The Mighty Fit Grasshopper reviews an all natural energy drink, designed to give you a kick, without the crash and it's actually healthy for you! Impossible, you say? Read on.Energy drinks are all the rage. As such, it's also highly competitive.
5 Hour Energy Drink,
Red Bull, Monster, Beaver Buzz and a multitude of others pack the store shelves. Much of these drinks get their kick from the incredible levels of caffeine, and if you haven't noticed, many of them have pharmaceutical grade caffeine added to the drink (hard to read, of course, as it's written in between all the listed herbal ingredients). Another issue with energy drinks is the sugar content - many of them are loaded with sugar to either mask the taste of the herbal ingredients or simple to add to the kick.
But is there something that has a kick, without loads of sugar and caffeine, and contains only natural ingredients to flavour the drink? Interestingly, I came across this product: Usana's REV3 Energy. This drink boasts a low glycemic index (doesn't spike blood sugar levels), doesn't contain a high caffeine content, and uses all natural ingredients. Will this actually provide a kick? or just to my wallet?
Now before I go on, I would like to take a moment to talk about USANA Health Sciences Inc. USANA is a network marketing (eg. multi-level marketing) company that produces high end dietary supplement products. I would like to just explicitly say that
I am not involved with USANA in anyway. I am not selling their products nor was I paid for this post. Like every other product I've reviewed, I'm simply providing you with my unbiased, real experience with this natural health product.
Product Label and Design:REV3 is hot. That's what this product screams out. It is fuel that your body is craving for when you really want it most. REV3 Energy is packaged in a slim can, similar to that of a RedBull. It's slim, sleek and stares at you, urging you to crack it open and take on your day in bullet time. The design and labelling is really cool. Exactly what you'd expect from an energy drink.
I would've expected a MLM company to go pretty bland with their labels, but they did this one right. The label design matches the intent of this product. Very nicely done.
Health Claim: REV3 Energy is designed to support mental alertness and stamina. Interestingly, it also boasts that it is a low-glycemic formula and contains naturally occurring caffeine.
On the can it states, "Developed for periods of increased mental and physical exertion. Helps temporarily restore mental alertness and wakefulness when experiencing fatigue or drowsiness."
The claim sounds like it was ripped off the RedBull can. But given the anal-retentiveness/limitations of the Canadian Natural Health Product Regulations, we would expect nothing less.
Dosage: drink one can daily, as needed. I can do that.
Regulatory Compliance: At the time of writing, I have not been able to confirm whether USANA has a product license application in queue. However, I did check Health Canada's database and was glad to see that USANA has several products with a NPN number. Looks like, to me, that their regulatory department is taking care of business and, hopefully soon, we'll see a NPN for this REV3 Energy.
In terms of labeling standards, REV3 does a fine job of ensuring that they're following all of Health Canada's guidelines. The health claim is line with other energy drink health claims that have been granted a NPN, and the listing of ingredients all fall in line with the regulations.
Really nice to see that USANA is doing their best to comply with Canadian Regulations. (I've come across many USA-based products that do not comply, simply either for cost reasons, lack of enforcement, or pure laziness.)
Fragrance/Taste:Upon cracking a can of REV3 open, the drink has a very sugary/fruity scent to it. It was not unwelcoming like that of RedBull, but instead reminded of me a fruit punch/juice. Taking a gulp of this stuff was quite pleasant. The drink is carbonated, but the flavour is really nice. I would describe the flavour as a fruit punch type of flavour, but non-specific (eg. cherry, or strawberry). All in all, a great tasting product. It is not overly sweet, but not sure if it's just me, but I did get notes similar to that of drinking diet beverages. I was actually surprised that this stuff is all natural and tastes pretty good!
Does It Work?Knowing that REV3 is a low glycemic product (doesn't spike sugar levels), contains only naturally occurring caffeine from green tea at 140 mg, my expectations for its kick were not high. There are other herbal ingredients such as coenzyme Q10, rhodiola, pomegranate, olive fruit, as well as B vitamins. I know that many of these have had a rep for providing energy, but I had my reservations as to how it might work with really giving me a kick like that of a good cup of coffee or a cold can of RedBull.
I drank my early in the morning. About 30 minutes later, I could start to feel its effects coming on. I was alert, and ready to tackle the day. I noticed, immediately, that the kick was there, but with less jitters than my typical cup of coffee in the mornings. The kick was also a notch less than my morning coffee, but this wasn't a bad thing. In fact, i was really surprised at how much kick this drink actually had considering it's all natural!
As I've mentioned above, many of these energy drinks have added caffeine in them. The caffeine is likely not naturally occurring and, most likely pharmaceutical grade. This made sense to me - add a whole bunch of herbal ingredients for marketing, and spike it with caffeine for the kick.
REV3 doesn't do that. The kick is in the tea ingredients and, somehow, the kick lasts. It lasts for a few hours in fact and the crash, although I did notice my energy levels taper, it was not like that experienced with my cup of coffee. It was a steady tapering and something I was glad to experience.
Does REV3 work? Yes it does. And very well.
Adverse Reactions:
I didn't notice any adverse reactions other than typical drying of the mouth and urge to urinate after an hour or two. Pretty typical reactions from caffeinated beverages.
Bottom Line:
REV3 has managed to create an all natural energy drink without the blood sugar spike, without the added caffeine and without any artificial sweeteners. The kick is there (albeit not as strong as my morning coffee or a can of RedBull), but it's definitely noticeable and gets you going just as good. It's a shame they don't sell these at your local grocery stores.
