Riboflavin and niacin are both popular energy drink ingredients but in many ways one outshines the other. Niacin is like riboflavin’s cooler older brother. The two are similar, but niacin has more style to its game. Let’s start with how the two get into the body:
✔Niacin can walk into any room it wants but riboflavin needs help. Riboflavin has to be consumed with food because stomach acids need to free it from a protein it’s usually attched to. Niacin can pass through the walls of the stomach and intestines as effortlessly as perfume spreading through a small room (passive diffusion).
✔Riboflavin has to wait til it reaches the small intestine to get absorbed, but Niacin gets absorbed in the stomach too, as if it has a VIP Pass to cut the line and get into the club (the bloodstream) sooner.
✔Niacin is absorbed faster and more efficiently (% absorption-wise) than riboflavin.
✔Niacin is like that person EVERYONE wants at their party, and this will be even MORE apparent when we get to WHAT NIACIN DOES in next week’s book excerpt.
Get your copy of my book on the science behind energy drink ingredients, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
“ARE YOU A MONSTER OR A ROCK STAR: A GUIDE TO ENERGY DRINKS – HOW THEY WORK, WHY THEY WORK, HOW TO USE THEM SAFELY”
Let’s connect!
- Science of Energy Drinks: Facebook.com/energydrinkguide
- Fitness + Caffeine: Facebook.com/greeneyedguide
- Energy Drinks + Fitness/Bodybuilding: Instagram
- 10 Second Label Reviews (and a few nerdy food scientist rants): Twitter