Patriot Health Digest
TikTok: an app that allows, in only a few flicks, for you to go from a weird dance trend to a person eating pre-workout or from cringe-inducing tv interviews to viral sleep hacks. The scarily widespread video platform says it is an app for people to be themselves, learn new stuff and try new habits, with thousands of videos being published and shared because of their confusing nature.
The latest video in question? A TikTok user who made a video about ‘Proffee’ — protein which is mixed with coffee, made by including a scoop of protein powder to a cup of espresso and poured on ice. It’s said (and agreed by many other TikTok fitness enthusiast) that this combination of muscle-building sports supplement and energy-increasing caffeine heightens energy and, more strangely, burns more calories.
Health experts and doctors, however, are saying that this new ‘trending blend’ might lead to irregular heart beat and excess sugar consumption.
“If you are drinking a few cups of espresso, that might be too much caffeine. It is like drinking three cups of coffee,” Andrea Chernus from Chernus Nutrition explained.
“Depending on how you personally metabolise coffee, it might stay in your body longer. That can change your heart rate, trigger arrhythmias and it might not be so great for your heart to be beating hard as you drink shots of expresso.”
And that is just the coffee in the mix. “Protein that has added sugars or artificial flavourings or sweeteners, can increase your sugar and carb levels,” said Dr. Frederick Davis. “These sorts of nutrition trends may not be one-size-fits-all and they could harm some people.”
The best solution? Try to stick to pre-workout espresso and save your whey protein for your after workout shake. And, as Chernus says, “Just because it is a trend on social media does not mean it is a good strategy for weight loss.”
Author: Steven Sinclaire
