I can’t stand coffee, and have resorted to a can of Mountain Dew in the mornings (a soda with 54mg caffeine / 12oz can). I don’t care much for sugary soda either, especially in the mornings.
What I’d really like is something much more healthy for me. A V8 with low sodium perhaps, or a V8 fusion (http://www.v8juice.com), Boost (http://www.boost.com), or some other vitamin drink. Now take that drink, and add 50 - 100mg of caffeine and you’ve got a product I’ll buy one of for each work day.
Does such a product exist? I just can’t seem to find one!
V8 is not particularly health for you…it basically boils down to “sugar and water” just like soda. Anything you add to water is going to basically be empty calories.
You can get caffeinated vitamin pills- often called “active formulas.” Or maybe you could do some sort of milky tea? Or, if you really need the caffeine, learn how to take shots of espresso…it’s super strong but just lasts a second.
I have a can in front of me and its ingredients are: “reconstituted vegetable blend (water and concentrated juices of tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach), salt, vitamin C, natural flavoring, citric acid”.
As aruqvan said, you could just pop a caffeine pill. A popular brand up here is Wakeups; I’m sure there are other brands (I’ve heard of No-doze but never seen it; maybe that is a brand in your neck of the woods?). The standard ones I get (yes, I take them although I probably shouldn’t) are 100mg. If you didn’t want to swallow it straight, you could crush it and dissolve it in Your Favourite Beverage.
ETA - Thinking about it some more, I doubt you would need to crush it. I’d guess you could just drop it in your beverage, leave it for an hour or two, and shake it.
8 oz. of standard V8 has 8 grams of sugar per serving, and the fruit blends have 18 grams. This compares to 28 grams for a serving of Pepsi. So it’s a bit less sugar than Pepsi, but still it’s a fair amount of sugar for an 8 oz serving- the fruit blends would be like putting 4.5 sugar cubes in an 8 oz. cup!
In any case a highly processed vegetable extraction is not in the same league as actually eating vegetables, and it’s not usually a good idea to get your calories in liquid form. V8 isn’t “bad” for you, but it isn’t a health food and you’d be better off drinking a glass of water and eating some real veggies.
Vegetables have natural sugar also, for example one medium tomato has around 3 grams of sugar and a regular size carrot can have around 4 grams. The presence of sugar does not make a food item automatically bad for you.
Isn’t that what that “5-hour Energy” stuff is? Vitamins and caffeine? (I do not know the nutritional specifics, nor do I even know what it tastes like, but it might be something you’d like to investigate.)
I think the bitterness of caffeine would ruin V8. Do you like tea? Antioxidants and caffeine, and no calories unless you put sugar/milk in it.
I remember when they were selling caffeinated water a few years back. I made my own with a liter bottle of cheap mineral water, half a No-Doz, and a splash of orange juice.
The OP is currently drinking Mountain Dew and wants to replace it with something healthier. Wouldn’t you say that V8 - even the fruit version - would be healthier than a Mountain Dew?
The OP is not asking if he/she can stop eating veggies if they slam a morning V8.
