BioSteel is a nutritional supplement manufacturer known for its partnerships with professional athletes. Find out everything you need to know about BioSteel today in our review.
What is BioSteel?
BioSteel, found online at BioSteel.com, is a supplement manufacturer known for its healthy sports drinks. The company’s sports drinks promise to replenish your electrolytes to provide optimal hydration while also reducing muscular and mental fatigue.
Unlike other sports drinks and supplements, BioSteel sports drinks use no sugar, caffeine, stimulants, artificial flavors, or colors. BioSteel is a Canadian company based in Toronto. They were founded in 2009 by Matt Nichol and John Celenza.
Today, BioSteel has partnerships with prominent professional hockey players, basketball players, golfers, and Olympians – including many leading Canadian athletes. Wayne Gretzky, Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos, Andrew Wiggins, Marcus Stroman, Brooke Henderson, and Connor McDavid are a few athletes on the BioSteel sponsorship list.
You can purchase BioSteel in the form of a ready-to-drink (RTD) bottle. Or, you can buy it in the form of a powder, then mix it with water to create your own hydrating formula.
How Does BioSteel Work?
BioSteel describes its sports drink as “an electrolyte and hydration mix”. That drink is delivered in a ready-to-drink bottle and promises to reduce fatigue without the use of sugar or caffeine. A 12 pack of BioSteel is priced at around $45 CAD, making it one of the higher-end hydration beverages on the market.
There are three key components inside BioSteel, including:
- Mineral Blend: The mineral blend includes minerals and electrolytes that are crucial for hydration and core bodily functions. “Consistently replenishing these key nutrients will help the body perform at its best no matter what you’re doing”, explains the official BioSteel website.
- Amino Acid Blend: Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. By adding amino acids to the formula, BioSteel provides your body with an easy-to-absorb source of protein to kickstart your recovery.
- Vitamin B Blend: B vitamins are crucial for cellular energy. They play an important role in metabolizing fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
BioSteel is best known as a brand for athletes. However, the company also markets its drinks to average gym-goers, anyone with a physical job, or even people who spend long hours at the office or studying. It’s also ideal for “overall daily hydration”, according to the official BioSteel website.
Each serving of BioSteel has 0g of sugar and just 4 calories. The water comes from a spring water source in Vermont.
One of the unique things about BioSteel is that the beverage changes color in the sun. This is a natural effect: the company uses beet juice as a coloring compound (beet juice gives the beverage its unique pink color).
When exposed to sunlight, the coloring compounds in beet juice change, causing the color of BioSteel to change. The company claims they could prevent this effect with just one drop of red food coloring – “but then you would obviously not be drinking something that BioSteel stands for.”
BioSteel Ingredients
Here’s the full list of ingredients in each bottle of BioSteel:
Natural Spring Water, L-Leucine, L-Glutamine, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine, Glycine, Taurine, Sea Salt, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Citrate, Lithothamnium Corallioides (Calcium), Magnesium Citrate, Zinc Hydrolized Vegetable Protein Chelate (Zinc), Beet Red, Citric Acid, Choline Bitrtrate (Choline), Thiamine Hydrochloride (Thiamine), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Niacinamine (Niacine), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Inositol, Calcium D-Pantothenate (Pantothenic Acid), Folic Acid (Folate), Vitamin B12, Biotin, Stevia Leaf Extract, Natural Flavours.
The water comes from mountain springs in Vermont. Specifically, the company buys its water from Pristine Mountain Springs, Inc., a company based in Stockbridge, Vermont.
BioSteel comes in a single flavor, typically described as “mixed berry”.
BioSteel Nutritional Value
BioSteel is famous for its low sugar content, low calorie count, and high levels of electrolytes and vitamins. Here’s the nutrition facts for each bottle of BioSteel:
- Calories: 4
- Fat: 0g
- Sodium: 103mg
- Potassium: 48mg
- Carbohydrates: 1g
- Sugars: 0g
- Protein: 0g
- Calcium: 45mg
- Magnesium: 5.4mg
- Zinc: 0.5mg
- Niacin: 1% Daily Value
- Thaimin: 20% DV
- Pantothenate: 3% DV
- Biotin: 1% DV
- Folate: 3% DV
- Vitamin B2: 16% DV
- Vitamin B6: 14% DV
- Vitamin B12: 12% DV
Scientific Evidence for BioSteel
Most companies claim to provide superior hydration and nutritional value – but few companies actually invest in clinical trials and tests. BioSteel’s website has a page dedicated to the science behind its formula.
To demonstrate the value of BioSteel, the company has launched a study co-funded by the Canadian Government’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Some of the key findings from the study thus far include:
Using BioSteel increases peak power output by 1.4-fold over water, which means athletes are able to produce more power when supplemented with BioSteel when compared to using water
BioSteel leads to a greater maintenance of peak power in fatigued athletes when compared to water, leading to a peak power maintenance of 83.30% in the third bout of exercise compared to 68.46% with water
Researchers concluded their BioSteel study by stating that “The enhancing effect of BioSteel HPSD [High Performance Sports Drink] may be attributed to a more efficient use of lactic anaerobic energy system (anaerobic glycolysis) allowing continuation of muscular power production for a maximum of 2min.”
You can read more about the science behind BioSteel here.
Obviously, there’s one drawback of these studies: BioSteel was compared with water. It wasn’t compared against other sports drinks – like Gatorade or Powerade. It’s unclear how BioSteel stacks up against its competitors in the sports drink market.
How to Buy BioSteel
BioSteel is available at retailers across Canada and the United States. You can find it at sports supplement stores, grocery stores, and convenience stores, for example. Check the BioSteel store locator here for more information. Otherwise, look for BioSteel at SportChek, Shoppers Drug Mart, 7-Eleven, Petro-Canada, Metro, GNC, and Sobeys.
BioSteel Products and Pricing
You can buy BioSteel in the form of a ready-to-drink sports drink, or as a powdered supplement. The powder comes in on-the-go packets as well as larger tubs. Here’s how pricing breaks down:
- Sports Drink (12 RTD Bottles): $44.99 CAD
- High Performance Sports Mix (375g): $59.99 CAD
- High Performance Sports Mix Box (30 Packets): $39.99
- High Performance Sports Mix Tube (14 Packets): $19.99
- Nutritional Bars (15 Bars in Blueberry, Fruit and Nut, Tropical, and Vegan Flavors): $44.99
BioSteel also sells whey protein powders, vegan protein powders, and other nutritional supplements through its official online store.
About BioSteel
BioSteel is based in Toronto, Ontario. You can contact the company by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-888-484-7833.
The company was founded by Matt Nichol, described as a “decorated strength and conditioning coach” on the official BioSteel website. To create BioSteel, Nichol leveraged his education and experience in kinesiology and product development.
Nichol sent his “pink drink” to professional athletes he had previously worked with. Impressed by the results, those athletes recommended the drink to their friends. Soon after, BioSteel launched as a full-fledged company.
As Nichol describes it, BioSteel was “commercialized from demand” and “grown from authenticity”.
In 2011, BioSteel made headlines for sponsoring an off-season NHL training camp featuring athletes like Steven Stamkos and Mike Cammalleri.
Gatorade, owned by PepsiCo, cracked down on the event and reportedly threatened legal action against the comapny. After all, Gatorade has a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with the NHL and NHLPA. However, media outlets reported that “nearly half of the league” wasn’t drinking Gatorade for hydration: they were drinking BioSteel (even if they had to drink it out of Gatorade bottles during games).
BioSteel Review Summary
BioSteel is a popular lineup of sports drinks and sports powders. The company is known for its sponsorships with professional athletes – particularly Canadian athletes.
BioSteel’s hydrating beverage promises to provide unique advantages over competitors like Gatorade – including no sugar, few calories (4 calories per bottle), and no artificial colors or ingredients.
The beverages also contain amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and other compounds crucial for fueling athletic performance. You can learn more about BioSteel today by visiting BioSteel.com.
