Energy drinks promise to make you more alert, focused and invigorated, in some sense they do achieve this because they can reduce fatigue and make you feel more alert and active. However it may be at the cost of your health and overall wellbeing. They can cause major side effects and there is adequate data to demonstrate how unsafe they are. Energy drinks come in all sorts of forms they can be bottled, canned, and is typically premixed and ready to drink. While this is the easiest form, be aware of the serving size because many bottles can be two serving sizes or even more than that. If you drink the entire bottle, you are most likely consuming double the dose of the ingredients on the label. Energy shots come in smaller doses but the full dose hits you hard and quickly and lasts for 5-6 hours. Most energy drinks contain a mixture of caffeine, B vitamins, sugar and herbs. Caffeine is the main ingredient in these energy drinks and provides all of the energy. The biggest concern is the amount of caffeine that is put into these drinks. Energy drinks typically contain anywhere from 80 to 500 mg per serving. A maximum of 200 mg of caffeine per day is considered safe. Not only do these energy drinks have incredibly high caffeine levels, but they are also combined with herbs that consist of caffeine for example, guarana and yerba mate. Higher doses of caffeine can have countless unpleasant responses. Consuming more than the recommended dose of caffeine can cause reactions such as sleeplessness, nervousness, rapid heart rate and elevated blood pressure. It can also lead to dehydration because of its diuretic effect. Some energy drinks contain enormous quantities of B vitamins. B vitamins do not enhance your energy without a deficiency in them. Most B vitamins aren’t necessarily harmful when additionally digested because they are water-soluble and excess is processed through the body and later flushed out through urine. Two B vitamins however can be toxic in excess such as vitamin B3 that can cause an upset stomach, unclear vision and dizziness, or inflammation of the liver. Overindulgence of vitamin B6 can produce damage of nerves, and numbness in limbs. Many herbs that contain caffeine are also in these drinks such as guarana. Only one guarana seed has double the caffeine of a coffee bean. Ginseng another herb used in these drinks has been proven to increase brainpower, but only a maximum of 200 mg would this occur, which most of these drinks don’t contain. In other studies Ginseng has been shown to correlate with blood-thinning drugs, possibly changing their usefulness. A single serving of an energy drink can have as much as 14 teaspoons of sugar, which is more than double the recommended dose. This much sugar increases our blood glucose levels, which is what boosts our energy. This temporary spike of energy is absolutely not worth the weight gain that comes along with the excess sugar consumption.
http://tellmed.org/patient-information/local-health-concerns-1/just-how-bad-are-energy-drinks
I have never consumed an energy drink, and after reading this post, I will most likely keep it that way! The negative effects of energy drinks truly are scary to think about. I have always wondered how these drinks claim to boost energy. This article is highly interesting, and it further explains exactly how they work: http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/energy-drink.htm
Even though energy drinks are linked to negative effects, the need for energy still exists. People’s energy levels vary throughout the day for different reasons but during the day student’s, in particular, need to produce at optimum levels to maximize the amount of work accomplished. If energy drinks harm our health, how can we regulate our energy levels? This article (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228087) suggests four different alternatives to energy drinks.