Tested: FRS Healthy Energy Chews

Along with energy drinks in cans and in powdered form, one of the latest trends is doing energy chews. Clif Bar introduced the Clif Shot Bloks, Jelly Belly entered the market with Sport Beans, and there are also things called Sharkies energy chews.

Not to be outdone, FRS (which also does cans and powders) created their own version of energy chews. The FRS antioxidant health chews take the tried and true FRS energy drink formula and condense it into these bite-size chews, perfect for “on the go” workouts such as cycling.

A bag contains 30 individually-wrapped chews, so you just stick a couple in your jersey pocket and you’re good to go!

FRS Healthy Antioxidant Formula

I discussed the FRS ingredients quite a bit in the FRS liquid concentrate review, so read that if you want to learn more. But here’s a quick recap…

The real secret behind FRS is not giving you more energy, but by fighting off everything that saps your energy, and their strategy works perfectly.

It’s all about the flavonoid antioxidants (especially quercetin and catechins) that are found in FRS (in large portions.) A serving of energy chews gives you the same amount of antioxidants as 2 servings of blueberries, 6 servings of red onions, or 7 servings of raspberries!

Not to mention how these contain 100% or greater daily values of Vitamins C, E, B6, B12, Thiamin, and Riboflavin! That allows your body to fight off toxins easily so you can save your energy for more important things.

Energy Chews Taste and Texture

These “antioxidant health chews” are neat little things. They look just like a little Starburst candy, and they are even individually wrapped so you can carry as many (or as few) as you like.

As for the taste, they do taste great! It’s not exactly like candy, but it’s really close, and it’s far better than the taste of most energy bars.

These also require less chewing than energy bars, which is great - there’s no reason to put extra stress your jaw muscles when your quads and hamstrings are on fire!

The FRS chew consistency is a lot like the Airheads candy bars. If you haven’t had Airheads, it’s hard to explain, but it’s a very close match. (Somewhat like Starbursts, but not quite.)

I got the lemon-lime flavor and it was good, just like their lemon-lime drinks. I would go with lemon-lime over the other option, which is orange.

Energy Chews = Energy Boost

These definitely gave me energy during my tests. My first test was having a powdered drink mix (before) and three of these chews during a 2.5 hour kayak trip and I felt great (before, during, and after!)

Afterwards I started using these on bike rides in place of energy gel. These provide that quick pick me up boost that I usually get from GU gel, but I think the FRS energy boost lasts longer.

The first ingredients are sugar and corn syrup, so that’s probably where the quick pick me up feeling comes from. I’m happy with the sugar, because if I’m exercising, I probably need the calories and carbs. The rest of the ingredients are good except for sucralose, an artificial sweetener. I’m not sure why that’s necessary when real sugar is the first ingredient.

Having only 20 calories in each chew (40 calories per serving,) these aren’t to be used as your only fuel on long rides, but they give you enough energy that you’ll feel good the whole time.

Energy Chew Drawbacks

The problem with these chews is that they do get a bit sticky in your pocket (especially if it’s a warm day) so they become harder to unwrap (just like how warm candy sticks to its wrapper.)

It’s not actually hard to unwrap these, but if you were riding your bike, you’d need two hands to unwrap one of these. I would recommend unwrapping these only on a smooth road with no traffic. Definitely don’t try it while mountain biking!

In cold weather these would probably be better. In the summer, try to refrigerate these before your ride. (That also helps with Powerbars on warm days.)

If these were more like gummy bears, you could put them straight into your jersey pocket without the wrappers. But as they are, they would stick to your jersey just like getting gum in your hair.

My final verdict is…

If it wasn’t for the sucralose, these would get a very high recommendation. They’re good enough that I’ll keep using them despite the use of artificial sweetener, though. So they still get a high recommendation (because man, it’s so hard to find anything without sucralose these days.)

If you need energy, these are for you! While I don’t like sucralose, I can’t argue with the results - these taste good and just plain work!

I suggest using them during exercise, especially if you also use an FRS energy drink before the workout.

Official website: www.healthyenergy.com

Free Trial link: www.healthyenergy.com/tryfree

P.S. You can actually get a free, full-size bag of these as part of an FRS free trial offer, so click the free trial link to check that out.