What’s in energy drinks?
Monster, Red Bull, and Amp are just a few of the most popular energy drinks out on the market. But you ever wonder what makes these liquids keep you up for hours? These beverages are usually carbonated and filled with different overloading amounts of ingredients. According to Time Magazine, common ingredients found in energy drinks are caffeine, guarana, sugars, taurine, ginseng, “b vitamins and other additives”. Caffeine is a plant based substance that can allow the consumer to remain wake for as long as six hours. Guarana is a a plant as well, its seeds are used for their caffeine. Guarana is a natural stimulant to the nervous system, heart, and muscles. It contains other components similar to caffeine that overall help with thinking. Web MD states that “Early research in healthy people suggests that taking a single dose of guarana dry extract can improve thinking speed.” Sugars within energy drinks can vary from 0 grams to over 100 grams. Taurine is an amino acid that supports neurological development and, also improves mental performance when combined with caffeine. Lastly Ginseng is a plant that is also aiding in fatigue. Nevertheless the ingredients within your energy drinks are there to keep you awake!
But where’s the proof?
Studies have been done on ingredients within the medical field to give to patients. The herb Ginseng was given to patients cancer. The trial was conducted with the use of a placebo. After half the patients receiving the placebo and half receiving actual herb, there was a calculated improvement. Medical News Today reportedly states that as many as “As many as 90% of all cancer patients report a debilitating fatigue.” Thus is an herb is able to keep cancer patients prone to fatigue up, a drink filled with nervous system stimulants is sure to do the trick for mostly anyone.
Mayo Clinic’s website has specialist, Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., who wrote about the topic of energy drinks with an article entitled, “Can energy drinks really boost a person’s energy?,” within the article she actually breaks down what someone “should” do if they feel the need to drink energy drinks, “…occasional energy drinks are fine, but try to limit yourself to about 16 ounces (500 milliliters) a day.”
Conclusion
Bottom line is that drinking energy drinks is okay because most of its ingredients are beneficial. Yet, it is unknown how much of the ingredients are actually within the cans. The safer route with energy drinks would be to drink them occasionally or if you felt that it was in need (for studying weeks, staying up to complete assignments). Sometimes you need an extra juice of energy! Nevertheless, don’t forget that sleep is always the better solution!
Imagine by http://www.caffeineinformer.com/energy-drink-side-effects
There are many studies on Energy Drinks, seeing as though they are becoming a hot topic from people weighing the risk and benefits. Most studies say that energy drinks are bad because they cause multiple problems including heart problems, anxiety, insomnia, even cardiac arrest. I think it would be smart to look at Meta analysis on energy drinks to weigh the effects of it. Because 47% of the beverage market is energy drinks, many private companies could be paying for the study, which could effect the results of the trial. Here is a meta analysis on the impact of energy drinks, I recommend looking into this article to see the scope of many studies rather than one, that could be funded by these energy drink companies, http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/127/12_MeetingAbstracts/AP324
Although Ginseng is a good herb, there are many other ingredients in energy drinks that make them harmful to our bodies. For one instance is the amount of sugar in energy drinks is definitely not good for us. Also it depends on how you drink them, once or twice a week isn’t so harmful, but some people use them as chasers for alcohol or just casually drink them everyday and thats when consumption becomes dangerous.
Everything we consume in life is considered “bad” it seems. I think your post was really interesting, but proposed a lot of information in very short paragraphs versus describing things in more detail. Here is an article about energy drinks and their risks: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2015/01/16/are-energy-drinks-really-that-bad
When discussing energy drinks you can have trouble backing up your information with the lack of arguments for the use of the caffeine products. But, you develop your argument well even though I believe that energy drinks have a negative effect on the body in the long run, even though they may benefit in the short stint of time. Here is an article to backup my information. http://www.caffeineinformer.com/top-10-energy-drink-dangers
This was an interesting post for me to read because all I’ve heard before is how bad energy drinks are for you (even though I’m currently drinking one after pulling an all nighter). It was refreshening to read about a different point of view, especially since you backed it up with credible sources and data. However, there are certainly people and sources out there that disagree with this claim. If you would like to know more about the other point of view, check this article out!
This is interesting because I have always heard that energy drinks are bad for you. I have never heard that they are actually beneficial to your health. I would like to do more research on particular brands of energy drinks and see if any of them have different ingredients or any of them could be better for you than others.
Energy drinks are a tricky case. They are so popular among people our age but from personal experience there is no doubt they are dangerous. My cousin used to take down a can of monster energy like it was nothing and he would do so about 3 times a day. Over consecutive consumption he developed seizures and ended up being hospitalized. This being said energy drink just as anything else is okay in moderation but never over step it could be a matter of life or death.