Are you looking for energy drinks, but want to cut-off the sugar?
Then, you are on the right track.
Losing weight and staying healthy requires patience, will, and enough endurance to achieve your target goal. And one of the hardest parts is looking for an energy drink partner that can help you boost your overall physical performance. Of course, without compromising your diet. A good place to start looking would probably be sugar-free energy drinks.
Well, look no further. In this article, I’ll give you detailed facts about sugar-free energy drinks, the benefits they can give to your body, and the best sugar-free energy drinks.
Brace yourself, and have your best pick for sugar-free energy drink.
What Are Energy Drinks?
Energy drinks are beverages that increase your energy, maximizes your mental alertness, and improve your overall physical performance. Generally, it consists of caffeine, sugar, other stimulants like taurine, guarana extract, and L-Carnitine, and other additives.
Energy drinks are popular especially for students because it gives them an energy boost to keep their activities and projects on track. If you’re having trouble staying attentive to your tasks, energy drinks can help you stay alert and aware of your work environment.
However, not all energy drinks are created alike, and the effects that they have on your body vary depending on the specific components that they have.
For instance, sugar-free energy drinks have grown increasingly popular in the energy drink industry as a better option than traditional energy drinks. This trend may be attributed to the fact that consumers are becoming more health conscious.
What Can Sugar Provide Your Body?
Sugar is one of the naturally occurring ingredients in all the foods that you digest. It gives you carbohydrates, which turns into energy.
For reference, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends 25g or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day for women, and 36g or 9 teaspoons for men. Having any more than that could lead to side effects, which we would look at further down below.
Benefits of Sugar
Most of the food and beverage that you consume is dominated by sugar. And contrary to what you may think, sugar isn’t all bad. Sugar plays an important role in your body. Here is the list of the benefits that sugar can bring:
- Increase the dopamine level of your body
- Improve your overall mood
- Assist central nervous system function
However, having too much sugar can create a great risk to your body. So, pay close attention to your consumption.
Risks of Having Too Much Sugar
Foods like chocolate, ice cream, and the like are some of the comfort foods we go to if we want to feel better. Of course, it helps us feel good. However, you would encounter side effects if you consume sugar excessively. Here’s the list of potential risks of consuming too much sugar:
- It can make your teeth rot;
- It can develop inflammation;
- Skin Aging
- Obesity
- Increase in Body Weight
What are Sugar-Free Energy Drinks?
As suggested by its name, sugar-free energy drinks are beverages that don’t have sugar, being the perfect choice for beverages if you’re health-conscious. It’s a better alternative to regular energy drinks because your body will consume no sugar, allowing you to improve your diet and manage your overall sugar consumption.
Even without sugar, sugar-free energy drinks serve as a good companion for workouts, and it gives you a proper boost to reach your ideal weight. Though it doesn’t give you many calories, it’ll give you the boost to perform well. Sugar-free energy drinks give you a totally different experience that enhances your body capacity.
Pros Of Sugar-Free Energy Drinks
Sugar-free beverages give you lots of benefits. For starters, they’re healthier than any regular and sugary drinks. That said, moderation is always recommended to avoid dependence and addiction as it still contains caffeine.
The benefits you can get from drinking sugar-free drinks work primarily on consuming a day. It helps you minimize your sugar intake and obviously unwanted fats, being a good companion to keep you healthy and active.
If you want to maintain your calorie intake and weight, sugar-free energy drinks are your best option because most of these beverages totally give you zero-calorie. It doesn’t even raise your sugar level, so you don’t need to worry much about having a sugar crash.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that these energy drinks might contain artificial sweeteners to substitute sugar. Artificial sweeteners give you a sweet and appealing taste without all the calories. That said, these artificial sweeteners are not beneficial if consumed excessively.
What Are Artificial Sweeteners?
Artificial sweeteners are the primary substitutes for sugar. It’s primarily added to beverages and foods to improve their taste without worrying much about the extra calories.
The Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has approved artificial sweeteners as safe added ingredients, So you shouldn’t be too concerned about consuming them.
Food for thought, artificial sweeteners are about 200 to 700 times sweeter than normal sugar. Some popular artificial sweeteners that you would find in energy drinks are Aspartame, Sucralose, and Acesulfame Potassium.
Popular products like canned goods, baked goods, candy, soft drinks, and energy drinks mostly contain artificial sweeteners as well.
Are There Side Effects To Artificial Sweeteners
While moderate consumption of artificial sweeteners would have no negative effects, Excessive consumption can lead to aversive, like the disruption of gut health, depression, and even obesity.
The intake of artificial sweeteners primarily disrupts your gut health. It means that these sweeteners greatly affect the build-up of good bacteria. It leads to an imbalance of your gut that causes bloating.
Studies also show that artificial sweeteners build the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity. It also affects and increases your normal appetite. You will feel unsatisfied with your cravings and increase your appetite, so you consume beyond your usual calorie intake.
Will You Gain Weight From Sugar-Free Energy Drinks?
Sugar-free energy drinks do not directly contribute to your weight gain; however, it plays an important role in increasing your appetite, potentially leading to more calorie consumption, which can be a problem if you cannot control your consumption.
The answer lies in artificial sweeteners, which improve the taste of sugar-free energy drinks. According to an article, artificial sweeteners stimulate and improve your appetite, lowering your control of the foods and drinks that you consume.
Since artificial sweeteners don’t contain any calories, they could trigger the pathway of your brain, which increases your food cravings, leading you to consume more than your normal consumption to satisfy your cravings.
It’s important to manage your energy drink intake to make sure that you will not develop dependence. Remember, the more you consume, the lesser benefits you get. So, keep your consumption at a moderate level to get the best out of your favorite zero-sugar energy drink.
Here’s a trick. You can switch your drinks from water, coffee, juice, or tea to get additional energy without worrying about being overly dependent on energy drinks.
Can You Suffer from Sugar Crash From Drinking Sugar-Free Energy Drinks?
Sugar crashes happen when your blood sugar levels suddenly rise and fall. For sugar-free energy drinks, they don’t contain any sugar, so it’d be impossible for you to have sugar crashes.
Sugar crashes can make you feel sluggish and tired, which is something you’d want to avoid during an important event or occasion. That said, sugar isn’t the only ingredient in energy drinks that can cause a crash. Caffeine can also cause a crash, so check out this article here if you’d like to learn more about how to manage it.
Difference Between Sugar-free, Unsweetened, And No Added Sugar
I know you always encounter the words “sugar-free”, “unsweetened” and “no added sugar” in different product labels, but you might still be wondering: what are their distinctions?
According to the AHA, these labels are known as health and nutrient claims that are regulated by the FDA, which aims to inform consumers about the ingredients and product contents. These labels help you identify what you’re consuming and how to regulate your consumption.
While there’s no denying that these terms look similar, they actually mean pretty different things. Knowing these differences would help you make better choices with what you consume and choose the right food and beverages that your body needs.
To simplify, below is a quick table on the sugar claims associated with nutritional labels:
| Sugar Claims on Products | Meaning |
| Sugar-Free | It only composed of 05.g of natural sugar, or added sugar. |
| No Sugar Added | It means that the product has no sugar or ingredients with sugar added. But, there is a tendency that artificial sugar was added to give you a click or a boost. |
| Unsweetened | It doesn’t contain any free sugars, but artificial sweeteners are included, and some naturally occurring ingredients with sugar like fruit or milk were added. |
Best Sugar-Free Energy Drinks
Many of us rely on energy drinks to make sure that we can optimize everything that we got to survive the day. But, with most energy drinks, we would have to worry about their sugar. So, to help you get started, here are some of the best sugar-free energy drinks that you can have on the market.
Sound Sparkling Organic Yerba Mate
Sound is a refreshing beverage made out of naturally sweetened extracts, containing 70mg of caffeine, green tea, white tea, and yerba mate that gives you an original organic boost.
A serving of Sound only costs about $1, which is worth a try and wouldn’t put a hole in your wallet.
You can enjoy different flavors, such as lemon, lime, and hibiscus, which give you a delightful kick without worrying too much about the sugar content.
MatchaBar Hustle
Matcha is an energy drink packed with amazing green tea leaves along with powerful antioxidants that can give you a burst of energy. It is made of high-grade matcha that levels up your usual energy drink. It gives you 120mg of caffeine.
You can have a fruity flavor of monk fruit, extracts of lemon, spearmint, elderberry, and lime. It gives you a different level of refreshment with a handful of organic and powerful nutrients.
Mati Sparkling Organic Drink
Mati Energy drink is made of different brewed Guayusa tea, made from the strong evergreen tea in Amazon. It comes with 115mg of caffeine that gives you enough energy to conquer the day.
Reign
Reign is a completely sugar-free energy drink with a shocking 300mg of caffeine and 10 calories. It’s a preferred energy drink if you want to have a boost for your workout. The price ranges between $1.50 to $2, and it’s pretty affordable.
Celcius
Celsius offers a variety of different flavors and is available in both canned and powdered form. It costs about $3 per serving and comes with 200mg to 300mg of caffeine depending on the flavor and category that you choose.
Zippfrizz
Zipfizz is a powdered energy drink that is packed in a cute tube. Being put in a compact tube, you can have this energy drink whenever and wherever you are as long as you’ve got some water and a cup. A serving of ZipFizz contains 100mg of caffeine, 20 calories, and is completely sugar-free.
You can enjoy a wide variety of vitamins and minerals from its ingredients like guarana and green tea extract. There are a lot of refreshing flavors to choose from and helps you manage things out. It’s a good energy booster that costs about $2 per serving.
REIZE (10 out of 10)
Sugar-free energy drinks are obviously healthier and smarter choice of beverage, but it doesn’t always give you a smooth wallet experience. However, you won’t have that problem with REiZE.
REIZE is a 4g powdered energy drink that keeps you energize all day. It’s easy to carry, and you can have a delightful drink wherever and whenever you are. And, you don’t need to worry much about the sugar crash because it’s sugar-free.
It contains 50mg of caffeine and gives you a smart blend of nutritious ingredients B vitamins, taurine, and ginseng extract. They all work together to give you the energy drink experience you deserve – without worrying about the crash.
What’s more? It’s affordable because a serving only cost about $1, and you can also have it shipped directly to your doorsteps. It’s definitely a deal that you deserve.
So, try REIZE today, and have one of the best sugar-free energy drinks on the market.