtle lifestyle changes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that having an occasional energy drink is going to cause harm per se, but I just think far too many people rely on these types of products to get them through their day. Ultimately, they’re devoid of nutritional value and they’re simply a crutch for most folks.

Bottom line—I  think it’s important to focus on diet quality as much as diet quantity, so my advice would be to try and find a healthier alternative and lead a healthy lifestyle.

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