Volleyball Nutrition – Yerba Mate

Volleyball Nutrition, the Amazon secret energy drink

Today for my volleyball nutrition review, we’re examining Guayaki’s Yerba Mate.  Hi, My name is Russ Marchewka and I am a professional beach volleyball player here in the US.  I’ve played 4 full seasons on tour and the last 2 eating a vegan diet.  I supplement with fish oil as my only non-plant food.  I’ve found how to have more energy, faster recovery and better results using a diet like this and love sharing my successes with everyone else.

Volleyball Nutrition, how can Yerba Mate improve your performance?

First things first.  What is Yerba Mate?  I get that from 95 out of 100 people.  Generally, the 5 that know about it are either from South America, or I’ve already told them about it.  Yerba Mate is a shrub, a plant that grows in the shade of the rainforest.  It’s like the superfood of teas.  You harvest it like tea, dry the leaves the same way and then brew it just like tea.  That’s where the similarities diverge.

Yerba Mate has 24 vitamins and minerals.  It contains amino acids and tons of antioxidants.  It also contains these plant compounds call phyto-chemicals.  In our body, phyto-chemicals are responsible for many repair processes, strengthening our immune system and also optimal brain functioning.  The closest you get to this with anything you may have heard of is green tea.  Honestly though, the comparison of green tea with yerba mate is kind of like comparing a Ford Mustang to a Ferrari and saying they are both sports cars.  Yea, they are, BUT clearly one is a more optimal buy if the price is right.

Yerba Mate contains natural caffeine, a plant alkaloid, that when surrounded by the proper nutrients, can have a dramatically different effect on us than coffee or a Red Bull.      I just wrote an article about how Yerba Mate and its various chemical compounds are literally brain food.  The brain is the most important organ in the body and yet very rarely do we think about eating foods that target brain health.  Don’t view Yerba Mate as caffeine, that would be a mistake.  It’s a drink that combines all of its health properties together to give you a long-lasting energy, euphoria and endurance all in one without jitters or crash.  Seriously.  Think about how that could improve your performance.

Volleyball Nutrition and how Yerba Mate can take you to the next level.

Top 3 reasons to incorporate Guayaki Yerba Mate into your routine:

• healthy caffeine alternative to coffee
• great-tasting, cheaper alternative to coffee and energy drinks
• Eco-friendly

Volleyball Nutrition, Yerba Mate vs coffee

I know, coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world besides water.  How can I expect to change your view on the world’s most popular drink.  Well, I decided to hit you with some facts about coffee that may surprise you.  If you’re an athlete, you want to take the best care of your body you can.  It’s the money maker.

Coffee is an acidic drink.  What that means is that you drink it and when it enters your blood stream it creates an acidic environment.  Our bodies have a natural pH of 7.3-7.4 or slightly alkaline if you remember middle school chemistry.  Coffee has a pH of about 5.0.  That means that in order to neutralize it, your body has to release valuable mineral stores into your blood to set things straight.  Think of it as internal sweating.  When we sweat we lose minerals (aka electrolytes) through our sweat.  Sweat too much and become dehydrated, cramp, get exhausted etc.  Well the same thing happens inside when we digest and drink acidic foods.

In addition to releasing mineral stores, our body also needs to dilute the acid so it sends water out from our muscles to help flush out the coffee or energy drinks.  So, we are becoming dehydrated as well as losing minerals.  A double whammy.

So think about it, if you want to be in an optimal state for performance and recovery, you want your mineral stores to be dedicated towards playing at your best, not to neutralizing that coffee.  Same goes for muscle recovery.  Energy drinks are worse than coffee so I don’t feel like I need to say anything more than that.

Well Yerba Mate is different.  Yerba Mate contains a bunch of vitamins and minerals already.  It doesn’t create that same acidic environment the way that coffee does.  Your body doesn’t need to release all those mineral stores in order to neutralize it.  I will reiterate again that Yerba Mate also contains amazing amounts of anti-oxidants and the amino acids help with circulation and oxygenation of the blood.

Volleyball Nutrition, a cost-effective alternative to coffee

Yerba Mate tastes great.  I myself have never liked the taste of coffee.  That’s not a cheap plug for Yerba Mate.  Since I was a kid, I’ve always hated the taste of coffee.  i used to chug the stuff in college to stay up all night but I always hated it.  When energy drinks were becoming really popular I really got into those because they were a much better tasting way to get that caffeine.

Just like soda, everyone knows that energy drinks are not good for you.  Whether it is sugar or alternative sweeteners, neither is good for you.  Combine that with artificial ingredients and caffeine it’s just not a healthy choice.  Plus, all those energy drinks really started putting a dent in my budget.

Yerba Mate kind of has this earthy, satisfying taste.  Once you start drinking it, you can really pick up on the complexities.  It’s grown on the floor of the rainforest, some of the most pristine and unadulterated soil in the world.  Picture the rainforest and you have all this decaying debris on the forest floor creating the most nutrient-rich soil on the planet.  That’s what Yerba Mate is grown in.  You brew Yerba Mate like coffee.  Use a tea ball, french press, or loose leaf in a cup and use a bombilla, a special filtering straw to drink straight from the cup without sucking up the leaves.

Volleyball Nutrition, Guayaki is one of the most eco-friendly companies around

I get my Yerba Mate from Guayaki because they grow it organically without pesticides and fertilizers which can be dangerous to your body.  Also, they employ farmers and pay them fair-trade wages which is morally responsible.  They use bio-degradable packaging made from plant cellulose.  So when you’re done with your bag, throw it in the trash and know that it will compost at the dump and leave the world a cleaner place.  From the start of growing, packaging and shipping to you brewing a delicious cup, Guayaki’s Yerba Mate is carbon negative.  That means that you actually pull more CO2 out of the air by purchasing a bag than was put into it!  Coffee and energy drinks can’t make that claim.

For more information on purchasing the Guayaki Yerba Mate visit Vbvolleyball.com, Online Volleyball Store or for more information on Volleyball Nutrition visit Volleyball1on1.com