Energy drinks are a touchy subject. They carry with them the air of a mountain-dew’d teenager.
However, caffeine is not inherently bad for you and many of the other ingredients in energy drinks aren’t either. The two primary things in energy drink sthat make them unhealthy for you are:
- Sugar
- Artificial Sweetenrs
- Other Junk Fillers
So. We’re not going to lecture you and tell you to never touch an energy drink again – but if you do – you should try to avoid ones that have these types of things in it.
So – let’s not waste any more time. Let’s get to it.
The Best Healthy Energy Drinks – Ranked
Here’s our picks of the healthiest energy drinks on the market.
1 – Impossible Energy
Impossible Energy is the healthiest energy drink on the market. With zero sugar or artificial sweeteners, this steers clear of most of our concerns about fillers in energy drinks.
With l-theanine and tyrosine in the mix – even with 200mg of caffeine – you won’t feel a crash and should have a long-sustained feeling of energy throughout it’s use.
But it’s not just caffine – Impossible Energy adds a ton of nootropics to the mix so you can have sustained energy & focus without any of the crash.
We really like that they’re transparent with the formula and state all the dosages on it so you know exactly whats in it. In fact – here’s the formula:
Primary Ingredients
- 1g – Taurine
- 500mg – L-Carnitine
- 200mg – Caffeine
- 150mg – L-Tyrosine
- 50mg – L-Theanine
LMNT
LMNT is not a caffeinated product, but it will keep you more hydrated. One of the primary feelings of lethargy is just simple dehydration.
While LMNT has a wide array of flavors – we highly recommend sticking to the fruit ones. These taste amazing without any after taste – and will do a ton to get you rehydrated – especially after a hot-summer day.
Be warned – LMNT is salty AF (that’s in their tagline afterline). However, salt isn’t something to be scared of. By properly rehydrating with LMNT you can balance your electrolytes and make sure you’re operating efficiently at the cellular level.
LMNT is the best electrolyte product on the market. Packed with salt so you can replenish what you lose during a workout - it's also great if you're keto, fasting or just need something tasty to drink - without the calories.
Caveman Coffee
Not a standard energy drink – Caveman Coffee does contain 200mg of caffeine and zero sugar. If you’re looking for a boost and love your coffee, take a look at Caveman. They have the best cold brew on the market and if you’re down to ditch the artificial sweeteners, this is one of the best options you can have.
Pro tip: add whey protein to the mix for even better macros. I will often add two scoops of vanilla whey protein and drink 2 of these to start my day. It’s an incredible way to down 400mg and nearly 100g of protein before noon.
Want to be productive AF and get a jump start on your protein? There you go.
Jocko Fuel
Honestly, we put this here because Jocko scares us. The flavoring on some of these is questionable, but we love the fact that they’re clean energy with natural sweeteners. We’re not going to say anything else, because we don’t need Jocko showing up outside our door.
Nocco
Nocco stands for the “no carbs company” and while we like some of their products (primarily from a concept for the keto or low carb lifestyles – the main issue with NOCCO (in our opinion) is the flavoring – but that’s a subjective thing and one of the tradeoffs for them not using sucarlose. You win some, you lose some I guess.
Not Healthy or Not Good Energy Drinks
PRIME Energy
Founded by Logan Paul – PRIME is not just an overrated energy performance profile, but they’re now facing accusations of having huge amounts of “forever chemicals” in their products and are facing a lawsuit. On your next grocery trip – go ahead and skip Prime. It’s not quite ready for Prime time after all.
Celsius
Honestly – we’ll give it to Celsius – not onlyhave they turned their brand around, but the drinks they make are pretty tasty. Unfortunately – they’re just mostly caffeine and sucralose – and that’s it. Not a lot else in the product. If you want a sugar free drink – you can have it – sure – but it’s not going to drive athletic performance and doesn’t have any nootropics to help keep you mentally on edge.
C4 Energy
C4 falls into the same issue as the others on this list. It’s low in sugar, but uses sucralose as a sweetener – which is a bummer. Also, while we understand why the C4 pre-workout has beta-alanine, having it in an energy drink does the opposite of what we want. Instead of leading to a calm focus, this feels more jittery than any other product on the list.
Red Bull
Red Bull is the king of the energy drinks, but unfortunately, it’s packed with sugar. A 12oz can has 34g of sugar. Woof. They do epic stuff, so we like that – but they need to clean up the nutritionals on the can before we can recommend them too much.
Sugar Free Red Bull
Slightly better – but uses sucralose still. Too bad. For as long as Red Bull has been around, it’d be interesting to see them innovate on the core product a little bit more.
Reign
Reign probably has the best liquid taste & performance matrix of all the ones listed in this category. Unfortunately – they use sucralose as well. If you really don’t care about that – I think they’re probably the winner in this category, but they could stand to expand the amount of flavors they carry – maybe their weakest point.
Monster
Monster is not healthy. They don’t even try to market it like that. So it’s not really worth diving in here. 27g of sugar – yikes! Miss me on that one.
Other Energy Drinks to Avoid
- Bang
- Alani Nu
- 5 Hour Energy
- Up Time
- 3D Energy Drinks
- Lucky Energy Drink
The Graveyard
Runa Energy Drinks – We loved these, but they have been discontinued.
