Yerba Mate – Chef V's Blog

Another afternoon workday, another energy crash. It’s 3 PM and you finished lunch a couple hours ago but you’re hungry and tired and there’s a ton of work to finish before you call it a day. If you don’t want to rely on coffee for an energy boost, should you reach for a bar or energy drink? Here’s Chef V’s take…

energy drink

If you’re training for an Ironman/Ironwoman, go for it, have an energy bar because you’re going to need it. But for most people, relying on energy bars, meal replacement bars, protein bars and energy drinks are false friends.

I’ll explain what I mean by that. After you eat a bar or have an energy drink, you might feel like you can power through for the rest of the day. But as soon as the effects of the sugar wear off—and most bars have tons of sugar—what goes up must come down. In other words, you end up having an energy crash.

So how much sugar is in the typical energy bar, even those that make consumers believe they’re healthy because they’re labeled as “organic” “all-natural” or “preservative-free” and “gluten-free.”

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 23 top-selling energy bars have more sugar than a regular-sized Snickers! And get this … all 23 bars contain over 20 grams of sugar. Moreover, some bars contain 100 percent or close to 100 percent of the suggested maximum daily amount of sugar, which is:

24 grams for women
36 grams for men

As for relying on energy/sports drinks to rely on a pick-me-up so you have the energy to go to the gym after work, well, it’s no different. In fact, according to SF Gate, an eight-ounce serving of the average sports drink contains between 24 and 29 grams of sugar. That’s over 2 rounded tablespoons of sugar per serving. To make matters worse, many people don’t just drink an 8-ounce serving. They have an entire 16-ounce or 32-ounce serving.

And it doesn’t take a certified nutritional therapist like yours truly to tell you that all that sugar is bad for you. Bad for your waistline. Bad for your pancreas. Bad for your teeth. Bad for mood stability, blood sugar levels and everything else.

Healthy Alternatives To Bars and Energy Drinks

Instead of bars and energy drinks, what can you have to power through those last few hours of the workday before you gotta go home and cook dinner, take care of the kids and everything else?

Here’s some options:

Eat a bigger lunch

Many people make the mistake of not eating enough at lunch. I’m sorry, but a sandwich might be quick and tasty but 2 slices of bread with a turkey slice, a small tomato and iceberg lettuce is not a balanced meal.

Instead, eat a European-style lunch. In Europe, lunch is typically the biggest meal of the day. Fill your plate up with a healthy grain like wild rice, quinoa, whole-wheat couscous with some lean protein (fish or chicken) and some avocado to get those healthy fats. If you’re eating a salad for lunch, make sure there’s enough protein and healthy fats to fill you up until dinner.

After lunch, take a 5-10 minute walk to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

Extra Serving of Green Drink

My secret to having a kick-ass morning is drinking a tall glass of lemon water first thing, followed 30 minutes later by an 8-ounce serving of Green Drink.

If you follow this ritual every day and eat a substantial lunch, you should have steady energy in the afternoon. But if not, try having an extra serving of Green Drink and a healthy snack like berries and nuts. You won’t feel a jolt of energy like you would from drinking Jolt cola, but you should feel energetically stable.

Chef V’s Low-Sugar Electrolyte Drink

If you’re addicted to energy and sports drinks, I can wean you off with a healthier alternative. In case you missed this recipe in my article about electrolytes,
here’s how you can easily and quickly make a drink that’ll give you some pep in your step:

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut water
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange or mandarin
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp coconut sugar

Method:

Blend in a blender. Serve cold. Keep for up to 2 days in the fridge.

Yerba Mate and other natural energy drinks

Finally, if you can’t quit caffeine altogether, you can drink Yerba Mate, which contains about half the amount of caffeine as coffee but is all-natural and rich in nutrients.

You can learn more about Yerba Mate and a few other alternatives to sports-and-energy drinks here.

Here’s to fueling your day the healthy way!

Until next time,

Veronica “V” Wheat,
Founder, ChefV.com

Thanksgiving food coma

These 5 Natural Energy Drinks Will Snap You Out Of A Thanksgiving Food Coma

Did you overdo it on the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing? If the huge holiday meal made you feel like a hibernating bear, use one of these best, natural energy drinks. Sorry, coffee’s not on the list.

I was curious exactly how much eating a typical Thanksgiving meal can spike blood sugar levels. So I turned to the foremost expert on that kind of info: Dr. Google.

But Dr. Google disappointed. You see, I was looking for a specific number expressed in mg/dL or mmol/L, the same measurements displayed in an electric glucose meter. But I couldn’t find a specific number like after eating a Thanksgiving meal, your blood sugar spikes from 90 to 170 mg/dl two hours after feasting.

On page 1 of my search query, though, I clicked an article that had some glaring Thanksgiving meal disinformation. Referring to eating turkey, the article said, “Naturally high in protein and when paired with carbohydrates and sugar, [turkey] will help prevent spikes in blood sugar and keep you feeling satiated.”

I call BS on that. And the reason why is that eating a large amount of protein in one sitting can also spike your blood sugar. That’s definitely one reason people fall into food comas after the holiday meal. So it got me thinking…

What’s the best natural drink to feel more energetic after having a large meal? I came up with my top 5. Would you like to hear them?

Here goes…

Veronica with GD and TGD

#1 Green Veggie Juice

Of course my Organic Green Drink or Tropical Green Drink top this list—and not just for the sake of a shameless promotional plug. Now, I wouldn’t necessarily have a Green Drink right after a heavy meal. But if you’re still dragging hours later or the next morning, there’s nothing better.

The 7 leafy green vegetables in Organic Green Drink—2 types of kale, collard greens, dandelion, green leaf lettuce, parsley, chard, and a tiny bit of apple—almost instantly flood your cells with nutrients. Your cells get charged up and bam! … you feel alert and back to balance.

When you eat a huge meal, your digestive system has to expend a lot of energy in order to break food down. Your digestive enzymes, which are specialized proteins that break food into amino acids, get overworked and that’s why food sits like a brick in your stomach.

But when you have a serving of Green Drink, the cold-blending process used to make the juice essentially predigests the veggies for you. In this way, your digestive system uptakes the nutrients without working very hard.

My “cure” for a Thanksgiving/holiday food coma is to wake up the next day and drink a tall glass of water with fresh squeezed lemon. Wait 30 minutes and then have an 8 oz. serving of Organic Green Drink to flood your cells and feel like you’re back to Earth and ready to conquer the day. Try to eat light the rest of the day.

yerba mate

#2 Yerba Mate

A couple drinks on this list are caffeinated but they don’t contain nearly as much caffeine as coffee does. Plus, they’re alkaline on the pH scale, not acidic like coffee.

Yerba Mate is an herbal drink that’s super popular in Argentina, Uruguay and some parts of Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia. Related to the holly tree, yerba mate drinking is somewhat of a religious experience for South Americans. In the rest of the world, people have their ritual of drinking a cup of coffee.

But in South America, yerba mate is an all-day affair. And you don’t just drink yerba mate out of a coffee or tea mug. In South America, you drink it out of a silver straw called a bombilla, which is placed in a gourd, which is the namesake mate.

Yerba mate is high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Containing 85 mg of caffeine—less than half of a typical American serving of coffee—it may give you a buzz but you likely won’t feel anxious or jittery.

matcha tea

#3 Matcha Tea

Another lightly caffeinated healthy beverage on my list, matcha tea differs from regular tea that comes in loose-leaf bags. Matcha is powdered whole-leaf tea and it’s much more concentrated than tea bags. And because it contains mostly every part of the tea leaf, matcha has more antioxidants than regular green tea bags.

One teaspoon serving of matcha powder contains about 70 mg of caffeine. Like yerba mate, that’s much lower than a cup of coffee.

Another benefit of matcha is that it contains the polyphenol antioxidant EGCG. This super nutrient benefits your gut health and immune system and helps prevent premature aging. Plus, it will give you an energy boost if you can’t get off the couch after Thanksgiving dinner.

guarana

#4 Guarana

Known as the cocoa of Brazil, guarana is the key ingredient in the name-brand unhealthy energy drinks you know so well. Is guarana a synthetic energy booster, a legal speed if you will? On the contrary, guarana is a fruit from South America but it packs an energetic punch especially when paired with the added caffeine in convenience-store energy drinks.

In fact, ounce for ounce, guarana contains more caffeine than coffee. However, the health advantage to it is that the tannins in them cause the caffeine to be released more slowly than coffee.

If you’re sensitive to guarana, don’t drink it at night. And make sure you choose a natural drink that doesn’t contain added sugars or added caffeine.

dandelion root

#5 Dandelion Root Tea

This one’s a paradox. That’s because on one hand, dandelion root tea is the perfect substitute for coffee. But on the other hand, it is caffeine-free. So why should you consider drinking it if you’re hungover from the Thanksgiving meal? And for the longer term, if you’re thinking about eliminating coffee, why should you drink it if it won’t get you buzzed?

The simple reason is that dandelion tea is chock-full of B vitamins. B vitamins directly impact our energy levels. But more than that, the taste of dandelion root tea resembles regular coffee. So for those people who enjoy the ritual of tasting freshly-brewed coffee in the morning, dandelion tea replicates the experience.

Well, I hope I’ve given you some inspo to drink healthier energy drinks. And if you struggle to get enough leafy veggies in your diet, let me help you drink them down. Chef V delivers Organic Green Drinks throughout most of the USA. Learn more…

Tag: Yerba Mate

Chef V’s Spin On Energy Drinks and Protein Bars

Thanksgiving Food Coma? 5 Natural Drinks to Snap Out of It