Energy Drinks

Before I start, I PROMISE I'll have the veggie recipes up this afternoon. We're gunna get a new shipment in of produce today but for now, I can safely tell you I'll have a collard green recipe, a beet recipe and a an onion recipe that will all blow your socks off.


Now on to my morning rant about my personal pet peeves about the food bank.



My biggest pet peeve in the food bank: When I see clients with energy drinks. Not only are they terrible for you, but they're a waste of money! I've seen people come into the food bank drinking one, pull another one out of their purse, then drink that one!

Let's do the math.


The drinks are ~$2 a piece. If you drink 2 in front of me, I can only assume you have one more during the day sometime. So. ~$6 a day. Every day. That's ~$42 a week, ~$168 a month, ~$2,016 a YEAR.


List of ingredients for Monster Energy Drink (regular, not the sugar free kind):
Carbonated water, Sucralose (sugar), Glucose (sugar), Citric acid, Natural flavors (Natural monster flavor???), Taurine (natural in animals and humans, but synthetically made), Sodium citrate (the salt that's in citric acid), Color added (whatever that means), Panax ginseng (an Asian aphrodisiac and stimulant), Root extract (which root, we'll never know), L-carnitine (used to treat heart, kidney diseases and male infertility), Caffeine (CNS stimulant), Sorbic acid (food preservative), Benzoic acid (a salty food preservative), Niacinamide (part of the Vit B group), Sodium chloride (table salt), Glucuronolactone (connective tissue found in plant gums), Inositol (sugar with half the sugary taste of sucrose, which is table sugar), Guarana seed extract (stimulant), Pyridoxine (Vit B6),  Hydrochloride (hydrochloric acid, like the stuff you use in chem class), Sucralose (more sugar!?), Riboflavin (essential vitamin) , Maltodextrin (corn), Cyanocobalamin (Vit B12). 






So you're paying for a company to fill you up with sugar, chemicals, and some stuff that actually is good for you. But here's the thing, the amount of "healthy" things in there is next to nothing. 


If you want to have some vitamins, eat something natural. Eat a salad. Eat some meat. Drink a homemade smoothie. Eat an apple or some cherries! 


Just do something other than drink these nasty things. And whatever you do, don't bring them into the food bank or I will lecture you until you throw it out. If you want something to drink, I'll get you some water or orange juice.