I get questions all the time about about energy drinks from my students and friends. I personally don't like them, so I have refused to learn about them up to this point. I've decided to finally break down and do some research on them. So the questions of the day are: Are they safe and do their ingredients really come from crazy sources like bull semen?
I think we all know what energy drinks are. Red Bull is the most popular brand, comprising a little less than half of all revenues coming from energy drinks. They are supposed to increase your energy, alertness, and even athletic performance. The ingredients that are supposed to do this are usually caffeine and sugar, but some other ones added include ginseng, taurine, guarana, and B vitamins. Let's look at each ingredient and see where it comes from and if it actually works.
Ginseng: An herb root that has been used for over 2000 years, this baby has a ton of rumors around what it can do. It's most popular proposed affects are that it can improve concentration, memory, and even cognitive function. The funny thing about it is that the therapeutic dosages are well above the amount found in energy drinks. You'd have to drink a few of them a day to ever reach those levels, and there can be some scary side effects: insomnia,breast pain, vaginal bleeding, losing your period (in girls), increased heart rate, high blood pressure, water retention, headache, and vertigo.
Taurine: This is actually an amino acid (a protein) that your body can make. Since it's found naturally in your body and food, it doesn't really have side effects. After it's broke down, it can be important to your body and can do things like help with fat absorption. In oral dosages it sounds like it can change your heart rate and contractions, but otherwise, I don't think it does anything to increase your energy. Is it derived from bull sperm? I REALLY don't think so. It sounds like bull sperm has taurine in it, but the food industry probably makes taurine in laboratories instead of wacking off bulls and extracting it.
Guarana: Another name for this is Brazilian cocoa. Most people know that chocolate has a little bit of caffeine in it. Well, so does Brazilian cocoa. The effects of guarana are pretty much the same as caffeine because that's its active ingredient. Caffeine can stimulate the nervous system and muscles including the muscles in the heart. To keep things simple, most health professionals encourage limiting caffeine to like 300 mg a day (about 2-3 cups of coffee worth) because there are all sorts of things that can happen from prolonged excessive caffeine consumption like insomnia and heart palpitations.
B-vitamins: Good lord, there are a ton of these things. B-vitamins are co-enzymes for chemical reactions in your body, most of which are for breaking down energy. Do we get energy from vitamins? Absolutely not, but we do need many of these b-vitamins to utilize the energy from carbs, fat, and protein in our diet. A big one that's usually in energy drinks is niacin. This baby can cause what's called the "niacin flush" where people kind of get a heat rash and feel nauseous. It can increase your risk for liver damage and gastric ulcers, as well. The most you should have is 35 mg (about double what you need in a day) which can easily be obtain from 2 small energy drinks.
The individual ingredients don't seem to do much except for the caffeine/guarana. I think it's important to look at the overall affects of drinking energy drinks, too. First of all, we should be worried about dental health because of all the sugar in this things (unless we choose the diet/sugar free kind). Next, we have to take into consideration the amount of Calories these babies can add up to.
- Small Red Bull = 8.3 oz = about 115 Calories
- Medium Monster = 16 oz = about 200 Calories (100 per serving)
- Large Rockstar = 24 oz = about 420 Calories (140 per serving)
As a whole, I guess energy drinks aren't so bad. Because the extra ingredients are in small amounts, they're kind of just like coffee. As with anything we eat, I think moderation is important. Stick to the small ones to avoid extra Calories and potential side effects, and don't make a habit of them.
