Are Energy Drinks Bad for You?
Red Bull can give you wings, but at what cost? For some, energy drinks are dangerous elixirs, while others consider them a magic potion of vitality? The truth about how they affect your body isn’t all black.
To understand this bank with caffeine, we spoke with Kamal Patel, director Examine.com . Patel immediately explains that understanding energy drinks and their ingredients is difficult:
One of the reasons there are so many misconceptions is that the umbrella category “energy drinks” is more heterogeneous than almost any other category. Sometimes it’s just caffeine plus some weird ingredients that don’t do anything, sometimes it’s high levels of active ingredients, and sometimes they overlap withergogenic remedies designed for athletes.
It would be impossible to describe every drink that claims to be an “energy drink”, but popular brands like Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar and 5-Hour Energy have a lot in common when it comes to their particular “drink.” energy mix “. We will focus on them in this article. But, as always, check the ingredient list yourself and see how your favorite drink goes.
Common Energy Drink Ingredients (and What They Do)
Before we can discuss how energy drinks affect your body, you need to know what they are made of. Here are some of the more common supplements found in popular energy drinks and their uses:
Taurine
Taurine is a naturally occurring amino acid that plays many fundamental biological roles. If you are a moderately healthy person, you are likely to produce the taurine your body needs on your own. On average, an energy drink will contain about 1,000 milligrams of taurine per 8-ounce serving, according to Katherine Zeratsky, M.D. at the Mayo Clinic , which is considered safe by medical researchers. Zeratsky suggests that taurine may help with mental and physical performance, but there is very little evidence to support this. However, according to Patel, if you stare at the screen all day, it can help your eyes. One study by M. Zhang and published in Amino Acids suggests that taking taurine regularly can help reduce and alleviate visual fatigue commonly associated with visual displays.
Guarana
Guarana is actually a plant that grows in the Amazon and is commonly found in Brazil. However, you are not swallowing the plant itself, but its seeds; which have been used by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon for centuries to heighten their energy and alertness. According to Erica Boob and Carla Schellnutt, Ph.D., M.D. from the University of Florida , the chemical component in guarana that gives you energy is actually just natural caffeine. In fact, guarana has the highest caffeine content of any plant. This means that it acts on you in the same way as caffeine. However, Patel explains that a lot of research has been done to find out if guarana has any additional effects on humans beyond its caffeine content.A recent study published in the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine suggests that commercial products containing guarana do not have much of an impact on your mood, anxiety, or psychological well-being. Basically, this is comparable to taking caffeine, which can be normal if you respond well to caffeine, but we’ll look at this important supplement later.
Ginseng
Ginseng is a medicinal herb long believed to improve physical performance, concentration and memory (especially when combined with another herb,ginkgo biloba ). Patel says there is no conclusive evidence that ginseng is bad for most people, especially in the short term. In fact, Patel notes that besides getting energy quickly, there may be some potential benefits:
A recent meta-analysis provided preliminary evidence that ginseng, a popular ingredient in energy drinks, has the potential to have a beneficial (albeit modest) effect on fasting blood glucose in both people with and without type 2 diabetes. Two randomizedcontrolled trials , which were published one year after the meta-analysis, provided additional evidence to support ginseng and its potential role in improving blood glucose regulation in people with impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes.
That being said, the US National Library of Medicine suggests that prolonged use (more than 6 months of regular ingestion) may cause insomnia and possibly interfere with the proper action of certain medications, such as insulin, oral hypoglycemic agents, blood thinners, and diuretics. But all of this can be controversial because, according to Boob and Shelnutt , the amount of ginseng commonly found in energy drinks is less than the amount traditionally considered beneficial. We don’t really know enough about ginseng yet to tell if it’s good or bad, but if your only source of it is occasional energy drinks (not daily supplemented pills), you’re probably fine.
Vitamins of group B
In general, you are likely to find at least four B vitamins listed in the nutritional value of your energy drink; including vitamin B3 (niacin) , vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) , vitamin B12 (cobalamin), and vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) . Medical research shows that a deficiency in certain B vitamins can make you feel tired, but according to the National Institutes of Health , supplying your body with more B vitamins than needed does not provide “extra energy.” When you consume more vitamin B than your body needs, it is simply lost in urine. In fact, you probably already get most of the B vitamins your body needs from your diet, so the B vitamins in energy drinks are likely to be going in and out of you in no time. The NIH suggests that B vitamins are safe to consume even when your body doesn’t need them, but too much B6 can be dangerous. Fortunately, you will need to consume about 50 servings of energy drinks to reach any dangerous numbers.
Of course, these aren’t the only ingredients you’ll find in energy drinks. Besides the mixture of other supplements in very small doses, there are two other major players when it comes to energy drink ingredients: sugar and caffeine . Sugar is not always bad, but in large quantities it is very bad for your health . It is especially dangerous to drink because you can keep drinking it even if your body does not recognize the amount of sugar you are eating, which means you will remain hungry. Unless you opt for the sugar-free option, most energy drinks have about 30 grams of sugar per serving, and depending on the size of the drink itself, you can swallow small amounts of calories without supplying your body with any essential nutrients. nutrients. The artificial sweeteners used in the sugar-free versions of most energy drinks are a completely different can of worms. These substitutes help deliver the same ingredients as the previous ones without compromising on refined sugar, but there has been a lot of controversy about how they might affect your body. Overall, there is no clear evidence that artificial sweeteners are associated with cancer risk in humans , but there is still a lot to be learned about them.
On the other hand, caffeine is the most popular ingredient in any energy drink, and it probably gives you that energy boost. Caffeine improves your motivation and concentration by enhancing catecholamine signaling , but this effect may be weakened over time as your body develops a tolerance for caffeine. Patel says that once you develop enough tolerance, only the effects of being awake will still be present. In general, you will not be able to fall asleep, but you will also not feel that you have extra “energy”. We’ve spoken at length about how caffeine affects the body if you’d like to know more.
How energy drinks can affect your body in the long term
This all sounds so bad, right? Patel suggests that intermittent consumption of energy drinks is probably okay when you have one of those long days, but regular consumption (such as daily) can have adverse health effects:
Most of the research on this topic seems to be about associations, so a causal relationship cannot be determined, but stimulants in large quantities are cause for concern, especially with regard to mental health (stimulants taken to avoid sleep) and cardiovascular health. vascular system. The amount of sugar in some of them can also be a health concern based only on total calories, but also in terms of the gastrointestinal tract, if taken separately and there are complicating factors (such as pre-diabetic) … that energy drinks are usually made up of many different ingredients, so how they will affect your health in the long run is a shocking joke. In fact, I can imagine a House-type scenario where some strange energy drink is to blame that the patient thinks he should take every day.
Basically, it’s hard to say what exactly might go wrong, but this topic is a matter of serious concern. In fact, just this year, a healthy 26-year-old man suffered a heart attack, which doctors say may have been caused by his energy drink habit . Of course, he also consumed eight to ten energy drinks a day, so a heart attack at this age didn’t seem too far-fetched. Generally, there isn’t much research looking at the use of energy drinks over time, but as Patel explains, there is one important ingredient that researchers are aware of for the long-term effects: caffeine.
As most caffeine drinkers already know, habitual caffeine consumption can lead to addiction in some people.Withdrawal symptoms such as headache or fatigue are quite common after short-term use of 600 mg or more per day. In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) has officially recognized caffeine withdrawal as well as caffeine intoxication (criteria for which include 5 or more symptoms such as nervousness, restlessness, tachycardia, and gastrointestinal disturbances that occur shortly thereafter). drinking an excess of 250 mg of caffeine), which can occur with large, acute doses.
So while we don’t know how certain ingredients in energy drinks might affect you in the long run, we do know about the most common ingredients. Caffeine is ” generally safe ” by the FDA, but there are still reasons to be wary of it. In fact, there are many concerns about energy shots like the popular 5-Hour Energy brand because of their hidden caffeine content. According to laboratory tests commissioned by Forbes , these tiny bottles can contain anywhere from 150 to 210 mg of caffeine trapped inside. Energy Extra Strength 5 Hour contains nearly 250 mg of caffeine, the highest of any energy drink they tested, according to Consumer Reports . It’s actually nothing more than a large cup of Starbucks coffee, but it’s all packaged in a tiny bottle that doesn’t indicate how much caffeine is inside. This can be troubling because these energy supplements are marketed as safer and healthier alternatives to other types of energy drinks when there isn’t much of a difference between the two. 5-Hour Energy is sugar-free and very low in calories, but you’re still lowering the B vitamins and other supplements you’ll find in other energy drinks.
In general, the FDA warns consumers against energy drinks and “shots” and notes that drinking them is not a suitable alternative to rest or sleep. In addition, the FDA has investigated several cases of people experiencing side effects after consuming energy drinks, including several deaths that may also be related to them. Before spitting Rockstar all over your screen, however, keep in mind that research isn’t enough to show that energy drinks are safe or dangerous in the long run. Be moderate in your energy drink intake, keep your caffeine intake in a reasonable range, and you will probably be fine.
Bottom line
Overall, after scanning about 10 of the most popular energy drink brands, Patel says there is nothing completely unsafe in the dosages available. So, if you absolutely need an energy drink, Patel and I have come up with some tips for choosing a good energy drink:
- Consider sticking to nutritionally labeled energy drinks so you can see what you are eating. As Ruth Litchfield, an assistant professor at Iowa State University , explains, energy drink companies can market their products as nutritional supplements and bypass the FDA approval process with a “supplement fact label” that provides much less information.
- Look for one that contains a small amount of caffeine; somewhere around 100 mg, which is about the same as a cup of coffee.
- Keep track of the sugar content of each energy drink. Red Bull, for example, is popular, but it is very high in sugar unless you choose sugar-free.
- Be sure to check the actual servings listed on the energy drink can. The standard serving size for most energy drinks is eight fluid ounces, but many energy drinks like Monster and Rockstar come in 16 or 24 fluid ounce cans, so keep that in mind when considering your options.
With all this in mind, however, Patel still recommends that you approach energy drinks with caution:
That being said, energy drinks are the perfect patch that can hide topical health problems (like thyroid health, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.). So I don’t like their idea. My personal approach to energy drinks: The biggest issue may not be the risk of individual ingredients, but the fact that energy drinks can mask health problems. It may sound trite, but no one needs an energy drink.
There are many other ways to wake yourself up and conserve energy, and first of all, this is a good night’s rest. If that’s not an option, take a nap if you have time . Even a cup of coffee will probably be the best choice because you don’t add a bunch of other additives to your caffeine intake. There isn’t enough evidence at this point to say unequivocally if energy drinks are bad for you. They may be fine in the short term, but they are definitely not worth relying on. As with most things, moderation is key.