A recent fad that has been circulating through Hollywood for a while, and is starting to make its way to the mainstream is drinking coconut water for better hydration as a sort of more natural alternative to sugary, chemical-laden sports drinks.

Sports drinks like Gatorade purport to hydrate you better than water because of their high electrolyte content. Electrolytes are merely minerals, and they fuel our body with hydration better than ordinary water can because they help balance the hydration better in our bodies more quickly.

If you’ve ever noticed, Gatorade and other sports drinks are a great way to hydrate when you’re sick and throwing up or are losing a ton of water through diarrhea.  My husband and I drink the grape flavor and eat a ton of saltines whenever we’re sick.

Well, coconut water is advertised as having electrolytes such as magnesium and sodium in it, and these are two things the help add electrolytes to your body and add to your hydration and energy.  However, recent tests came to the conclusion that only one brand of coconut water on the market actually has the amount of these ingredients that it claims to.

Coconut water can be seen in lots of celebrity’s hands these days in the tabloids. I just saw one of Ellen Pompeo (the girl from Grey’s Anatomy) carrying a bottle of the slightly sweet water under her arm after what looked like a workout.  Other celebs have been photographed with it as well, always looking like they were coming from the gym or taking a yoga class.

However, one may not want to add sugar to their body right after a workout. If you’ve ever read about HGH production, then you may have heard that your body does not go into overdrive making HGH like it does without any sugar when you consume sugar after a workout.

For that reason, it is recommended that, although sugar is the one thing you mostly crave after working out because it’s quick expendable energy, it’s the one thing you should stay away from.  Sugar after working out actually slows down the body’s production of HGH that occurs afer physically exerting yourself.

One of the main benefits of exercising is increasing your HGH production, so if you negate that, you negate a major benefit of working out!

It used to be that whether you were young or old, if you needed an extra boost of energy, you just simply brewed yourself a cup of caffeinated coffee.  If you needed a little more boost, you’d just have a second cup or make your coffee a little stronger.

Increasingly, the younger generation is turning to energy beverages for a boost in their level of pep.  This sounds harmless enough but, to start with, the energy drinks are highly caffeinated and have a varied and sometimes bizarre combination of ingredients added to them. 

Some of the other ingredients commonly used in energy drinks include taurine, glucuronolactone, ginseng, B vitamins, guarana, gingko biloba, and milk thistle.  Guarana is one of the ingredients that causes particular worry to researchers because it also is a stimulant like caffeine being used in combination with an already highly caffeinated product.

It’s not unusual for some of these drinks to have as much caffeine as 4 colas and up to 13 teaspoons of sugar making them a poor choice for an athlete as it may actually speed up dehydration. 

A cause for concern, also, among scientists researching the effects of energy beverages is what some of these ingredients will do in combination with each other or when consumed in excess.  Another area for research is how energy drinks may effect a person over a long period of time.

Some of the energy drinks have added a few ingredients and packaged their product to look hip and cool.  Then some have gone so far that they call their product a “nutritional supplement” or make claims such as “enhances athletic performance” or “increases caloric burn and mental sharpness”. 

This kind of packaging has prompted some researchers to urge the FDA to step in and regulate the energy beverage industry.  Energy beverages are readily available in any stores and anyone can buy them, even children who want to try them and think that they are “cool.” 

Most of the concern is not for a normal healthy person who has one energy drink on occasion but rather for an athlete who continually overdoes energy drinks or people who have an underlying heart condition.  Certain individuals will be more prone to problems from heart and blood pressure from the excessively high levels of caffeine. 

Another danger of energy drinks are for people who consume them while they’re drinking alcohol and do not realize how intoxicated they are.  This may lead to a person driving while impaired yet believing they are sober.

You’ve seen a lot of the sports drinks that are sold as a good electrolyte booster, and replenishing aid to help you re energize yourself during and after a workout, and help to balance those electrolytes that are lost in the sweat your produce when working out.

I know that I will occasionally buy some Gatorade for my husband when he is sick, because he says that is the only drink that makes him feel better. However, I know that it’s a terrible idea to actually use them after working out, or even before. 

The majority of the composition of your typical energy drink or sports drink is really sugar, when you get down to the nitty gritty.  Because of this, you are actually pushing your body to NOT produce HGH, which is Human Growth Hormone.

Human Growth Hormone helps your body to produce lean muscle and helps the body to get rid of body fat, among other things.

When you put sugar or carbs into your body either during or right after a workout, you actually shut the HGH production off, and you stop producing it when it’s at peak production time, which is when the body is recovering from a rigorous workout.

It is recommended that you actually don’t drink or eat anything containing sugar or carbs for about one hour before working out, and for as long as you can stand it, after you work out.  When you do this, you sabotage your body’s own natural abilities to produce HGH, especially after you’ve stopped producing a lot.

As we age, our bodies slow way down on the HGH production, so we need as much help as we can get in this aspect of our declining youth hormones as we age. Working out and getting great, complete sleep are two of the best ways we can cump up our HGH naturally.

Taking HGH supplements also helps, but nothing can substitute the lifestyle habits that help to increase its production naturally.

We could all use more energy. Even if we’re naturally energetic, enthusiastic people by nature, there are times when we all suffer from low energy and a lack of endurance and willpower to get up off the couch and get stuff accomplished.

We’ve created a new page devoted to energy enhancing supplements so you can see what the good, bad and ugly are in the world of energy enhancing products.

So check out our page on energy boosting supplements and see what kind of boost you can get.

Unfortunately, the great tasting whey protein powder that so many people use when they are trying to build lean muscle by supplementing it with extra pure, lean protein, has an uncomfortable and often embarrassing side effect. That side effect is constipation.

You may be able to offset this side effect if you are just adding a few scoops of whey protein powder to a pure fresh fruit smoothie, since the fiber in the fruit may offset the constipation causing ingredients.

However, if you are just drinking a shake made with whey protein powder and milk or water, then you very well may be one of those sensitive individuals that has problems with passing waste once you’ve digested this constipating protein.

A good alternative is to find a simple supplement for building lean muscle that does not involve making a protein shake like whey does. Nitric oxide is a great supplement that is in pill form that is non constipating and helps your muscle to recover by supplying them with the additional strength and recovery in between workouts.

There are other types of protein powders that are not as constipating. There is soy protein powder, and other vegan based powders that do not include any diary products or animal byproducts, and those do not seem to have the constipating effect.

Also, you can always just increase your protein intake by eating egg whites, which are an excellent source of lean, fat free and low calorie protein (I think there is a whole 12 calories or something in an entire egg white, which is awesome calorie density for such a high protein food item).

A diet drug that has been on the market in Europe and was being studied for it’s potential heart and cardiovascular benefits as well as it’s cholesterol lowering capabilities, has been yanked because of fears it may be causing higher suicide rates in the groups that are using the drugs versus the placebo groups.

You see, when they study drugs, supplements, or really anything else that may impact human health or behavior, they put people in controlled groups of users and placebo groups who just think they are using a drug but really are not.

This gives them results that they can go on because the people that really are on the drug actually will report their feelings and their results honestly, with no bias, so they can gauge whether something works, and so will the placebo group.

The drug we are talking about is rimonabant, which was sold for a while in Europe under the name Acomplia, and was hailed for it’s results in accomplishing weight loss as well as reduced cholesterol levels and blood glucose levels in it’s patients. I swear I remember seeing an ad for this drug on US television, so I’m scratching my head that I’m reading it was only available in Europe.

I think it’s amazing that we can’t come up with a good weight loss drug that helps people with their cardio health as well through the simple fact that it takes weight off, one of the biggest factors in cardio health, that does not have really serious or life threatening side effects.

After all, we live in one of the most technologically and pharmaceutically advanced ages, and we can’t even come up with safe weight loss drugs? I know that everyone should just do it the old fashioned way by exercising and eating right and sheer willpower.

However, the sad fact is that our metabolisms are all screwed up from their natural points. We’ve been poisoned by years of processed foods, jumbo portions and frankenfood, and that really takes a toll not only on the metabolism, but also the chemicals that are sparked in our brains that cause cravings and cause us to eat diets that we naturally prefer, which is junk.

I know there are a few good natural supplements that I’ve found that are harmless that help reduce appetite, but it would be nice to have more serious options available for those who are truly in life threatening situations where they have to lose weight “or else”.