"Guarana? Tsk, tsk."

You know that 5 Hour Energy commercial? I know you do. It talks about how bad guarana is. Well actually, it talks about how the other pick-me-up drinks have guarana - "tsk tsk."

My mom and I were watching TV when this commercial came up. She asked, "what's guarana?" My response was: "I don't know. I've been wondering that for awhile now."

So here come in my two favorite sources, GOOGLE and Wikipedia. My findings were shocking: guarana is a seed that comes from a plant native to the Amazon and Brazil. It has three times as much caffeine as a coffee bean.

Funny, according to 5 Hour Energy's ingredients, the formula includes caffeine. So why is the ad dissing guarana?

Furthermore, and this is my favorite part, taking 37.5mg or 75mg (based on studies) of guarana increases memory retention, alertness, mood, physical endurance, and other general cognitive effects. Tests were done both on rats AND humans.

"Other laboratory studies showed antioxidant and antibacterial effect, and also fat cell reduction from chronic intake of guarana."

Well, guarana doesn't sound so awful to me. Does it sound that bad to you? Just remember the power of advertising and bogus suggestions that people assume to be true or just don't give any second thought to.

*One negative side effect is that guarana CAN cause seizures in SOME people in excessive amounts. I feel common sense is one huge thing to have and anybody who drinks too much soda or caffeine or anything like that is pretty much asking negative things to come to them.