In the world where many diseases emerge every year, it is common for people to think about their health. This is why many companies are producing products that have potential health benefits for the consuming public.

One of the most marketed products today are healthy energy drinks that were derived from plants with soothing properties such as tea. Tea itself is considered a health drink especially for the Chinese who have been using it for its medicinal benefits roughly 4,000 years ago.

In some other countries where there is cold climate, tea is a very popular drink next to water. Basically, tea has four types: the black tea, the oolong tea, the green tea, and the white tea. Each of which is said to have benefits that can help the overall well being of a person.

Green tea’s secret

But among all these types, green tea stands out because many health drinks, beauty products, and even food make use of it. Experts say that the reason behind this demand for green tea is because it is rich catechin polyphenols—more specifically in “epigallocatechin gallate” or EGCG, which is a very powerful antioxidant.

Coming from the leaves of the plant called “camellia sinensis,” experts say that green tea is considered are superior among the rest because it processed in the very different way. Unlike other types of teas, which are obtained from fermented leaves, the leaves of green tea are steamed. This is to ensure that the EGCG will not be oxidized unlike in the fermentation process where the EGCG are converted into other forms complex compounds.

Healthy benefits

One of the reasons why people use smart healthy energy drinks and products that are derived from green tea is to maintain a healthy body that is away from diseases or illnesses. Since green tea is believed to be the healthiest among other types of teas, people consume it to veer away from certain medical conditions or to cure existing health conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular diseases, infections, tooth decay, and various impaired immune functions as well as help people to lose weight. More and more people who are at risk with cancer and even those who are already suffering from the condition are using green tea as a health drink because of its high EGCG content. Experts believed that EGCG could inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the body by killing the cells without causing harm to other cells and tissues. Many companies also use green tea in their products because EGCG itself can lower LDL cholesterol levels while inhibits “thrombosis,” the abnormal formation of blood clots in the body which are major causes cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke.

In the field of losing weight, more and more people are using green tea as a health drink because it is believed that the extract from the green tea is able to burn more calories compared to placebo or caffeine. For those who have dental concerns such as tooth decay, green tea can also help avoid this because it contains bacteria-destroying properties that kills the bacteria in plaque.

Although green tea has many proven benefits to people who use it as a health drink, experts still warn that it should be used in moderation. This is because green tea still contains caffeine, which can cause insomnia attacks to people who have low caffeine tolerance.

A lot lately about Quercetin. And the latest studies on weight loss with high antioxidant intake are increasing as well. Seems that the O2 Diet book has been taking people by storm and there are scientific studies to back it up. That’s good news for people dieting. Here’s something else, turns out that Quercetin (found in some of the more smart energy drinks) works with resveratrol another antioxidant to increase the weight loss effects.

Of particular interest is a study that combined resveratrol and quercetin to determine their effects on fat cells. In cultured cells, the combination of quercetin and resveratrol, blocked lipid (fat) accumulation by nearly 70 percent. Fat cell apoptosis or programmed cell death was increased by over 300 percent with the use of quercetin and resvertrol.

The combination may improve this effect more than using resveratrol alone, due to the synergy provided by quercetin. Resveratrol is found in red grapes (and red wine) but also in dark unprocessed cocoa. It has a high antioxidant effect that is synergistically enhanced by quercetin.

Quercetin by itself also has a real effect on free radicals. This may mean that a natural energy drink that contains both resveratrol and quercetin may be a beneficial part of a high antioxidant diet. This may make the the difference in your weight loss efforts.

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Here’s an update on a previous study of Quercetin regarding the effects on men with chronic prostatis. Ouch! Usually not many things you can do to get rid of it. This was a followup study. A previous study was an open label study that showed that bioflavonoids (Quercetin is a bioflavonoid) improved the condition.

So, to follow it up the Institute for Male Urology, Encino, California conducted double blind studies to see if Quercetin still could improve the symptoms of these disorders in a significant proportion of men when they had no idea what they were taking. A large percentage of the men taking Quercetin had an improvement of at least 25% in their conditions and quality of life. This corresponded with the previous open label study.

Their conclusion was that therapy with the bioflavonoid quercetin is well tolerated and provides significant symptomatic improvement in most men with chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

Doesn’t have much to do with energy drinks (except that you would be really slowed down if you had chronic prostatis) but it is one more positive study of Quercetin. Which seems to be showing a lot of promise in the wellness field. Besides being and ingredient in healthy smart energy drinks Quercetin is found naturally in some fruits and veggies.

BTW, if you’re not aware of Chronic bacterial prostatitis, it is the swelling and irritation (inflammation) of the prostate gland that develops slowly and continues for a long period of time. It is a chronic infection of the prostate gland. I wonder how other antioxidant foods, such as cacao would do with that sort of inflammation.

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Here’s an interesting study on Quercetin, an ingredient starting to show up in quality healthy energy drinks. Quercetin was used in this study to see if it helped people to not catch influenza.

It’s fairly commonly known that after you workout your body can be more susceptible to infection. You may be more prone to get upper respiratory infections after the stress of exercise. Quercetin, a flavonoid present in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, has been investigated for its antiviral activity. Cell culture studies have shown that Quercetin can reduce infectivity of target cells and replication against a wide variety of respiratory viruses, including HSV-1 and HSV-2, adenoviruses, coronavirus, parainfluenza virus type 3, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome. It has recently been reported that quercetin feedings can reduce the chance of getting any of these following 3 days of exhaustive cycling exercise in athletes.

This study was on the effects of Quercetin on the chance of infection following exercise stress in a controlled experimental viral  model.

Quercetin was used because of its documented widespread health benefits, which include antiviral activity, abundance in the diet, and reported lack of side effects when used as a dietary supplement or food additive such as in smart energy drinks.

What they basically did (and this is the non-scientific explanation) was take mice, run them for several days on a treadmill, give them Quercetin or a placebo treatment, then expose them to the virus and check to see when or if they caught it and how long it took before they died or got sick. You get the idea.

What happened is first they confirmed that you are more likely to get sick after lots of exercise. They also discovered that when fed Quercetin you were less likely to get sick and less likely to die. If the mice did get sick the body was able to fight it longer when they had Quercetin in their system. In fact, the mice that were fed Quercetin actually had the same results as the mice that did not get stressed at all. Big clue here!

This study needs more followup, of course, and clinical trials and very few of us work out on a treadmill for three days straight. But it is interesting that the flavonol, Quercetin, helped the body fight off the flu under amazing stress. Imagine what it could do for your body when you are exercising!

Quercetin is starting to get more and more research around it for it’s disease fighting qualities. Make sure it is in your energy drink! If this translates into clinical data it may lead to an important nutritional strategy to decrease the risk of infection, which can be a problem in athletes and military personnel, who are often exposed to combinations of severe physical, psychological, and environmental stress.

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Ancient Chinese have long believed in the benefits of drinking natural smart health drinks to improve one’s health disposition. Tea has been drunk for at least 4,000 years. While coffee has been around for centuries. Both have immense smart benefits for health improvement.

Tea was first discovered in China in 2737 B.C. According to Chinese records, the emperor would only drink water which was boiled to make sure that it was indeed clean. During a trip, a servant boiled water and a dried leaf fell on the boiling water. It turned the water brown but was still served to the emperor. The emperor drank the concoction and found it very refreshing.

Coffee, on the other hand, has can be traced as early as the 9th century. Coffee was largely cultivated in Ethiopia. Soon, the Arabs started trading it, bringing it to northern Africa where it was mass-cultivated. After being popular in Africa, it started to enter Indian and European Markets.

Europe and Asia pioneered smart energy drinks. In 1901, the first energy drink was released in Scotland called Im-Bru. While in Japan, their healthy energy drinks can be traced as early as 1960s. Although they cite that there are already some attempts in mixing different minerals with water before World War II they released Lipovitan in early 1960s. South Korea also produced “genki drinks” which are also energy drinks.

In 1929, Lucozade Energy was used as a hospital drink in the United Kingdom. This drink was primarily for helping the speedy recovery of hospital patients. In the 1980s, this drink was commercially released as an energy drink meant to replace lost energy.

The worldwide leading energy drink, Red Bull, was created and marketed by an Austrian entrepreneur. This leading energy drink was created in Europe. It was based on a Thai drink called Krating Daeng, which is also based on Lipovitan. Red Bull entered the United States market in 1997, and currently the dominant brand. It’s approximate market share is as big as 47 percent.

For smart sports drinks, the first one created was for the purpose of improving the performance of athletes and sports star, was for the Florida Gators. That is why the first product, which was released during 1960s, was called Gatorade. The main purpose of this drink was to lengthen performance levels and to aid hydration of athletes.

As early as 1985, the United States have started to introduce energy drinks. They had the Jolt Cola. While in 1995, PepsiCo launched the Josta. This was the first energy drink made by a leading United States beverage company.

Since then, energy drinks have started to gain fair market share and popularity. More and more companies are taking advantage of such popularity and high demand. Most people who consume energy drinks are within the range of 13 to 35 years old. Young adult and male drinkers comprise 65 percent of the target market. Since 2001, the increase of the energy drink market has been increasing by 50 percent every year. Since this market is relatively new, with 20 years under its belt, there is still much hype about it. Most of these energy drinks could hardly be called smart, less healthy.

More and more people seek out energy drinks and new developments. People are trying to be heath conscious amidst all the pressure of a high and fast paced life. With the demand increasing, there are unlimited possibilities. We are trying to discover ways in fitting all the nutrients and more vitamins and minerals that we can have in just one gulp. Health can be just in one drink after all.

The latest developments in smart energy drinks are including no chemical caffeine and no chemical names you can’t pronounce; using real low glycemic sugars instead of chemical sugar substitutes or refined sugars; using real super foods to add antioxidants; adding fiber; using energy blends that include quercetin, theobromine, ginseng, yerba mate, guarana; avoiding artificial carbonation.

Ginseng is a popular ingredient in energy drinks. But why?

There have been hundreds of studies done with the energy drink ingredient, ginseng. Clinical studies have showed that ginseng use was linked to increased alertness, concentration, visual and motor coordination, improved performance an higher libido. All qualities that are very desirable. There are studies that show soldiers who ran consistently faster than soldiers ingesting a placebo. There are even studies that show that factory workers had fewer sick days if they were taking ginseng regularly.

Ginseng is a slow growing root that is considered to be an adaptogen. An adaptogen is a natural herb product that can increase the body’s resistance to stress, trauma, anxiety or fatigue. All adaptogens contain antioxidants. You’ve probably heard about all the buzz about antioxidants, if not, keep tuned in here, we will cover some of that on this website.

So as an antioxidant adaptogen, ginseng may reduce fatigue, and promote physical endurance. Ginseng could also work to protect the body against disease. Along with more resistance to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and various infections, studies and scientific literature on ginseng claim that it can improve memory, increase fertility, protect the liver against many toxins, and protect the body from radiation.

You may want to check out more ginseng studies on your own. Either way it seems like ginseng reduces stress, and promotes mental energy and physical energy. Ginseng is a smart choice to look for in a healthy energy drink.

In a recent study, Quercetin was found to boost energy, looking at endurance capacity and maximum oxygen capacity.

We said it here before, that you were going to see more about Quercetin over the coming year, and we’ll say it again. This study from the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, one of the first to look at Quercetin for it’s energy boosting effects. This study, which was partially funded by the Department of Defense showed that the fatigue fighting properties and health properties of Quercetin could have uses for not only athletes or soldiers, but your average adult who deals with stress and lack of energy every day.

Quercetin is found naturally in various fruit skins, like berries, grapes, red apples and red onions. It is also now added in a few healthy energy drinks. This study seems to show that the antioxidant qualities of Quercetin seem to boost the immune system and increase mitochondria in the brain and muscles (that’s great news for anyone who thinks they are too tired to exercise).

It’s definitely not a magic bullet, but one more piece to keep people active so they can benefit from exercise. If you already exercise, this may help you to keep it up longer.

One thing not really mentioned in the study, but probably deserving of more study is how Quercetin also has anti-inflammatory properties which might also work to help athletes, soldiers, and people like us to recover faster from workouts.

This study had significant statistical effects and the team has gotten a grant to study Quercetin and the effects on colon cancer.  You’ll see more of the cancer studies coming out over the years, there are studies happening now with Quercetin and the effects on breast cancer.

Have your own clinical trial. Try a smart energy drink with Quercetin for two weeks while working out and keep track of how you are doing. Try drinking two a day once in the morning and once again in the afternoon. After two weeks let me know how you did in the comments below.

Not sure about which energy drink has the right qualities or how to get it, comment below and we’ll send you more info.