Is Advocare Spark Vegan? (Truth Only)
Advocare Spark has earned a massive amount of fans due to its nutrient-packed formulation. I have been hearing a lot of great reviews about this brand so I decided to let you know what I think of it, and I must say it’s a good option for an energy-boosting drink, for me, that is.
How about for your vegan friends, is Advocare Spark okay?
Let’s answer that question real quick.
To put it straight, Advocare Spark is not vegan. The brand notes in their website’s FAQ’s that Advocare Spark wasn’t created to meet the standards of a vegan diet.
I may have answered the question too early, but I have more beneficial information to share with you, especially if you’re vegan. Continue reading.
Contents
What is a vegan diet?
A vegan diet, in its most narrow sense, is the exclusion of animals or animal by-products in one’s diet. Instead, this diet includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, seeds, beans, and much more plant-based produce.
Veganism and the vegan diet are two different things.
A vegan diet is simply a practice in food consumption whereas veganism is a practice that goes beyond avoiding animal food consumption. Veganism involves strongly avoiding products that promote or make use of any and all types of animal exploitation. Here’s to name a few:
- Animals used for clothing
- Animas used for entertainment
- Animals used for product testing
- Using animals as workers to produce something
Although there are a lot of nuances to being a vegan, whether it be a lifestyle, a practice, or simply a diet to participate in, it involves strong advocacy that focuses on taking care of animal lives.
Let’s look at Advocare Spark’s contents to see if the brand is part of this advocacy.
Advocare Spark Nutrition Facts
Caffeine in Advocare Spark
Caffeine is an absolute vegan ingredient, so there is no reason for you to avoid it if you’re on a vegan diet.
This compound is naturally found in over 60 plant species. This includes but is not limited to cocoa and coffee beans, tea leaves, kola nuts, and guarana berries.
Caffeine is commonly used in coffee, soft drinks, and a variety of over-the-counter drugs.
So what role does caffeine play in Advocare Spark?
Caffeine is a natural stimulant that increases your brain activity. And because it can fire up your central nervous system, caffeine boosts your cognitive functions such as learning, problem-solving, and decision making.
The best of them all, caffeine can help you stay alert and energized so you can deliver your tasks in high performance. With a total of 120mg in caffeine, Advocare Spark will surely give you this.
Sugar in Advocare Spark
Advocare Spark is a sugar-free energy drink.
Without the presence of sugar, the risks of sugar-induced illnesses such as high blood pressure, inflammation, and diabetes are reduced. Without the addition of sugar, you’re probably scrambling to make sense of Advocare Spark’s sweetness.
What is Advocare Spark sweetened with?
Advocare Spark is sweetened by an artificial sweetener called ‘sucralose‘. It’s a pretty popular sweetener used in a lot of products that need sweetening. I often see it in the nutritional facts of a lot of my food and drinks.
What you need to know about it is it’s zero-calorie that’s why it’s amongst what the FDA has coined a ‘non-nutritive ingredient’. You don’t get any other nutrients from it but it satisfies your sweet cravings.
Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than your regular sugar so you need only a small of this compound to match your regular sugar’s sweetness level. Therefore its addition won’t harm you the same way regular sugar would.
Is sucralose vegan?
Sucralose is created from sucrose (sugar) which in turn is derived from sugarcane plants. Sucralose itself is commonly a plant-derived ingredient.
However, Splenda, which is the sucralose brand Advocare Spark makes use of, was reported to have done massive animal testings in the year 2000. It is said that 12,000 animals died during the process.
This is clearly an act of animal cruelty that does not support vegan advocacy. Despite their products being plant-derived, Splenda’s methods of testing that include the participation—more so the deaths—of thousands of animals completely rule them out as being a vegan brand.
Calories in Advocare Spark
A serving of Advocare Spark has 15 calories, a very low caloric count for an energy drink.
Having this small number of calories in Advocare Spark makes a great choice if you’re trying to watch your weight.
As you all know, if the calories you consumed weren’t burned up, the body stores this which later on adds to your body’s mass. This is how obesity happens. Consuming big amounts of calories without being active enough to burn them up is never a good idea.
Other health risks linked to overconsumption of calories include:
- type 2 diabetes
- heart diseases
- some types of cancer
This video will help you better understand how calories work:
With only 15 calories per serving, you wouldn’t have to worry about increasing your risk for such diseases.
Advocare Spark Ingredients
Now that we’ve run through the main ingredients, let’s deduce whether everything else in Advocare Spark counts as vegan or not by looking at their derivatives.
Vitamins
Vitamins are essential nutrients for your body. It helps you function properly and keeps you healthy. Without it, you may develop nutritional deficiencies or become malnourished.
| Vitamins | Sources | Can it be made vegan? Yes/No |
| Vitamin A | animals, fortified milk | No |
| Vitamin C | plants, animals | Yes |
| Vitamin E | plants | Yes |
| Thiamin | plants, animals | Yes |
| Riboflavin | plants, animals | Yes |
| Niacin | plants, animals | Yes |
| Vitamin B6 | plants, animals | Yes |
| Vitamin B12 | animals, fortified plant-based food | Yes |
| Pantothenic Acid | animals, plants | Yes |
For vitamin A, it is unlikely to be made vegan given the fact that it’s usually derived from dairy products that make use of animal participation. Vegans often rely on carotenoids which the body converts to vitamin A for their supplication.
The rest of these vitamins—despite being available in animals—are also naturally occurring in plants and can be created from them, therefore they can be made vegan if the production allows it.
Minerals
Minerals play a variety of roles in your body. Some of them include keeping your bones and teeth healthy and helping you metabolize macronutrients.
| Minerals | Sources | Can it be made vegan? Yes/No |
| Choline | plants, animals | Yes |
| Zinc | plants, animals | Yes |
| Copper | plants, animals | Yes |
| Chromium | plants, animals | Yes |
Similar to vitamins, these minerals can also be found and created from plant derivatives, therefore available through vegan processes.
Amino Acids
Amino acids perform a lot of important roles in your body. It includes supporting tissue growth, producing energy, absorbing nutrients, and supporting immune functions.
| Amino Acid | Sources | Can it be made vegan? Yes/No |
| L-Tyrosine | plants, animals | Yes |
| Taurine | plants, animals | Yes |
| Glycine | plants, animals | Yes |
| L-Carnitine | plants, animals | Yes |
| Inositol | plants | Yes |
The availability of amino acids is also present in both animals and plants. With the option of these, they can be created with vegan considerations.
Other Ingredients
Beyond all the main ingredients and the nutritive additions, Advocare Spark has the inclusion of food additives in its formula.
Food additives are substances used to maintain or improve the safety of a product they were used in. They help products have a longer shelf life and stay fresh. They are also important in giving products better texture, pigment, and scent.
| Ingredient | Sources | Can it be made vegan? Yes/No |
| Maltodextrin | plants | Yes |
| Citric Acid | plants | Yes |
| Silicon Dioxide | plants, animals | Yes |
| Sucralose (Splenda) | plants | No |
Amongst these additives, Advocare Spark’s source of sucralose remains to be the only one that cannot be made vegan, for reasons I’ve discussed with you earlier.
Is Advocare Spark vegan?
Advocare Spark is not vegan. The brand doesn’t claim to be one either and has clearly stated this on the website.
According to the brand, its energy drink wasn’t formulated to meet the standards of a vegan diet. If you’re following a vegan diet or an advocate for animal cruelty then Advocare Spark is well off your list.
Besides their claim, you can see from the tables above that there are a select few of their ingredients that cannot be made vegan as it stays derived from animals only or its creation processes involves animal cruelty.
Are the ingredients of Advocare Spark vegan?
Most ingredients in Advocare Spark can be made vegan because of their availability in plants. However, some ingredients in Advocare Spark aren’t vegan compliant such as Vitamin A and Taurine.
Additionally, the brand itself is acquainted with a known non-vegan sucralose brand. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that Advocare Spark’s ingredients are not 100% vegan.
Does Advocare Spark contain creatine?
No, creatine isn’t found on the list of Advocare Spark’s ingredients.
Creatine is a popular ingredient among bodybuilders and gym-goers as it’s said to help produce energy specifically for muscle cells.
It’s often taken as a supplement but it’s also available in food such as milk, red meat, and certain kinds of seafood. The body also naturally produces creatine.
Although there is still dispute on its usage and function, creatine is often used by bodybuilders that compete in their physique therefore there isn’t much advantage to its addition unless you’re looking to compete yourself.
When should you drink Advocare Spark?
I recommend that you drink Advocare Spark 15 to 30 minutes before doing a vigorous physical activity, or even mental activity, too, such as gaming. This is in consideration that caffeine takes at least 15 minutes to take effect and this is the stimulant ingredient of the drink.
You may drink in the morning for a boost in mood and energy, or in the middle of the day when you’re feeling sleepy or sluggish but have to finish any important task.
Avoid drinking this energy drink late in the afternoon, or near your bedtime as it may cause you trouble sleeping at night.
Does Advocare Spark help you lose weight?
Advocare Spark isn’t formulated to aid weight loss, nor does it state that it’s a weight-loss beverage. With this, you neither lose nor gain weight even if you consume a few servings in a day.
But Advocare Spark can act as a support to your weight loss diet plans. It is low in calories, low in carbohydrates, and sugar-free so you can forget about gaining weight from drinking this beverage.
Consequently, excessive consumption of calories will lead to weight gain so I suggest you watch your intake carefully.
What are Other vegan-friendly energy drinks?
If you’re a vegan and have successfully marked off Advocare Spark from your drink list, I’m here for your aid. There are a lot of other energy drinks you can turn to that are vegan-friendly.
Here’s to name a few:
- Red Bull Energy Drink
- Guru Energy Drink
- Reign Energy Drink
- Rockstar Zero Carb
- Lo-Carb Monster
- Sambazon Amazon Energy
These energy drinks will provide you with a boost, help in your concentration, and are one in your advocacy to protect animal life.
Summary
If you’re vegan, this article is your red light, Advocare Spark is certainly not vegan.
It contains ingredients that may have used animals or have exploited them to create this energy drink like the aforementioned 12,000 animal deaths due to Splenda’s animal testing for sucralose.
It also has a few more ingredients that are known to come from animals like Vitamin A.
In addition, despite the availability of plant sources, it’s difficult to assure these are being used instead of their animal counterparts. It makes me wonder what other ingredients may have involved animal cruelty similar to Splenda’s sucralose.
In my opinion, whether an ingredient is vegan or not can only be determined by doing a deep study that includes coordination with the product maker. If you’re skeptical, you can always reach out to brands to confirm.
There you have it! I hope I was able to provide you relevant information about the Advocare Spark energy drink.
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