I could use a major energy boost to get through the "First Day Back From Vacation." (In truth, more like Second Day Back -- does anyone leave for a week anymore without checking e-mail or at least putting in a couple hours the night before you plunge back in? But I digress...)
After seven days of bike riding, swimming, eating seafood and breathing the salt air on Cape Cod, the last thing I want to do is grab a caffeine-spiked, sugar- or Nutrasweet-filled drink that will forcefully throw me back into the "stay at my desk and crank out the copy while stress eating" rut.
On Cape Cod, the words "energy drink" didn't cross my mind. Indeed, I didn't feel right ordering the couple diet sodas I had. The rest of the family drank water at nearly every meal. I felt I was undoing what the broiled fish, sun and exercise were accomplishing.
The point of this ramble? I just wrote up a news report on Mintel's analysis of the newest energy drinks. The upshot: Energy drinks still aren't heavy on nutritional value, unless you count their healthy profit margins.
I wonder if more natural ingredient, vitamin enhanced (but not calorie packed) choices would rejuvenate energy drink sales. Category sales are expected to grow a scant 1.5 percent this year, according to Mintel. Could such choices also resurrect the dormant soda category?
We've already seen some inching away from corn syrup (sugar-based Pepsi Throwback tastes good. Period.) and the soda giants are moving toward much greater use of natural sweeteners, like stevia.I'm not health nut, but I'll drink (an enhanced bottled water for now) to that.
-- Barb Grondin Francella
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