Hard Ketones: My favorite alternative to alcohol
All the benefits, none of the downsides
As I near my mid-30’s, one thing I’ve started to focus on is my health.
Not because there’s any issues or anything like that, but because I’ve noticed how something “small” turns into a multi-day ordeal.
I eat too much bread, I feel like junk for two days.
I drink 4 beers, I have brain fog for 24 hours.
I don’t get enough sleep, okay, you get the hint…
And a major point recently has been alcohol.
Wouldn’t say I’m an alcoholic, but I definitely enjoy throwing some back with the boys.
Always been a social butterfly, booze tends to go with that, and there’s two guys who’ve really started to help me see how bad it actually is.
These fun-haters are Andrew Huberman:
And Gary Brecka:
And even though I’ve learned a lot from them, one “surprising” statement came from Gary Brecka.
If you’ve never heard of him, he’s the guy who changed Dana White’s life:
And in one of his podcasts, he made a statement that caught me off guard.
Can’t remember exactly how he said it now, know he mentioned it towards the end, so you can view for yourself if you want:
But in short, he said something along the lines of how “alcohol” isn’t really terrible for you, it’s the toxin your body converts it into.
This toxin is referred to as “acetaldehyde”, a dangerous by-product that has some damaging effects on the body:
And after hearing him say this, I was reminded of an “alcohol alternative” I tried years ago.
As I’m sure you can guess, this “alternative” is known as “Hard Ketones”, a product made by HardKetones.com:
And even though there’s a few benefits that come with this type of “ketohol”, the main one is how your body converts it.
Unlike alcohol-based products, ones where your body converts the “feel good” juice into acetaldehyde, this drink is converted into ketones.
If you’re not familiar with ketones, highly suggest looking into them, a lot of great benefits that come with it — including:
But at the end of the day, it’s a natural form of energy your body produces, when on the ketogenic diet.
This is the main reason why people notice a lot of “mental benefits” when switching to keto, including:
- Enhanced clarity
- No brain fog
- Higher productivity
- Etc…
Just feeling “better” all-around, so after noticing this two weeks ago, I decided to give them another shot.
It’d been a minute since I’d tried them, so I got a 4-pack, wanted to give a quick review on what I discovered:
As they were delicious
When I first tried them years ago, I can’t remember the exact flavors they had, but I’m pretty sure it was Gin & Tonic and “seltzers”.
Now don’t get me wrong, they definitely weren’t bad, but the new flavors they rolled out since then were even better.
In this case, I was able to grab “Ginger Mules” along with “Pina Coladas”, and even though these aren’t necessarily my two favorite drinks “regularly” — I was a huge fan.
This was especially true for the Pina Colada drinks, almost felt like a healthy treat in a can:
But I didn’t mind the “Ginger Mules” either, as they have additional “ketohol”:
Anyway, that by itself was enough for me to recommend to friends, but it also wouldn’t hurt if I mentioned:
The euphoric effect
When it comes to “traditional” alcohol, one thing I really don’t enjoy is the crash that comes with it.
It seems like I’ll have 4 drinks, feel great and energetic, but then hours later I’m “sluggish”.
If you’ve ever drank before, you know what I’m talking about, but these drinks definitely had a different effect.
One that’s hard to say, Tim Ferriss jokingly mentions how it gave him a similar “delirium”:
But if I had to put a finger on it, I’d say they put you in the perfect “buzzed” zone, without having to worry about the crash after that.
Maybe it’s because I stuck with their recommended limit of 3 cans per day:
But either way, I was a huge fan.
I ended up drinking these “earlier” than normal, think it was around 4 p.m., and felt great until I went to bed around 10 p.m.
Needless to say, that was great by itself, but here’s the weird point that really stood out:
I LOVED the “hangover”
As I mentioned earlier in this article, one of the worst parts with alcohol is how it converts into a terrible toxin.
I don’t know the science behind it, but I’m guessing this is why most get hangovers, Hard Ketones had a wildly different effect.
Now, instead of filling my body with toxins, I was filling my body with ketones — apparently by 1–2 mM per drink:
And if you’re not familiar with “ketone” levels, when you’re following a ketogenic diet, anything over .5 mM is generally considered a “state of ketosis”.
That’s when you start to feel the benefits of ketones, something that gets even better once you reach the point of having 1 mM in your bloodstream, and I was definitely there.
I didn’t check my blood levels or anything, I’ve just done keto enough to feel the difference, and my body felt so good the following day — I didn’t end up eating until 5 p.m. or so.
Not sure if this was due to increased ketone levels from these drinks the night before, or if it’s because I tend to occasionally do 24 hour fasts and just wasn’t hungry, but it happened.
Just mentioning my experience now, and this was probably the only time I was more productive with a “hangover”.
Felt great the following day, which again, could’ve been due to many reasons — including:
- Great sleep
- Better diet the day before
- Etc…
It’s a one-off event and I’m not saying Hard Ketones was responsible for this, they’re actually designed to be calming, not your typical “energy-boosting” drinks (such as ketone esters) — but it was something I noticed.
Either way, certainly didn’t give me a typical “hangover”, and:
Here’s the reason it all works
I’m not going to sit here and act like a Human Biologist, that’s far from my “zone of genius”, but I know it helps to at least have a decent “understanding” of why this works.
I’d never heard of Ketohol before trying these drinks, pretty sure Hard Ketones has a patent on this and is the only company that makes it, so I did some research and noticed how the main Ketohol that goes into them is R 1,3 butanediol.
Seeing this, I decided to email the company about it, asking what this “is” — and Frank Llosa (the owner) gave me a brief overview hours later.
In the simplest terms, ketohol is JUST R 1,3 Butanediol.
I guess other drinks use this in their product, doing so as a “ketone ester”, meaning R 1,3 Butanediol is bound to another molecule (such as C8) - creating a different effect because of it.
Anyway, that’s how most companies use it, but Frank came across a “backstory” about what happened when scientists tried R 1,3 Butanediol by itself.
Seeing how it raised blood ketone levels, they analyzed how mice reacted when only receiving R 1,3 Butanediol (i.e. not delivered as a ketone ester), minutes later they were stumbling around — almost as if they were drunk.
That caused them to “throw it out”, as it wasn’t producing the “energetic” effect they were looking for, so Frank dug in and analyzed how that’d apply to humans — ended up creating “Hard Ketones” because of it.
In short, and the way I understand this, when you use R 1,3 Butanediol as a “ketone ester” — combining it with another molecule (such as C8)…
You get a more “energetic” effect, one that helps you run marathons and all that, but when you drink it by itself — you get the “calming” effect.
That’s the main gist of “how it works”, and apparently it’s okay for anybody, even if you’re not on the ketogenic diet:
So obviously do your own research, I’m far from a doctor, but I drank these when I wasn’t on keto — still had a pleasant experience.
If there’s one thing I would recommend, it’s to drink them on an empty stomach, which is also what they mention:
And seeing how many others have had positive experiences with this product:
Including some big name “health influencers”:
I think it’s safe to say, the human body generally reacts very well to them.
With that said, this is really all I wanted to mention now, and that brings us to:
The recap
Long story short, if you’re looking to reduce your alcohol consumption, but don’t want to miss the euphoric effects that come with it — I highly advise looking into “Hard Ketones”.
It’s similar to the alcohol molecule, ethanol, in that it still produces similar effects — but without the hangover and side effects.
Doing this allows you to get the “buzz” we all need every once in a awhile, without the downside of doing so, and if you’re looking to give these a shot — I got mine at HardKetones.com:
Here’s a direct link (not affiliated)
Receiving very fast shipping afterwards (think it was 2 days, but might’ve been 3).
Needless to say, that’s all for now, so if you’re somebody who likes to have a few drinks — but also focuses on health…
Might not hurt to give them a try, the experience could surprise you (as I’ve never found an alcohol alternative that actually lives up to the promise).
-Sean
P.S. For everybody asking, I was not paid to write this and I have no affiliation with the company.
I just like what they’re doing, have personally purchased roughly 240 of these drinks since they launched (and gotten a few free tasting samples because of it), so decided to write a review — sharing my experience.
As for why it “looks” like an ad, that’s what I do for a living, so my tone is naturally going to skew this way.
Last but not least, yes, the product is higher-priced.
If it’s out of your budget, or you don’t feel like paying, then just don’t buy it.
Never understood why everybody feels like they need to have an opinion anymore, I’m merely writing about my experience, you make your own decisions after that.
