What is energy? In the human body it’s not an amphetamine-like stimulation of the central nervous system. It’s not liquid No-Doz in a cute shooter package. It’s not 83,000% of the RDA of a B vitamin or two or three Bs.

Today’s available energy drinks are engineered poorly. We can do better. The fact is, nothing happens in body without adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. You can’t do anything without the ATP molecule. ATP is produced in the mitochondria, or powerhouse, of the cell. One glucose molecule is converted into 36 ATP by oxidative phosphorylation.

You cannot produce any energy from an artificial sweetener or a fake sugar. Any zero-calorie sweetener cannot produce energy. We need sugar. Why do we vilify it? Sugar is not bad. You need it to survive. Now, too much sugar is bad, but if there is an enemy, it’s insulin. Insulin is a fat-storing hormone. What you want is blood sugar controlled while secreting least amount of insulin as possible. 

We want energy from sugar but don’t want the release of insulin. Normally sugar goes up, insulin goes up, sugar comes down, insulin remains up. That’s what the crash is that we want to avoid. It’s insulin we don’t like. If we could have sugar with energy without alerting the pancreas to manufacture insulin, we’d be in business.

Enter trehalose

Trehalose may be the single most impressive and versatile ingredient/sugar ever. It is new to man but not new in nature. It occurs across various plant and animal species and many species can manufacture it. 

Trehalose releases twice the energy of glucose, and it doesn’t spike insulin. It’s a sugar acting like a protein. Because trehalose releases twice the energy of regular sugar, it gives athletes a sustained surge – and with almost no effect on blood-sugar levels.

In Swiss research, trehalose was shown to be different from glycogen as a protecting agent under stress conditions.

In a recent animal study, trehalose mitigated insulin resistance.

Last year, researchers in Japan found trehalose suppresses inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain.

Jeff Hendricks, MD, is founder/CEO of Rize Performance, maker of Rize drinks.