I’ll say first of all that this is not a sponsored post. I see a problem in the influencer-sphere which has to do with products that they sponsor to supplement their income, and I’m presenting a solution to that problem in the form of a better product.

Now, I wouldn’t have a problem with influencers marketing powdered energy dtinks if those energy drinks weren’t nearly all pure crap. But most of them are.

And I’m looking right at G Fuel, and more recently, Gamer Supps.

You’ve probably heard of G Fuel, because it’s one of the most heavily marketed products in the universe. And it’s aggressive marketing approach is genius. They make it easy for social media influencers to recieve kickbacks through affiliate links, ensuring that many millions of gamers will hear about their caffeinated powder by reason of the influencers that they already enjoy, and they acquire the use of licensed characters to further enhance their product’s appeal.

Because, don’t you feel like Naruto in sage mode when you’re hopped up on caffeine?

But if you turn the bright, pretty packaging around, and you know how to read, you’ll be less than impressed. Like many in the energy drink space, they hide behind “proprietary blends”, or unspecified daily values, because your typical consumer of products with anime characters on them isn’t expected to know the minimum effective dose of l-citrulline malate, or even what it does.

By the way, it’s 2 grams per dose, 3 times a day, according to Examine.com. That comes to 6 grams a day. That’s 12 times as much as what’s in a scoop of G Fuel.

L-citrulline malate is taken for cardiovascular health, or erectile dysfunction. But before you get too excited and start drinking G Fuel to get boners, to get the equivalent of the minimum effective dose from G Fuel, you’d also be drinking 1.68 grams of caffeine, which would be over 4 times the maximum safe dose for adults who aren’t sensitive to caffeine. Don’t fucking do that.

Most of the rest of the active ingredients are at a more acceptable range, but probably still below the minimum effective dose. But one potentially problematic ingredient is vitamin B6, an overabundance of which in it’s synthetic form can cause nerve damage, a problem that’s rare in it’s natural form. The dose of artificial B6 in a scoop of G Fuel is far from what it would take to cause issues. But if you drink it, you may want to be aware of the presence of artificial B6 from other sources, such as multivitamins, because that can add up in a hurry.

Then there’s Gamer Supps.

You could probably guess why, but that’s the “Overall Pick” of the results for Gamer Supps on Amazon. But don’t get too excited.

Gamer Supps is to G Fuel what Wuthering Waves is to Genshin Impact. A vocal few pretend that it’s better, but it’s a blatant imitation.

The marketing approach is similar, in that the product is promoted by influencers. The use of licensed characters is more limited, but that’s probably going to change as the brand picks up more momentum.

But turn the canister around, and you’ll be left with more questions than answers:

If you would drink Gamer Supps, your trust is misplaced. I warned you about those who hide ingredient amounts behind “propietary blends”.

A common practice among energy drink powders is to “pixie dust” active ingredients. This involves putting in a tiny fraction of the minimum effective dose, just so they can legally say that they included the ingredients. This is basically like using the ingredients label itself as part of their marketing. And it’s far more effective when the targeted consumers are largely unaware how much they have to take of a supplement before they can realistically expect to see a benefit.

Not that you’ll know how much of each active ingredient is present in Gamer Supps, because they’re hiding that important information behind a proprietary formula.

But, it gets worse. Their proprietary nootropic blend amounts to 154,000 mcg (micrograms) per scoop. This seems impressive, becsuse 154,000 is a big, impressive-looking number. Until you know what a microgram is.

A microgram (mcg) is 1/1000 of a milligram (mg), or 1/1,000,000 of a gram (g). If Gamer Supps had the same amount of caffeine as G Fuel, then 140,000 of those micrograms would be taken up by the caffeine, leaving 14 mg for the rest of the blend.

If you’re still considering Gamer Supps, consider this, instead: buy a canister of Kool-Aid. Use it to wash down a caffeine pill. It’s basically the same thing.

And if you like anime characters, then print up a picture of Konata Izumi or the character of your choice, then tape it to the canister.

That way, the hypothetical audience who see how your streamer studio is decked out will have no doubt the kind of 1337 gamer you are.

I did say that I have a solution in the form of a better product. After all, it’s one thing if all that one does is complain about a problem, like so many clout farmers who love the sound of their own voice complaining. It’s better when a solution to the problem is presented. And in this case, I have two. And I’ll start with one.

Sneak is not crap. Let’s get right into why:

The label tells us what the active ingredients are, and how much of each is in each serving. The l-tyrosine, l-taurine, and l-theanine are still around the minimum effective dose, and there’s still plenty of caffeine. The holiness bitartrate and l-carnitine tartrate are well below the minimum effective dose, but I’m not concerned about them.

What’s also great is that we don’t get super compound gangbang slammed by 4167% of the daily allowance of vitamin B12, as though we don’t eat food. How does the body even process all that much B12? Sounds like paying to have expensive urine.

If there’s one drawback that I can think of with Sneak, it’s that you’d have to buy it. And at about $45 per tub, that’s going to be more difficult to do. But hey, it’s generally worth paying a bit more to get a product that’s not crap. Besides, I like the flavors I’ve tried so far. And of them, I can recommend Rocket Pop and Tropikilla.

To throw this out there, it’s cool how the label on the canister is textured. If it’s going to be priced like a premium product, it can feel like one.

Now, for the other solution. It’s coffee. Yep, just ordinary black coffee. Coffee’s main nootropic ingredient is caffeine. And of the ingredients in energy drinks, caffeine is the most heavily-studied, and the most proven. Most other active ingredients tend to have negligible effect in comparison, especially at doses typical for such drinks.

And it’s cost-effective. Coffee is cheap, and one cup has around 100 mg of caffeine (though results vary). So, a cup and a half would take you to about the same place as a scoop of Gamer Supps. Or maybe beyond, depending on what’s actually going on with their bullshit pixie-dusted proprietary blend.

So, there you go. In a world where marketers are trying to push caffeinated powder at you through social media influencers in an effort to override your better judgment, there is a powdered energy drink that deserves more attention than it gets. Also, there’s coffee, the scientific discovery that expedited many subsequent scientific discoveries.

Though we call them “energy drinks”, unless they have calories, they don’t actually supply energy, they just make a person feel that way by making them feel more alert and focused. That’s why many of the ingredients used in energy drinks are also used in pre-workout drinks, and are used in fitness enthusiast stacks. Considering that even the nomenclature can be misleading, it’s not much surprise that there are misconceptions in the world of supplements.

The fact that influencers and cartoon characters are used to market to people who don’t know what they’re drinking doesn’t help.