Long Lasting Sustainable Energy

I walked into my laundry room the other day and I saw a brown liquid hovering on one of the knobs of my washing machine. Glancing slowly upward I saw the slow drip from the shelf above the washer/dryer area. Upon further inspection, I could see a puddle of brown covering an entire portion of the shelf.

On this shelf I keep a large bottle of white vinegar I use for cleaning. Nope. Stored in this area currently are also some bottles of natural sparkling water. Nah. Then I saw it! The one lone dark item with the adjective dark taking on a more pervasive meaning as I realized what had occurred. It was a can filled with an “energy drink” that I had been given as part of a favor bag from an event I attended about four years ago. I kept the aluminum-clad item because I do talks on energy drinks/ energy bars from time to time. And, since my main platform is whole foods eating the energy drink in question proved to be a perfect prop to distinguish something that is marketed as something in the healthy realm that doesn’t prove to be so at all.

The fact that the liquid had successfully corroded a pin hole in the aluminum is great fodder for future talks. If it can seep through aluminum just think of what it can do inside your BODY?

As I spent some time wiping up the mess that was before me, when all I had really wanted was to throw in a load of whites, I berated myself for not dumping the contents years ago and just keeping the darn can. It was the ingredient list noted on the can that I was most interested in. And as I continued to work on the clean-up I recognized that no amount of scrubbing was going to get the deep brown stain marks out of my formerly painted white, wood shelf. It was forever marred by the attack of the tall can of energy drink. Ah….more fodder for the talk. If it can stain a wood shelf so markedly just think of what it can do inside your BODY?

By now even I was curious about the contents of the darn drink. So, I put my cleaning rag down and picked up my reading glasses. Here is what I read:

· water (Well it was a good start, I admit)
· high fructose corn syrup (So not only was the second ingredient a form of sugar, but a highly refined, made in a lab (with genetically modified corn) processing system)
· sodium hexametaphosphate (Really, I have no idea other than the fact that we know what sodium is),
· caffeine (And, along with sugar, we can see what puts the energy in energy drink…nice),
· citric & pantochenic acids (Do we think the acids aided in burning a hole through the aluminum?)

…..and a host of other ingredients that I simply don’t have the energy to note here.

There are several points I wish to make from telling you this tale.

One is that I’m going to have to re-paint the shelf in the laundry room.

Two, for true long-lasting sustainable ENERGY: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. This has been my mantra for years. Anyone who knows me will attest to this. Water in its plain and simple form, provides balanced energy, clarity of thought and assists in the regulation of bodily systems including nervous and digestive. Oh, and it doesn’t stain when it spills. We are not talking long-lasting stainable energy!

Third, it is really important to have a look at the ingredient label when you are deciding to purchase and ingest any item but especially any touted to give you energy—generally a good thing that we all want to have. Honestly, it’s important to read the ingredient label whenever you are eating/drinking something packaged , particularly if you are working towards a whole foods-based diet.

My ingredient label rule of thumb is as follows:

1. There should be no more than five ingredients noted on the packaging.
2. Sugar, in any form, should not be one of the first three ingredients
3. You should know what each of the ingredients is.
4. You should be able to pronounce each of the ingredients.
5. The ingredients should each be whole themselves.

So, to elaborate on point two, if you are eating a dessert-related item, obviously there will be a sweetener in the ingredient list. And yes, it will most likely be one of the first three ingredients. So, desserts do get a caveat here. In true whole foods eating you would be aiming to have that sweetener be more naturally based…….honey, molasses, maple syrup as top examples because of the no processing aspect here.

And, to explain point five I’ll use a packaged coconut macaroon that I love. The ingredients are as follows: Unsweetened coconut, honey, egg whites. Each of those ingredients are whole and complete and unprocessed unto themselves.

Hmmm, I think I’m now going to go and have a few. And I do believe that I will wash it down with a glass of water. Then, maybe I’ll go and re-paint that shelf.