That Logan Paul! He can do anything, can’t he?
The social media star, YouTube hero, podcaster, TV actor, director, rapper, comedian, clothing designer, and erstwhile boxer (0-1-0) is now in the sports drink business. He’s teamed up with his musical duet and boxing sparring partner KSI to encourage their legion of fans to drink Prime Hydration.
It must be good! It sold out—the entire stock of all five flavors—within four hours of going on sale online. Three million bottles. Props to them.
But what did Paul and KSI do to their fans? Did they knowingly try to kill them slowly? Seems like a bad business model.
What’s in Prime Hydration?
Oh, this isn’t good. At 25 calories per 16.9-ounce serving, it has to be sweetened with…something. Since it’s advertised as being “sugar-free,” what is the sweetener?
Ah, there it is: sucralose. Sucralose, as we know, is the unsavory combination of sugar and chlorine, the stuff that’s shown to increase inflammation in the body, cause seizures and migraines, and lead to blurred vision. Among other side effects, enough of it can actually backfire and lead to obesity and diabetes by stimulating appetite while destroying healthy gut bacteria.
What else?
Despite sucralose being 600 times sweeter than sugar, Prime Hydration has a second sweetener.
Oh no.
It’s the same chemical stuff that makes you pucker when you suck down Bang, Monster, and Red Bull. This one goes by the name of acesulfame potassium, or, understandably, Ace-K for short. Great nickname for a baseball pitcher; terrible chemical compound for a beverage. We've talked about this before.
Ace-K does not occur in the wild. It’s created in one of 250 factories in China.
Ace-K also does not break down in the human body. It’s like the antifreeze in your car radiator: It keeps circulating in your system until it leaks out as urine or sweat.
But hey, Prime Hydration has BCAA. That’s OK, because branched-chain amino acids are useful in building and repairing muscles. All those micro-tears from lifting get a bit of a boost when it comes time to stitching back together. In other words, BCAA helps you get swole.
But uh oh.
Common wisdom suggests up to 10 grams a day of BCAA is adequate for recovery and increasing muscle mass.
Prime Hydration has…can this be right?..250mg of BCAA.
That’s 0.25 grams.
Why are they even telling customers there’s BCAA in there? That much wouldn’t swole a toe much less a biceps.
At least the coconut water is nice. That might be the source of the advertised electrolytes, although it won’t be much, given how much coconut water is in there.
Advantage: Kill Cliff
You know why we’re telling you all of this.
The Kill Cliff lines of energy, recovery, and CBD beverages are sugar-free, sucralose-free, and Ace-K-free. They deliver substantial amounts of B-vitamins, vitamin E, electrolytes, magnesium, and potassium in addition to tasting as clean as the ingredients.
No spike. No crash. And no Logan Paul. You can't have everything, not that you would want to.
