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Check the ingredients of supplements

Brittney Glock
Staff Photo |

Many of my clients ask me about a particular popular supplement company, whose name I won’t mention. This company seems to think that world-class nutrition starts with artificial sweeteners. Yes, people may be experiencing some unsustainable benefits such as temporary weight loss and short-term artificial energy. But at what cost?

Just the terms “sugar-free” and “low-calorie” raise a red flag in my mind.

The product list on “popular supplement company’s” website lists the “key” ingredients, but it is by no means a full list, which made me think they had something to hide. If they didn’t, why wouldn’t it just be there?



It turns out they have a lot to hide. That is, if they want to continue advertising this garbage as healthy.

I decided to do some ingredient research on one popular supplement pre-workout drink, and I finally did find it. In a small tab under the “key ingredients” is “all ingredients.” You click the tiny button to the left and it will reveal the actual, comprehensive list, revealing the top offenders: “natural and artificial flavors, sucralose.”



Sucralose is just the generic name for Splenda, a toxic artificial sweetener. Take sugar (often derived from GMO sugar beets), process it with chlorine, and voila: sucralose. It was actually originally created as an insecticide, but once chemists discovered that it was so sweet, they abandoned the insecticide idea and marketed this chemical as a healthy sugar alternative. Seriously? Why? Because the diet and weight loss industry is way more profitable than the pest-control industry.

Sucralose has been downgraded from “safe” to “caution” with the Center for Science in the Public Interest in the last year because of its link to leukemia.

I wasn’t shocked to find that every one of the protein powders offered by the same company also contained artificial flavors and sucralose.

Why would we want our clients putting these things into their bodies? Aren’t we trying to promoting a healthy lifestyle?

Here is the solution:

Eat food, real food. Not processed, packaged, multi-level-marketed chemicals. This means organic, local if possible, fruits and vegetables, pastured bird products, grass-fed red meats, dairy from grass-fed cows. When you fuel your body with the things that it was naturally designed to run on, it functions properly and you stay trim. In the same way that a gasoline vehicle will not function well on diesel, your body will not run well when you put the wrong stuff in it.

The chemicals found in these products may yield short-term benefits like energy and weight loss, but the long-term effects of consuming these things can truly be devastating to one’s health.

If you need an energy boost in the morning try lemon water, chia seeds, tea or even coffee. Also consider why you are lacking in energy. This is often because of a mineral or vitamin deficiency that can be healed through proper diet and sleep rather than suppressing the symptoms with a powdered chemical drink.

Britt Glock is a personal trainer and a sports nutrition specialist at Midland Fitness.


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