Which Energy Drink Is Healthiest? Comparing the Best and Worst Healthy Energy Drinks

The ultimate guide to healthy energy drinks

Just because someone slaps the word "healthy" on an energy drink label doesn't mean it's actually healthy for you. As a matter of fact, some of the most popular so-called healthy energy drinks aren't much better than the leading cans.

We're all so busy while simultaneously exhausted with other things going on in our lives that grabbing one of these alternatives is deemed as good enough - but it isn't.

Your health is vital to immediate and long-term happiness, so we're here to help you make an informed decision about other energy drinks by explaining which energy drink is healthiest, how to easily read a nutritional label, which ingredients are bad and which ones are good, and explain the surprising health benefits of healthy energy drinks.

Welcome to the energy revolution, we're pumped to have you with us.

Topics Covered in This Guide

How to Read an Energy Drink Label

List of Unhealthy Ingredients

List of Healthy Ingredients

Other Tips

The Healthiest Energy Drinks

Benefits of Energy Drinks

What drinks give you energy but are healthy?

VISO Energy drinks are loaded with 300 milligrams of caffeine from organic coffee beans filtered with ultra purified water that quickly increase energy levels without the anxious come up or depressing crash.

To top it off, every flavor is made with cold pressed juices from organic fruits and a proprietary blend of vitamins, minerals, and adaptogens that is 100% plant based with absolutely no artificial ingredients. All of the ingredients in all VISO bottles are either certified organic or natural - and they are all NON-GMO certified vegan.

Featured: VISO Dynamo

How to Read an Energy Drink Label

It's important we learn this because energy drinks are not regulated by the FDA - it's up to you to decide whether or not these energy beverages are fit for human consumption. Creepy, isn't it?

So before we get to the good and bad ingredients, you have to know what you're looking at when reading a healthy energy drink label. Here's a quick breakdown.

1. Serving Information

The serving information refers to the number of servings in a can and serving size. With most energy drinks, the serving size is either one can or the amount of fluid ounces the can has, as with the Dynamo label above.

However, some are sneaky - the 'Servings per container' part of some energy drinks will have more than one serving, so if this is the case, be sure to multiply the amount of whatever ingredients are in the can by that number.

For example, let's say an energy drink has 2 servings per can, and the label reports that it has 25mg of sugar. To get the true amount of sugar, multiply 2 (servings in can) by 25 (amount of sugar per serving) to get the true amount of sugar in the can of 50mg.

2. Calories

This section provides a measure of how many calories you can get from one serving of the energy drink. Again, if the label states that there are multiple servings, multiply the calories by the total amount of servings in the can for the true amount of calories.

3. Nutrients

The nutrients section displays the key nutrients that impact your health such as total fat, total carbohydrate, total sugars, so on. The next section ties directly into this one.

4. Percent Daily Value

The % Daily Value (%DV) is the percentage of the recommended Daily Value total intake of each listed nutrient. Using the VISO label as an example, one bottle of Dynamo has 5% of the total amount of Potassium you should have in a day.

5. Other Ingredients

Finally - and this is what to keep an eye out for - is the list of other ingredients in the bottle. This is where a lot of supposed natural energy drinks hide their unnatural ingredients. With this section, keep in mind that the ingredients are listed from from the highest weight to lowest.

Unhealthy Ingredients to Avoid

Now that we know how to read the label, it's time to learn what to watch out for when shopping for healthy energy drinks or energy shots.

Excess Added Sugar

Although this may be obvious, it's worth noting. Now that you understand that the %DV is already displayed on a label, you can quickly look at any natural energy drinks to see how much sugar is in a can and whether or not that amount is over or close to the recommended daily limit.

Added sugar is different from fruit juice sugars, which we'll get into in just a minute.

Glucose Polymers

Although this ingredient has been studied extensively for both medicine and supplements and no safety issues have been found, it is one of the largest culprits of the dreaded sugar crash. So if you're looking for a rush without the crash, avoid energy drinks with glucose polymers.

Artificial Sweeteners

A lot of the sugar free energy beverages use artificial sweeteners under names that nobody can pronounce are some of the worst energy drinks out there. Removing sugar from a drink and replacing it with the same amount of toxic crap is like opting to take a punch to the head with a piece of wood instead of a fist.

For example, sucralose - one of the most commonly used sweeteners most popular energy drinks use in their sugar free options - has shown to damage gut bacteria and increase the risk of cancer, high blood pressure, and weight gain within multiple rat studies. Short and long term damage, anyone?

Although there are dozens of variations of artificial sweeteners and different names for them, these are the ones found the most in popular healthier energy drinks.

Sodium Benzoate

Commonly used as a preservative in some of the "healthiest energy drinks", sodium benzoate has been linked to an increased risk of inflammation, ADHD, obesity, cancer, and hyperactivity in children.

In 2008, the FSA (the UK's version of the FDA) announced a voluntary ban on this additive, which basically means, "Yeah, this stuff is complete garbage. We recommend that companies refrain from using it but aren't going to force companies to do so."

We have a simple saying around here - if it's artificial and banned or monitored in other countries, don't drink it!

Invert Cane Syrup

Don't let the name fool you - invert cane syrup is another artificial sweetener derived from sucrose (table sugar). Essentially, this frankensugar is a mixture of glucose and fructose made by heating up sucrose and is used for its ability to retain moisture sweeter taste than regular sugar.

It's very similar in nutritional value (or lack thereof) and health risks to table sugar or corn syrup, so keep an eye out and avoid it like the plague.

A Lot of Zeros

When you see a self-proclaimed low calorie energy drink with a label that's mostly comprised of zeros, steer clear. I'm talking like drinks that have zero calorie, zero fat, zero carbohydrate, zero sugar, zero sodium, and zero grams of protein. If it has next to no nutrition, it's certainly not healthy.

The energy and taste comes from the mind-boggling long list of ingredients that would make Merriam-Webster stutter - and don't forget that energy drinks are not regulated by the FDA, so it's really anyone's guess as to what those ingredients are and what they do to your body.

Quick Tip: None of these ingredients are found in a bottle of VISO Energy - not one.

Healthy Ingredients to Seek

Now that we've established toxic ingredients to look for, let's switch gears and list some ingredients that are hallmarks of a truly healthy energy drink.

Quick Tip: If you can't find where the caffeine is produced from any self-proclaimed healthier energy drink, it's more than likely from synthetic factories in China. (More on that later)

Caffeine from Organic Coffee Plant Beans

Before drinking energy drinks, check to see where the caffeine content is from. Your best option is caffeine extracted from rinsed off organic coffee plant beans, like the caffeine in all VISO bottles.

Organic Fruit Juice

While many of the healthiest energy drinks do use fruit juices instead of artificial colors or flavors, not many use organic fruit juices, a huge difference when it comes to your overall health. In a 2014 review of studies, nonorganic produce had 10 to 100 times more pesticide residues and 60% lower concentrations in antioxidants when compared to organic produce.

In other words, organic fruit juices have less pesticide residue, more nutritional value, and ultimately better taste. That's why every bottle of VISO Energy only uses cold pressed juices from organic fruits.

Fruit Sugar

As we already mentioned, if something's sweet but has no added sugar content, there's some other poison that's just as bad. But not all sugar is bad, and fruit sugar is without a doubt the healthier option.

While refined sugar is metabolized quickly and therefore leads to sugar highs and crashes, sugar from fruit is paired with fiber. This slows down the digestion of sugar, which is one of the reasons why VISO Energy drinks don't have anxiety-inducing energy highs or catastrophic crashes.

TLDR; Fruit sugar is inevitable when using organic fruit juices and is much healthier than table sugar.

Magnesium

I personally take magnesium supplements every night as it eliminated my restless leg syndrome and helps to lessen my morning grumpiness. Although the magnesium found in supplements is in higher doses and a completely different form than that found in healthy energy drinks, it does have its benefits.

Magnesium is clearly linked to improved outlook on life, positive mood reinforcement, healthy blood sugar levels, anti-inflammatory benefits, and improved PMS symptoms.

It's not a direct indicator that a proclaimed healthy energy drink is truly healthy, but if magnesium is found with these other beneficial ingredients, you've found a winner - and every bottle of VISO comes with 40 mg of magnesium.

Purified Water

Here's an "I never thought of that" moment for ya - where does the water used to make energy drinks come from?

I'll give you a second.

In reality, the water used in most energy drinks, and even bottled water, come from the same municipal sources that supply tap water. That's right - you're paying mega corporations to bottle water out of a faucet and sell it to you at extraordinary markups.

There are options - like VISO - that go the extra mile and use ultra purified water. Go with these options as there's less chemicals, waste, and bacteria.

Is there a healthy energy drink?

Yes, VISO Energy is a very healthy energy drink with multiple health benefits. The caffeine is sourced from organic coffee plant beans, the flavor comes from cold pressed juices from organic fruits, and all organic or natural ingredients are NON-GMO verified with 0% artificial colors / ingredients.

Other Tips

Here's some other things to consider when researching energy drinks or energy shots.

Bottling Process

Check to see if the natural energy drink you're looking at uses a heat-based pasteurization (HBP) bottling process. If it does, run the other way.

HBP alters the compounds of ingredients in the batch and completely destroys harmful and beneficial microbes - and nobody knows what these altered compounds and dead microbe remnants have on the human body. Again, no FDA regulation.

The best energy drinks use High-Pressure Processing (HPP) that uses pressure to wipe out harmful pathogens, therefore keeping the food chemistry basically intact with minimal impact on taste and nutrition. VISO exclusively uses this process.

Caffeine Source

An interesting perception you may not have thought of before is where the caffeine in energy drinks actually comes from. The answer is of course coffee plants, but where are they grown and how is it extracted?

The truth is the caffeine source of most soda, coffee energy drinks, "big energy" drinks, and so-called healthy drinks comes from one of two sources:

1: The caffeine is burned out from heated-up coffee plant beans from factories in China

2. The more common solution is for the caffeine to be synthetically produced in Chinese pharmaceutical plants

Yikes. The principle to remember here is not how much caffeine is in an energy drink, but rather the quality and source of the caffeine content.

What is the healthiest energy drink out there?

The healthiest energy drink on the market is any one of the six flavors of VISO Energy. We use a non-toxic bottling process, organic caffeine, cold pressed juices from organic fruits, NON-GMO ingredients, and have absolutely zero artificial anything.

Let's break the seal and take a look at the healthiest energy drinks in 2022.

Benefits of Healthy Energy Drinks

You didn't think I'd spend the whole post calling out fake natural energy drinks, did you? Let's end this puppy by listing the benefits to legitimate healthy energy drinks with natural sugars, organic caffeine, and zero artificial colors or ingredients.

Saves Money and the Environment

How many cups of coffee do you have to pound a day just to get through work? Ever count up the daily amount of caffeine you're drinking, how much waste it produces, or how much it costs you monthly?

By choosing a natural energy drink like VISO, you can whittle down your caffeine intake, environmental impact, and expenses. Just one bottle will get you guilt-free sky-high energy levels and improved cognitive function all day long.

Long story short, the healthiest energy drink in 2022 and beyond is VISO.

The energy boost from 300 mg of caffeine, cold pressed juices from organic fruits, NON-GMO ingredients, and zero artificial anything boost energy levels all day long and taste impressively refreshing. Your health will also benefit from the B-Vitamins, amino acid content, Vitamin C, and other nutrients naturally found in the organic fruits we use.

Simply put, there is nothing like VISO and never will be.