It may seem like I’m beating a dead horse here but I feel like most of us are being treated like mushrooms. Fed bull crap and kept in the dark when it comes to nutritional education, especially about the dangers of energy drinks. Just because it’s on TV doesn’t mean its safe people. Energy drinks all have varying levels of sugar, caffeine, and other herbal substances, but the underlying dangers are all the same. The amount of caffeine in these drinks well exceeds the maximum recommendations for daily intake of caffeine for children and youth, so big deal right? Caffeine is just part of life and we’ve all become oblivious to its harmful effects. I used to have my 3 cups of coffee in the morning until I started investigating the real truth about energy drinks. Caffeine in excess amounts can be extremely dangerous. It is known to be an addictive stimulant drug and can cause sleep disturbances, headaches, nervousness, irritability, and anxiety. It can also cause changes in heart rate, including tachycardia, which has been linked to energy drink consumption. Caffeine can produce these effects at different rates depending on ones size and body weight. For example, less caffeine is required to produce these effects in smaller individuals making children more vulnerable than adults. Caffeine is also a diuretic which means that it will clean you out and not in a good way. Imagine sitting down for a nice healthy filling breakfast and having two or three cups of coffee along with it. 20-30 minutes later you start making your trips to the bathroom to relieve yourself. What’s really going on here is that most of the nutrients that you just consumed with breakfast have not had a chance to break down and be absorbed into your body. Instead they are being eliminated through your urinary tract prematurely. This is the type of information that most people never realize and I hope if you are reading this that you just had an AHAH moment. Most energy drinks contain over 80 mg per 250 ml, more than 3 times the amount caffeine in same amount of soda. However, some energy drinks have been found to contain up to 500 mg per serving. We also get caffeine from other foods and beverages (eg. coffee, tea, chocolate, dark soda, etc.), so many people may easily exceed the daily recommended amounts. Age Group Recommended Maximum Daily Intake Caffeine: * 4-6 years 45 mg * 7-9 years 62.5 mg * 10-12 years 85 mg * Adults 300 mg Dangers Of Too Much Sugar in Energy Drinks Now let’s talk about the amount of sugar in the most popular energy drinks and the effects on our culture as a whole. It’s no secret that Type 2 diabetes is running amuck in America and for good reason. Everything we eat now has sugar (aka High Fructose Corn Syrup). Don’t believe me, just read the labels on everything you purchase the next time you go grocery shopping. They snuck this little devil in disguise in on us back in the 70’s and it’s now such a part of our everyday life that it goes completely unnoticed by us mushrooms. Don’t believe what the corn refiners tell you either, just do your research and see for yourself why the very farmers that grow this base crop won’t eat it. Not fit for human consumption is what they will tell you. It’s no wonder why in 40 years we’ll be spending more in medical care than the sum of our country’s GNP! Did you hear that America? It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, with cream and sugar of course. Oh, and don’t forget the caffeine. So now what are we going to do about this growing obesity problem? Well believe it or not our government actually got something right recently. In December 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Stevia product rebaudioside A (rebiana) as a general purpose sweetener. Rebiana is an ingredient derived from the leaf of the stevia plant. Stevia has been available as a dietary supplement in natural food markets for a long time but now that it has the FDA stamp of approval as a safe food source we will be seeing it more and more as companies begin incorporating stevia into new products. One such company is Yoli which markets healthy, all natural beverages. In January of 2010 Olympic star Carl Lewis will be introducing their organic sports drink call â€Funâ€. Trademarked stevia sweetners are Truviaâ" (CocaCola and Cargill) and PureViaâ" (Whole Earth Sweetener Company LLC and PepsiCo). Personally I’m using the Truvia product which I purchased at my local Safeway to sweeten my now de-caff coffee. I hope you now have some insight as to the dangers of energy drinks and the truth about these products. The long term effects are just not worth the short term rush in my opinion. But try and explain that to a college student cramming for finals. Just glad these harmful drinks were not available when I was in college or I might be on a dialysis machine right now.
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