It’s a question we get asked a lot at Kill Cliff: When will our delicious lines of energy and recovery beverages be available for consumption in the Great White North and Over the Pond?
To put it one way, it’s because Kill Cliff has too much of a good thing.
Kill Cliff does not use sugar to sweeten the drinks. Instead, Kill Cliff sweetens Kill Cliff with erythritol and stevia.
No problem with stevia, which is regulated as a food additive and undergone a full safety review, as it has been just about everywhere else. And Kill Cliff uses the right amount.
Erythritol
The problem is with the amount of erythritol: While the amount in Kill Cliff of this all-natural sweetener has been deemed safe elsewhere, and with no ramifications, Health Canada considers Kill Cliff’s amount in a 12-ounce can to be too much.
It’s not that the ingredient is considered dangerous, it’s just that Canada hasn’t gotten around to testing and approving it.
Come On, Canada
We’d like to make it easy for Health Canada to amend the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations so our friends to the north can enjoy what Kill Cliff consumers have been enjoying for more than a decade.
We’ve done the (unbiased! honest!) research: Erythritol has only 6 percent the calories of sugar while boasting 70 percent of the sweetness, so you don’t need so much in the first place.
Erythritol is absorbed into the body without complication, and it’s eliminated in urine instead of turning into something else and causing problems, which is what happens with most synthetic sweeteners.
In fact, there is no energy spike and no energy crash. Erythritol acts as an antioxidant, which is good! And it even seems to be good for the teeth. Find another sweetener that can say that.
The irony is, if Kill Cliff swapped out the erythritol with Sucralose, no problem! But we won’t, because Sucralose has its own problems (which we've warned you about). Until Canada says it’s OK, we’ll follow the rules and behave.
