Episode 87: Is Celsius Worse than Other Energy Drinks?
Watch on YouTube
Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss the popular energy drink, CELSIUS. You may have heard of this drink because of the rage around its pre-workout abilities or the recent class action lawsuit that came to light after viral TikTok videos accused the drink of sending them to the hospital. The girls break down the research backing up CELSIUS’s “metabolism boosting” and “fat burning” claims. What’re the risks of energy drinks? Can they fit into an all-foods-fit lifestyle? Tune in to find out.
The Scoop on Supplements episode
-
0:33
Hello everybody welcome back to a new episode of the upbeat dietitians podcast
0:39
hello everyone today we are talking about the very trendy yet also
0:45
controversial controversial recently energy drink Celsius this has become all
0:52
the rage over probably the past like year or maybe greater than a year
0:58
but I think recently as well to subscribe it's been more in the media but it's been around for a while yes
1:05
yes but essentially it's an energy drink whites more recently coming up is there
1:10
were some class action lawsuit against it and we kind of want to talk about
1:17
like what is causing the lawsuit should we avoid Celsius and
1:22
other energy drinks and what do you need to know about this energy drink so yeah
1:28
let's get into it first off this is not a question on here but I want to ask you have you ever had Celsius
1:35
I don't know Ross likes energy drinks in general which I'm like you're married to
1:41
a dietitian what are you doing kind of thing but he doesn't do them all the time which we'll describe kind of spoiler as always
1:47
everything in moderation you know that whole spiel um so
1:52
I like to try new things it's kind of my thing to like try new things at the grocery store so once in a while if I
1:59
see like a really fun flavor I like to try stuff but I I don't like energy drinks in general like I don't
2:05
I probably had five in my entire life to answer your question and I don't think I've had Celsius I've had some bangs
2:13
um Ross likes like the Mountain Dew energy drinks they have those these days and they always have like new flavors
2:19
coming out I feel like those would be good he got one yesterday it was like a pitch black was what it was called and that was
2:25
decent um I think it was like grapey Flavor Maybe I don't know
2:31
so I don't think I've had Celsius though have you I have not I think I've only had
2:37
monster and Aulani oh I like love Alani only for the taste well I was looking on
2:45
Celsius site and they have some fun looking flavors too like it's a real bummer they don't just have these flavors and like a juice or like a
2:52
sparkly water I would love that I know and yes they should expand out but
2:58
anyway we're not here to talk about we're not here to give free marketing advice yeah we're here to talk about
3:05
what is in the Celsius drinks so
3:11
there are are a variety they have expanded out as we're talking about like they need to expand out they have
3:16
expanding now they have kind of like five most popular ones and this is the
3:22
Celsius original the Celsius Stevia which you could guess by the name incorporates Stevia as it's
3:30
sweetness or sweetener alternative sugar alternative yeah they use soup Grillo so
3:36
I'm pretty sure in the original that's that sounds right there is Celsius heat which I don't know much
3:42
about that we won't go into it a whole lot today but it has even more fat burning properties
3:49
okay all right yeah yeah yeah there is Celsius BCAAs which is
3:56
we can figure that one out they probably add some type of PCA supplement to it I
4:02
assume or maybe they don't and they could also lie no the world's their oyster
4:07
and then there's Celsius on the go which that one just cracks me up because they're all like in cans all right like
4:13
you can't just take a can with you yeah so we're gonna Focus primarily on
4:19
Celsius original because this is the most popular one and if you've seen a Celsius it's probably most likely this
4:25
one and it's a it's like primarily advertised to
4:31
consume before a workout to quote accelerate metabolism and burn body fat
4:37
unquote yeah those are the two claims that are on every can and they say it's
4:43
clinically proven that these claims are true um they have the science that they get
4:50
these claims from listed so I'll link that below so you guys can see it and if you want to read the science yourself you can
4:56
generally speaking though I want to kind of break this science down a little bit um there's five or six studies they link
5:02
and they like get their claims from and the biggest red flag first of all is that
5:08
not surprisingly to either of us maybe not you either Celsius funded
5:14
most of these studies and not all of them so obviously interest yep a little
5:20
bit but what they say is that the research doesn't lie all of the studies show that Celsius has thermogenic
5:26
properties which help make it one of the most advanced energy drinks on the market so all of these studies in some capacity
5:33
talk about um the Celsius metabolic response kind of
5:39
like what happens to our body and our metabolism when we drink these things but the science is pretty weak TBH
5:46
they're not super duper great studies I've got a few different bullet points here on why that's the case I mean first
5:52
of all most of them have very small sample sizes it's like six or ten people over a short period of
5:59
time yikes yikes the one I'm quoting specifically right here says this but I'm sure others said
6:05
something of a similar effect um quote they said the effects we observed on metabolic rate are sustained and not
6:12
attenuated during chronic use it is our understanding that these types of studies are currently being planned by other research groups therefore the
6:19
long-term safety and efficacy of Celsius remains to be demonstrated so basically it's done over a short period we don't
6:25
know the long-term effects of drinking these drinks and as we'll describe later when we get into the cons or the potential risks
6:32
um drinking these and large quantities over a long time may not be recommended
6:39
yeah so they covered that but probably in like
6:45
advertising they can leave that out that's something very common a lot of companies will do is they'll like quote
6:52
research but only focus on one part of it so that's why
6:57
we gotta fact check them exactly um another con with the studies is
7:03
depending on what their goals were with the study the
7:09
what's it called like what they do in the study um also involved following a
7:14
professional exercise routine and there were typically some Diet changes as well so we have a correlation between like
7:22
improved thermogenic effects with these energy drinks but that was because they were likely alongside exercise routines
7:28
and diet changes and one study even said to prove that point even further this current study
7:36
discovered that when not combined with exercise the same energy drink as studied by Dabo at all and Roberts at
7:43
all yielded no appreciable appreciable effect on body fat or composition so
7:48
this one like literally said like there were no changes in body fat Compass body fat or composition yeah and it's tough
7:56
when there were that many moving Pieces Just Like research 101 when there are
8:02
multiple changing factors in that experimental group
8:07
it that correlation does not mean causation that's a classic science
8:13
quote is just because it there's something happening does not mean
8:18
that one thing is causing it that's one that we discuss almost every single day whether I'm a podcast or not about like
8:26
weight loss how everyone says weight loss causes this problem when we have very little evidence it's just that it's
8:32
usually weight loss May correlate with type 2 diabetes for example we cannot say that wait are you
8:38
talking about weight gain yes weight gain yeah sorry or like being at a certain BMI I guess is a better way
8:43
to put it um like being in an obese BMI which we'll link that below our thoughts on BMI
8:49
um like when they say that high BMI causes diabetes like we can't say that it's
8:54
maybe correlated but people and small bodies can also get diabetes as well yes but we're not here so today no right
9:03
off the bat the research is looking a little testy from multiple standpoints
9:10
additionally this like metabolic acceleration in quotes set
9:16
phrase will be in like such small amounts when you're drinking the energy drink that
9:22
it's not placing enough emphasis like in your goal to quote boost in metabolism or
9:28
burn body fat number one best way to boost metabolism is to eat
9:35
and number one best way to burn body fat is to like eat and move your body
9:41
yeah it's and maybe I don't I don't know the actual like nutritional breakdown of
9:48
Celsius that well like if there are any like carbs in it or anything very little the whole thing is like it's low calorie
9:54
it's got like 10 calories no carbs what are the calories come from
10:00
then maybe like some BCAAs in there oh probably that
10:06
but the label says no protein no carbs no fat but with the rounding rules we have to assume there's a little bit of
10:12
at least one of those in there okay well that's yeah two grams fat two grams carb no
10:20
carb low um yeah but like
10:25
if you drink Celsius and you're not moving you're sedentary you don't really
10:31
move much you don't eat you skip meals you aren't eating enough protein in the
10:37
first place you aren't sleeping we just talked about sleep actually on this last episode
10:42
you're not managing your stress Celsius is not going to be this all-in-one like
10:48
fixing solution there's a lot of other lifestyle habits that we have to work on
10:53
to support our overall health yeah we should link the metabolism
11:00
episode below because that's what we're really talking about here like when it comes to boosting your metabolism and
11:05
what that really means we discussed in the episode but basically what we're saying is like
11:11
even if these drinks do increase metabolic rate a certain amount it's
11:16
likely so small and that should not be your focus if like Emily said you're not sleeping you're not getting enough
11:22
protein you're not eating enough in general you're not moving your body very much those would be much better places
11:27
to put your time and energy instead of just chugging Celsius in order to boost your metabolism and burn body fat
11:34
foreign
11:41
Celsius I want to bring up this next let's talk about the like the label and what's actually in it we already talked
11:47
about it when I asked about like are there carbs in this or anything but let's talk about maybe some like
11:53
ingredients that we want to note that aren't carbs so there are a lot of water
11:58
soluble vitamins in Celsius water-soluble vitamins and just like
12:04
nutrition in general is you can only metabolize or like your body can only absorb so much at a time there's in like
12:11
you like give it like 300 of your daily recommended intake and your body absorbs
12:18
all that there's a certain amount and then the rest you're going to pee out so just because it's packed with these
12:25
water-soluble vitamins doesn't mean that your body is absorbing all of them right like this while I'm looking at right
12:30
here one of The Originals has one thousand percent of your Biotin for the day
12:36
that's not going to be helpful to you no no you don't need that much your your body's
12:43
gonna be like get this out of here or this is too much second thing I want to know are
12:50
and we're going to talk about this in a little bit but like the caffeine content is there's 200 to 300 milligrams in one
12:58
Celsius I haven't looked at all of them but I'm guessing that's probably an average I
13:04
think the heat has more and the original tends to have like 200 and I think the Heats tend to have
13:12
the Heats tend to have 300 yeah so we have this we're going to go into
13:19
it it's like threshold we don't want one over because
13:24
if we do go over it it can lead to like other health issues like heart issues or
13:30
concentration issues or there's like the caffeine affects a lot of things we
13:36
don't I don't know if we have an episode on caffeine we should probably do an episode on caffeine I don't think we have either I think we touched on it a
13:42
few times but yeah not specifically make a note caffeine episode
13:47
um but if you join two of these you're at your threshold for the day
13:54
especially if you're doing it back to back like I've seen videos people like literally shotgunning them
13:59
like that's a big amount of caffeine all at once first of all which if you drink coffee for example
14:06
because I might not we're not anti-caffeine like caffeine's not inherently a bad toxic thing to your body but when you drink coffee we tend
14:13
to just kind of like sip it we're eating a meal maybe along with it but if you're just like taking even just one Celsius
14:19
just like Down the Hatch really quickly that's a lot of caffeine all at once and that can lead to these issues that Emily described of like heart palpitations and
14:26
seizures and that of course is even riskier if you're doing like maybe multiple back to back especially if
14:33
you're not eating as well which is also a common thing where people are doing these in place of like a breakfast yeah
14:38
and I was just thinking to myself like 400 milligrams is like a safe dose for
14:44
like adults and I bet like teenagers are drinking these so probably their thresholds probably a little bit lower
14:50
which they might be like if they're doing two it could be like well over it
14:56
oh yeah that's a spooky there
15:01
um additionally other just kind of components to incorporate like or just to like note that they talk about are
15:08
there's taurine citric acid borana extract I know I said that right ginger
15:15
root extract and green tea extract and these ingredients have like claimed effects to boost metabolism
15:22
provide caffeine and aid in recovery but like while standing alone issues these ingredients like most
15:30
likely won't cause harm but we have to remember like the dose is the poison and like how much
15:37
can our body take and also how frequently can it take these ingredients
15:42
exactly that applies to the caffeine too right like if we're having a more moderate amount of caffeine that is
15:48
likely tolerated by your body it's gonna be fine but drinking 600 milligrams in the span of
15:55
30 minutes is not going to be super great for your body that also has a head food all day especially
16:05
I didn't realize we're still in cons I don't know where I thought we were oh this is all cons there's no Pros today
16:11
except for flavors those are only bro the flavor ah
16:17
um so there you go you go like um expensive that's the next one there's expensive I don't I think the price of course
16:24
probably depends on where you live but I'm sure these Kroger
16:30
I know Target's a common place to get these I always see them at Fresh time too
16:35
oh a few dollars for one okay yeah
16:41
so of course everyone 2 30 at Target it says near me
16:48
oh it's snap eligible that's good insane I love some inclusivity yeah
16:58
um so of course expensive is determined by different people on their budget and everything but potentially it
17:05
could be like I would rather you spend that 230 on something that would be maybe
17:11
providing your body with actual energy from calories instead of energy from
17:16
200 milligrams of caffeine yes so let's talk about the risks as we've
17:25
already talked about some of the questions we kind of oversee the caffeine one we've already really done that but yeah our other big ones the
17:31
fact that they're a supplement yes and go to store supplement episode way back
17:38
when that was like an OG episode yes supplements
17:44
are not regulated well in America when America will say that
17:49
I don't know the rules as well in the other other countries um so when supplements aren't regulated
17:58
that means they don't have to be truthful about their new their labels which
18:05
will lead us to our last point but essentially it's not regulated that's all you need to know is what they could
18:12
be posting and what they could be claiming might not be true
18:18
uh spoiler for our supplement episode you want to see if they're third party
18:23
tested and this is like when an outside governing party who doesn't have any influence over that company like not
18:29
like celsius's research articles that they funded big conflict of interest but essentially
18:35
you do want to make sure like if it if you are taking a supplement it's third party tested and they list who the third
18:42
party tester is they don't just say it because we've seen that too where they're like this is third party test and they don't say
18:48
who's testing it so and I should be very
18:54
straightforward about that I am like zooming over their bottle or their cans
18:59
right now and they just keep talking about how there's seven essential vitamins and their claims have been
19:04
proven in six published university studies like that's like their whole thing um but I don't see any kind of third
19:11
party testing on the can which maybe you dug deeper like you could find on their website if they are but like Emily said
19:17
it should be very straightforward and like direct if it is third party tested they claim I just look up I always look
19:24
up like the brand and then I look up third-party tested yeah and it says the Celsius Holdings like Incorporated
19:30
website is mono the website is monitored and tested regularly by internal
19:35
resources and by Audio I a third-party provider web accessibility testing so
19:41
it's not that why is the website getting I would say like is the actual product though it
19:48
says in its accessibility I mean we love inclusivity I love this for them that they have an accessibility statement
19:54
I've never seen anything like this before yeah um but the actual product
20:03
is not oh here's a fun one they'd say
20:09
uh proprietary formula so that basically means they're not their party tested
20:15
when someone throws the word proprietary on there like proprietary formula proprietary blend
20:22
it basically means that it's like a secret kind of like like their blender
20:28
formula is something that they've created it's true to the brand and a third party
20:35
would not be able to test if that's accurate because we don't know what prioritary means to them
20:41
so I've got a hunch that they are not third party tested at least not by a
20:46
major third party testing company no yeah no
20:52
I just found a another dietitian did a review and there was a lab that third party
21:00
tested an ingredient great so not super helpful
21:09
I think we already talked about most the other cons yeah or the risks more so
21:14
yeah so let's talk about this lawsuit because this has been juicy and
21:21
there are statements out there that like if you consume Celsius between January 1st of 2015 so eight years ago and
21:29
November 23rd of 2022 you may be entitled to some money from this class
21:34
action settlement one of the biggest things is like
21:40
products were being labeled as containing no preservatives despite containing citric acid where Celsius was
21:47
arguing it was being used to like add flavor and not as preservative and I
21:52
looked into it and both sides agreed not to pursue and they just settled so like
21:59
it's kind of hard to know like if it was true or not but people were
22:04
saying they were getting hospitalized and it makes me wonder like what the causes are like obviously we
22:11
don't know all the factors affecting that person's life but just like I always think of like caffeine in general
22:17
right and whatnot like hospitalization so like heart palpitations are very
22:23
scary and raised like elevated blood pressure levels can send people to hospitals so like
22:30
I don't know if it's like a Celsius thing or like maybe it's a like more of an energy drink thing and just
22:36
like the over consumption just gonna say like there's so many I don't know if study's at the right
22:42
word but a lot of stories I guess I'll say about energy drinks in general leading to hospitalization
22:48
yeah which is kind of the theme for the whole episode today like while we touched on Celsius more specifically in
22:54
certain aspects in terms of like grams or milligrams of caffeine and all of that a lot of these things that the caffeine
23:00
overdose the excess of the vitamins the proprietary Blends like
23:07
these apply to almost any energy drink that's out there so it's just kind of
23:12
good to heat with caution please don't shock on them that's a
23:18
terrible idea this is not medical advice but a general statement
23:25
probably not good to like quickly consume caffeine which in anything I feel like it's
23:31
popular for these because they're promoted as like a pre-workout like an exercise like to be drank drunk along
23:38
with like a workout before a workout and like with pre-workout like the powders we often see like dry scooping is what
23:45
it's called where you just like down the hatch a pretty good workout and I'm sure a similar
23:50
effect comes from these where like it's encouraged to drink them like right before you work out which often includes like chugging and drinking it really
23:57
fast yeah you likely aren't sipping on these kind of things over like
24:02
unless you're us drinking for flavor exactly exactly pour over some ice in a wine glass
24:08
that's how I would just I know that sounds great to me but I have to do it be done by like 12 p.m oh that's true I
24:14
do it in the morning yeah that's another thing like yeah going
24:19
back to the whole boosting metabolism thing if you're drinking this at 8pm before you go work out and then you're up all night because you had too much
24:25
caffeine that sounds so great for your metabolism because you probably got like two hours of sleep
24:30
um yeah we gotta think bigger picture than just how is this random
24:36
Peach flavored energy drink boosting my metabolism like this one thing there's
24:42
bigger battles to fight so that's Celsius that's Celsius
24:51
it wasn't really like oh no it was like a let's be cautious and
24:57
yeah exactly I hope we made that clear in the beginning too like if you like these you like them it's probably fine
25:03
just like don't be dumb about it like yeah have some critical thoughts Emily
25:10
always says critical thinking is essential
25:15
so let's talk about the bonus question and I want you to go for a Santa because I am
25:20
I like some thoughts but I haven't put them together in a coherent way in my brain so today's question is is a
25:29
chicken nugget a meatball my gut reaction is yes I feel like a
25:34
meatball is just like ground meat of sorts shaped like a mushed up polish
25:42
shape the only thing that would lead me the other direction is that meatballs are balls and chicken nuggets typically
25:48
aren't like spherical but I feel like like nutrient composition wise and like
25:56
protein Source wise like ingredient wise I mean like they tend to be
26:02
I have a question pretty similar I have a clarifying question are you saying is like a chicken nugget a meatball like
26:08
you would ident like you would you would see a chicken nugget and be like meatball or are you saying a chicken
26:14
nugget is the chicken equivalent of a meatball to beef
26:20
well meatballs could be more than just beef meatballs are like I makes turkey that's true that's true that's true okay
26:27
you're right like I actually don't even think beef I think meatball I think of turkey because that's just always what I make but that's just how my brain works
26:34
so it's like the concept of a meatball yeah like I feel like to kind of give an
26:40
example like a chocolate chip cookie as a cookie it's like cookies the category and we've
26:47
got different types so like other meatballs might be sausage links I'd consider a meatball
26:53
it's just ground up meat in a shape um what about meatloaf
27:00
is Meatloaf I think we've had that question before maybe like it's on my list I think meatloaf is just a giant
27:06
meatball I think we had that question
27:12
but then we I remember we talked about like what we paired it with because I talked about pasta and meatballs and then we talked about
27:19
what else we pair meatloaf with yeah I like I think I'm siding with you
27:26
because like my heart says yes like it's a ball of meat
27:35
right I think it's cooked differently they're typically fried which I don't know meatballs if those are typically fried I don't ever fry them no I don't
27:43
think so I don't know how well that whole you have to put I know you like people I
27:49
like add breadcrumbs to mine but like you'd have to add a lot of bread crumbs yeah
27:55
which what's the chicken nuggets it makes them stay so together so well together
28:00
I mean I've watched videos on chicken nuggets being made and I'm afraid not appetizing no we don't question
28:09
what's going on behind closed doors at McDonald's no
28:15
um okay well yeah I think gut reaction is yes but we're open to have our minds change it sounds like on this one yes
28:21
please comment on our webs on our website we we've been talking about this
28:27
and we want you guys to be able to utilize it more because it's so fun and interactive is under we upload all the
28:35
episodes to our website and there's like a comment section now where you can like post comments let us know what you think
28:42
because I feel like maybe there's a piece we're missing yeah like my gut reactions yes but like
28:49
I said I could be sway which means that something is not quite fully formed in my head
28:55
yes yeah yeah let us know all right well that's Celsius that's
29:01
chicken nuggets I should have thought of a more like common theme with the bonus
29:07
question with the topic of the episode but that's okay that's okay that's okay this is still fun still fun
29:14
all right guys well thank you for listening we hope you just learned so much about energy drinks and we will see
29:20
you next week have a good rest of your day
