Remember when energy drinks appeared two decades ago with enough sugar and caffeine in one can to fuel an NFL team for a season? Health conscious individuals took one sip of the first tachycardia-inducing formulas and switched to water with lemon. Last year, a sample of 72 college students by Global Medicine Enterprises discovered that fit-minded millennials and Gen Zs would rather stain their stainless steel water bottles with a little fruit juice than stay hopped up on Red Bull for the rest of their anxious lives.
While the big soda makers like Pepsi and Coca-Cola compete for a dominant share in the still-growing energy drink market by offering healthier alternatives, the American Beverage Association discovered from a recent focus group that people were still up for energy drinks as long as they featured safe, healthy and natural ingredients. The respondents also thought there was too much caffeine and too much High Fructose Corn Syrup in most drinks. I generally prefer water during and after my workouts. But there are times when I need an energy boost because I've overdone it, and then I look for an energy drink that meets my desire to only put healthy ingredients in my body. The latest offerings from a host of forward-thinking companies feature low sugar or no sugar, definitely no High Fructose Corn Syrup, and a wide array of desirable nutrients. Have you seen this summer's explosion in the refrigerated grocery shelves for chocolate flavored reishi mushroom drinks and lemonade with ashwagandha? A dizzying choice of high-powered, flavored Kombucha drinks (mojito flavored!), now sporting alcohol labels take up an entire end-cap at my local grocery store. One of the first energy drinks on the market, Monster Energy, was introduced by Hansen Beverages in 2002. Now owned and marketed by Monster Energy on 1 Monster Way in Corona, CA, the company, which also brings you Monster Sports, has come out with drinks that have zero or low sugar offerings, and others that feature 100 percent of daily value for viatmin B-12, niacin, riboflavin, and vitamin B-6. Many of their drinks contain Taurine, L-Carnitine and Inositol, which take part in energy transcription factors for optimal metabolism, but not more Inositol than you would find in an infant formula, comparing ounce-for-ounce. So it's possible today, thanks to consumer pressure, to quickly get your hands on a bad ass energy drink, featuring slow-brewed green tea that the legendary Chinese herbalist Emperor Shennong would gladly imbibe. The good news here is that it's apparently safe for you to return to energy drinks. I'm still hoping that the makers eliminate the sucrolose, a sugar alcohol that gives half of us some mild GI distress, but I understand the need to make an 8-ounce drink that boasts only 20 calories. The hunt continues for energy drinks that add a touch of monkfruit instead of sugar alcohols. Your Global Medicine Hunter is still on the hunt, but less thirsty New youtube video on children and amphetamines. We are addicting our children to speed. It all starts with a questionable diagnosis of ADHD, and then the prescription gets written for Adderall or Ritalin. Soon a child learns that the only way to be acceptable or loved is to take drugs that alter his or her behavior. The problem is reaching epidemic proportions. There are safer ways to achieve focus and clarity: sleep, diet, stress management, effective communication skills, exercise and some botanical and nutrient support. I was happy to narrate this hard-hitting video, and write some supportive material at www.wellcorps.com. Published NASM Winter 2016
WELLNESS: From Movement to Profession Bigger than ever, with a place for you to engage. By Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, CWP For over half a century, the concept of wellness has infiltrated communities, schools, workplaces and health care throughout the U.S. and abroad, inspiring people to embrace healthier lifestyles. Wellness has been a movement, profession, and industry, but most of all, wellness continues to evolve as a dynamic process that has now inspired four generations. History of Irony and Inspiration While wellness as a concept is often criticized as a soft science with insufficient data or questionable ROI, the irony is that its founding philosophy arose out of cold, hard statistics. The father of wellness is widely acknowledged to be a pioneering biostatistician who worked at the fledgling National Office of Vital Statistics from 1935 to 1960. Like another genius working in a clerical capacity,1 Halbert L.Dunn, MD, PhD, must have had his stroke of insight while wrestling with the mundane. He witnessed the unmistakable trends in chronic disease due to poor health habits, such as the growth of heart disease and pulmonary disease during the peak years of per capita tobacco use in the U.S. His book, High-Level Wellness (1961), spurred the next generation of health care professionals and social scientists to shift the lens from sick care to prevention, and eventually to salutogenesis—the actual creation of health.2 ![]() Why do so few do what they know is right? U.S. adults get failing grade in healthy lifestyle behaviorBy David Stauth, Contact: Ellen Smit, 541-737-3833 or ellen.smit@oregonstate.edu This story is available online: http://bit.ly/1UJsRVU CORVALLIS, Ore. – Only 2.7 percent of the U.S. adult population achieves all four of some basic behavioral characteristics that researchers say would constitute a “healthy lifestyle” and help protect against cardiovascular disease, a recent study concluded. In this study, researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Mississippi examined how many adults succeed in four general barometers that could help define healthy behavior: a good diet, moderate exercise, a recommended body fat percentage and being a non-smoker. It’s the basic health advice, in other words, that doctors often give to millions of patients all over the world. Such characteristics are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease as well as many other health problems, such as cancer and type 2 diabetes. |
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