PRIME Drinks - Have your kids been talking or asking about them?
Being honest, our son Rilien (12yo) is more of an academic kid rather than an athletic kid. Although he plays and trains for basketball, I have always maintained the position that he does not need sports drinks like Gatorade to replace his electrolytes. Sports nutrition indicates you only need to replace electrolytes if you've been doing high intensity exercise for 60 minutes or more, or you've been playing hard in excessive heat. Basketball training and regional basketball comp does not fit that bill.
Anyways, you can imagine my surprise this week when he was asking me to buy him a Prime Drink.
What?
I asked him "Why are you even asking me about this?"
It appears the faces behind Prime Drinks are 2 influential You Tubers and professional sports men - Logan Paul and KSI. One has also been a Nickelodeon Child star so many teens have grown up with him.
Ril's going through a phase of believing he is one day going to be a You Tuber. He looks up to these 2 guys and I think he sees himself as one day being like them.
I thought I’d pop into the supermarket to see what all the hype was about but all I got was and empty shelf and a mountain of yellow tickets for reduced prices on other similar products.
If ever there was a case to show the absolute power that marketing has over our kids desires for food, it’s PRIME drinks.
At the supermarket I visited the shop attendant told me they were basically sold before the shelf could be fully stocked.
And how are the stores responding?
Look at all these yellow tags and reduced price tag for other similar drinks. 😱
What’s happened with the popularity of Prime is that it’s highlighted just how significantly marketing is when it comes to the pester power of kids.
These drinks have become so popular that stores like Woolworths are limiting purchases to just 5 drinks. I would imagine other stockist are doing the same.
The drinks have cause such hysteria that schools around the country are banning them and even indicating if children bring them to school they will get a detention.
Here's the dilemma we are now facing:
➡️we're dealing with marketing hysteria
➡️the more we say NO to these drinks, the more it makes our kids want them. It's kind of like the unspoken universal law between children and adults. We say no, it puts it on a pedestal and they want it more.
Banning, restrictions, diets... they just don't work longer term. Are we pushing our kids to want these drinks more? It really has put schools in quite a tough position. I talk more about this later.
At times like this, I think it's important to go back to basics. It's important to ask What's In My Food? which is why I have spent hours reviewing these 2 drinks.
This matter has also highlighted some other issues I believe need to be addressed in this country, like:
➡️ how is it allowed that a school student can buy Mother, Red Bull and the like off a supermarket (or petrol station or corner store etc) shelf and have it on the way to school?
➡️how can food manufacturers market food as 'fruit' when due to processing, it's so removed from wholefood fruit that the human body detects it only as a sugar?
and perhaps a little more controversial,
➡️ how can foods that are clearly confectionary (Fruit Strings, Fruit Roll Ups, Chocolates etc) be allowed to be consumed in schools as lunchbox items - why has the Dept of Education not taken a stance on these?
Of course all of this is exactly why I have been Standing For Children's Health for the last 10 years. Thank you for being part of this community and standing with me.
I hope you enjoy the rest of this newsletter. It kind of feels like an epic edition with the Prime review and also the Easter information. Hit reply and let me know your thoughts.
Disclaimer
I'm providing this information for general purposes only. I also encourage you to do your own research. Don't just rely on google articles, look for research on sites likes Google Scholar, The National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Food & Mood Centre, Research Gate, and go to a library and use their databases, particularly if you have access to a University Library.
About PRIME
I have just copied and pasted what's on the Prime Website here.
"We created PRIME to showcase what happens when rivals come together as brothers and business partners to fill the void where great taste meets function.
We dropped our first product, PRIME Hydration in 2022 and since then, we've continued to work countless hours to expand in retailers, reach new markets and formulate new products we know you'll love.
We’ve been humbled by the process of creating a real brand & surpassing some of the biggest beverage companies in the world. As underdogs, we always cherish the opportunity to show the world what’s possible.
Now that we’re both fighting for the same team, we truly believe the sky is the limit.
⁃ KSI & Logan Paul "
Of course, the fact they are well known You Tubers and Professional Sportsmen helps tremendously too. They have managed to secure the following sponsorships:
- Official Sports Drink of the LA Dodgers
- UFC (I had to look this up but it's Ultimate Fighting Championship)
PRIME Energy Drink
This is a caffeinated energy drink - think like Red Bull, V, Mother etc which are readily available on any supermarket shelf for kids to buy - despite most of these not being recommended for children. Like the other Energy Drinks - these come in cans not bottles.So what's all the fuss about PRIME Energy Drinks then?
ABC has reported this:
"A carbonated drink that contains 200mg of caffeine per 355mL can – double the Australian legal limit of caffeine per 100mL. This product is not available to purchase through retailers in Australia but can be bought through online marketplaces and resellers. The Prime website says it's not suitable for under 18s"
Because of this amount of Caffeine, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) laws prevent it from being sold as a FOOD in Australia which means it can not be legally sold in supermarkets. However, it has found its way into Australia online and via resellers.
I'm not sure if this was part of the marketing appeal for the makers but what it has done is create an absolute frenzy of ALL PRIME products.
What's In A PRIME Energy Drink?
Let's approach this from the perspective of how we teach families and children to read a packet label. Please note - I have not been able to get my hands on this drink, so I am relying on information directly from the PRIME website. The Australian version may be slightly different from what's on the website. Our nutrition panel would be different to the one on the website.
Step 1: Ignore the front - look past the marketing.
👉Blue Raspberry Naturally Flavoured
👉 200mg caffeine
👉 Zero Sugar
👉 300mg electrolytes
Step 2: Count the ingredients
If there are more than 6, it's likely to be an ultra processed food (UPF) under the NOVA Food Classification System. A UPF is considered to be a formulation made from many industrialised processes. ie. pretty far away from a natural food source.
This drink has 19 ingredients.
Carbonated filtered water, coconut water from concentrate, citric acid, natural flavour, calcium lactate, magnesium citrate, potassium citrate, sodium citrate, caffeine, sucralose, potassium sorbate (preservative), sodium benzoate (preservative), L-Theanine, Insoitol, Glucuronolactone, Taurine, Acesulfame potassium, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).
Step 3: Look for sugar in the top 5
The food science and food technology behind this drink is extremely smart. This drink is able to be labelled as zero sugar because it's not using sugar to sweeten the drink.
The second ingredient is coconut water from concentrate.
Note the important word here is concentrate. This means it was once coconut water, then it went through quite a process whereby most of the water was evaporated and what is left is mostly the 'sweetness' of the fruit (ie. the coconut).
It's so concentrated that it can't be used in isolation which is why water is the first ingredient.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises juice concentrates as a free sugar.
If you really want to see what goes into making a juice concentrate, I found this article which explains it in detail. I don't know if all manufacturers use the same processes but you can see it takes a lot to take a wholefood and turn it into a concentrate.
If you see any ingredients ending in 'ose' then it's likely to be a sugar or sugar replacement.
This product contains sucralose. The Additive Free Lifestyle App (AFL) - lists sucralose (also known as 955) as risky.
The app shares the artificial sweetener is made from sugar and is chemically changed so it is 600 times sweeter than real sugar with almost no calories. The potential affects include possibility of changing your gut microbiome by lowering the number of good bacteria by half. Inflammation and more.
Acesulphame potassium is another sweetener. It is a replacement to sweetener Aspartame. In the AFL app, this ingredient is listed as risky. It says it's 200 times sweeter than table sugar. The potential affects are listed as impacting thyroid in rats, rabbits and dogs, and more.
Food manufacturers have been switching from sugar to sweeteners over the last 15 years because there has been growing concerns about the effects of sugar on health, particularly overweight and obesity.
There is some question about whether these sweeteners are really any better for health than actual sugar itself.
Aspartame was one of the first artificial sweeteners (after saccharin). It was approved as a food additive in 1981. Forty years later there is a lot of question marks around the safety of this additive. You can take a read of this research. Food manufacturers have moved away from using it and now we're seeing a wider use of other sweeteners.
Researcher and Author, David Gillespie said this in his recent interview with Craig Harper on The You Project Podcast:
"There’s a lot we don’t know about artificial sweeteners. The most you can say is that it doesn’t appear to kill people instantly. Therefore it’s safe to put into food. Does it kill people if you consume it for 10 yrs, 20 yrs or 30 yrs, who knows, they’ve only been in the market for 20 years, so come back in 30 years and we’ll tell you if people have died from it. We just don’t know."
That might sound far fetched, but that's how long it took for the concerns about Aspartame to be scientifically researched.
There's even some research which have found that artificial sweeteners may in fact be having a negative impact on weight and obesity because the sweetness is stimulating the desire food but the food that's being consumed is empty of the energy that generally comes with sugar. So it's driving people to want to eat even more food. The research has found that more research is needed to investigate this further.
Step 4: Work out the amount of sugar
Like I said, brilliantly manufactured to have zero sugar so go to the next step.
Step 5: Look at the other ingredients
A simple question I encourage you to ask yourself is this:
'how many of these will I be able to buy and put in my pantry?'
If a high proportion are none, then they are likely to be additives made in a chemistry lab, then used in a factory as part of a formulation to make the food.
With 17 ingredients, I would say it falls into the category of what Cyndi O'meara from Changing Habits calls a chemical shit storm.
Sweeteners are additives - I spoke about these in Step 3 because I felt it was important to explain how they were being used instead of sugar and as a way of having a zero sugar product.
The marketing of Blue Raspberry Naturally Flavoured is because one of the ingredients is the additive Natural Flavour. In my book, The Lunchbox Effect, Francine Bell, Founder of Additive Free Kids shared this about Natural Flavour -
"Natural flavours are flavouring substances obtained by physical processes that may cause unavoidable / unintentional changes in the chemical structure of the flavouring. A variety of methods obtain these flavours including:
•• Distillation and solvent extraction
•• Enzymatic processes or
•• Microbiological processes from plant or animal origin.
So even if the ingredient started as a natural ingredient to begin with, by the end of all the processing and manufacturing, it isn’t much different to the synthetic / artificial ones. "
Interesting eh?
By all means, look up the ingredients and keep digging if you prefer to do so.
Would I let my kids have a PRIME Energy Drink?
I am answering this question because so many people have asked me this question. Please can I remind you that you know your family better than anyone else. Just because I say something or someone else says something doesn't mean it's the right way for you. The choice of what to fuel your kids with is your choice.
I rarely have a hard no with any kind of food or drink for my kids because I believe hard no's and restriction create more desire. I prefer to opt for allowing a try and then using it as a learning experience and going from there.
However, this energy drink is a hard no from me.
In keeping with empowerment, I won't just be saying no, I will be talking about the WHY behind my no. The extreme amount of caffeine in this drink means it is not a legal food in Australia. I will let the know that when they are 18, if the drink is still around when you're 18, go nuts, but for now it's no. My kids know me well enough that a hard no means I have serious concerns about a food.
PRIME Hydration Drink
This is a very different market proposition to the Energy Drink. This is being marketed as a Sports Drink - think Gatorade, Powerade and the like.It came about in the 1960's as the coaching staff of the University of Florida Gators Football team were curious about why their players were losing weight when playing and urinating so little. They approached Dr Robert Cade, a Kidney Specialist for help. Cade detected they were sweating too much and had no fluid left to urinate. He discovered the players were sweating profusely in the heat, and this was taking away their energy, endurance and strength. From this, he formulated the first 'Gatorade', then kept tweaking with some advice of his wife, until a formulation was created that boosted the performance of the players. The formulation had the perfect mix of sugar for energy, sodium and potassium for electrolyte replacement.
Sports drinks were created for professional athletes who played long games of intense sport for hours at a time in heat. This was because they sweated so much their performance started to suffer.
Again, let's read the packet label.
Again, I have not physically been able to look at one of these drinks in person. However, a parent in our community (thanks Stef) sent me photos of this drink.
👉10% Coconut Water
👉250mg BCAA's*
👉B Vitamins
👉Antioxodants
👉834mg Electrolytes
If there are more than 6, it's likely to be an ultra processed food (UPF) under the NOVA Food Classification System. A reminder UPF's are considered to be formulations - meaning many industrialised processes are required to make them.
The second ingredient is Fruit Juice from concentrate (Coconut 10%).
Unlike some sports drinks, like Gatorade that contains 9 tsp of sugar, this hydration drink lists just 1g of sugar in the nutrition information panel. This is presumably from the fruit juice concentrate, but then again, it could also be from the natural flavours (see step 5).
My response here is the same as for the Energy Drink...
•• Distillation and solvent extraction
•• Enzymatic processes or
•• Microbiological processes from plant or animal origin.
So even if the ingredient started as a natural ingredient to begin with, by the end of all the processing and manufacturing, it isn’t much different to the synthetic / artificial ones."
Would I let my kids have a PRIME Hydration Drink?
Again I say this: I am answering this question because so many people have asked me this question. Please can I remind you that you know your family better than anyone else. Just because I say something or someone else says something doesn't mean it's the right way for you. The choice of what to fuel your kids with is your choice.
Our 12yo son plays comp basketball. Our 16yo daughter plays comp netball. Neither of them play more than 60 minutes intensely so they do not need a sports or hydration drink.
When they play sport they have a litre drink bottle and there is a refilling station at the courts. I'm the mum that packs food like orange wedges.
With that said, I will probably allow them to have a bottle to share at some point just so they can experience it. Then we can have a conversation about it.
Like I said before, my belief is that when we ban or restrict foods (and legally in Australia this is allowed to be sold in supermarkets as a food), it creates a whole lot more desire.**
My family have been eating mainly wholefoods for 12 years now. I have many experiences where I have let me kids try foods that are the latest fad and they have realised they don't like it. They make the decision for themselves. It's so much more powerful. I think the last real fad they kept asking for was Bubble Tea. I gave them money, they bought one each. They came back super excited but both in shock at how expensive they were - there's a lesson right there for them. Then they both started to drink their bubble tea only to discover it was so sweet they couldn't drink all of it. When we had the conversation about it, they said they would have it again but perhaps share it. Guess what, they haven't asked for one again.
**What About Schools Banning PRIME DRINKS
I just want to say that the action by Schools to ban PRIME Drinks is necessary.
All the hype around these drinks has meant it's almost become a black market for these drinks. Kids who were able to get their hands on the drinks were selling them in the school grounds for ridiculous amounts of money. School is not a place for this.
And obviously when it comes to the Energy version of these drinks, they are an illegal food product and schools definitely do not want to be allowing this.
There you have it... I hope this review has been helpful.