Shane Scott, 34, said he felt better after he stopped drinking energy drinks.

A Motueka man who was drinking as much as one litre of energy drinks per day says he suffered chest pains until he stopped guzzling the products.

Nutrition experts and researchers are fizzing because there has been hardly any change in New Zealand attitudes towards health despite high-sugar or high-energy drinks being in the spotlight for years.

Products with caffeine and other additives, such as guarana and taurine, must be appropriately labelled and the manufacturers must comply with marketing regulations.

Loren Batson Energy drinks: Red Bull, V, Mother and Lift Plus.

Red Bull, Monster and V, produced in New Zealand, are among the country's most popular energy drinks, but there are many more available on the shelves as Kiwis continue their love affair with fizz.

READ MORE:

* Women using energy drinks to lose weight

* Health board targets diet soft drinks

* Teen claims energy drinks put her in hospital

* Firms fuelling the thirst for fizz

* The Kiwi sweet tooth

* What happens to your body

KEVIN STENT/stuff.co.nz Last year, the Government announced a diet and exercise plan to tackle obesity among youngsters.

Shane Scott, 34, a chef in Motueka, said he stopped drinking energy drinks, mostly large cans of Red Bull and bottles of Lift Plus, a couple of years ago after suffering chest pains.

At most, he estimated he'd drink one litre of energy drinks in a day, about twice manufacturer recommendations.

These days he sticks to coffee, he said.

"I was guzzling back energy drinks.

"I was just walking to work, I just felt this real bad pain right in my chest.

"My blood pressure was high. I had a bit of a headache.

"When I stopped drinking energy drinks the pain went away. It wasn't a very nice feeling.

"I don't understand why they're mixing energy drinks with alcohol."

University of Auckland Professor of population nutrition and global health Boyd Swinburn is a member of lobby group Fizz, advocating for alternatives to sugar-sweetened drinks.

Simon Thornley/YouTube Nelson City Council mayor Rachel Reese discusses the authority's sugary drink policy.

"The caffeine, say, in [some drinks], they say it's there as part of the flavour but you cannot tell the difference with caffeine or non-caffeinated drinks. You can if you have caffeinated water or non-caffeinated. Once you add in all the bubbles and flavour, trained tasters cannot detect the difference.

"The line that caffeine is there for flavour is not true.

"Because it has a slightly bitter taste to get the equivalent sweetness you actually need to add more sugar."

STUFF Kiwis spend millions of dollars a year on energy drinks.

A current debate was asking whether it was necessary to regulate sugar content or compel manufacturers to display the reported link between obesity and sugar.

"We are creatures of our environment. If things are there and available and cheap we will take them.

"We're susceptible to marketing.

Mother Energy, produced by Coca-Cola Amatil in New Zealand.

"The question that's raging at the moment is whether some foods, like sugar, can be called "addictive."

"When you go into areas of neuroscience and look at areas of the brain that light up, they light up around sugar but not around broccoli and cabbage."

University of Otago School of Pharmacy researcher Dr David Woods has studied guarana, a South American plant extract with high caffeine content, and believes some people are ingesting excessive amounts by failing to recognise that guarana is essentially caffeine.

Popular energy drink V is produced in New Zealand.

"Labelling of energy drinks should express total amounts of caffeine - including from guarana if this is a constituent - if they are not already doing this.

"So my main point is that it is not widely recognised that guarana is for all intents and purposes, caffeine."

University of Otago Professor in human nutrition and medicine Jim Mann said it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain sales data for fizzy drinks in New Zealand.

REUTERS Monster Energy is one of more than 20 products available in New Zealand.

Consumption of energy drinks was inadvisable for anyone with health issues, he said.

"I frequently see patients with diabetes drinking energy drinks.

"It'd be wonderful to see a sugar tax but I know it's very unpopular at a government level. What worries me about going on and on about sugar tax is it makes it look like it's the be all and end all.

Robert Kitchin A popular drink called the 'Jaeger Bomb' consists of one shot of Jagermeister in 250mls of Red Bull.

"The chances of the Government doing it are fairly remote."

Mann said other possible changes to the market were more achievable, such as healthy eating school programmes and limits, or outright bans, on advertising.

"This isn't nanny state stuff.

"If you keep on banging on about sugar tax you lose touch with the other things, which are more politically possible to achieve.

"Advertising junk food to children is totally unacceptable."

Auckland University of Technology professor of nutrition Elaine Rush said sugar and caffeine were part of the picture.

"It's not just energy drinks, it's all the stuff we're drinking.

"With caffeine and sugar, basically, you can't predict how a person is going to react.

"Human beings are all very different.

"You cannot make guidelines about caffeine because it doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. Neither can you say it's bad.

"We don't know how it's going to affect children and the next generations."

Rush said sugar and caffeine were only part of the picture.

"We need to change the environment."

Available figures estimate carbonated drinks account for 1.8 per cent of the average household food expenditure in New Zealand, or an annual national expenditure of $257 million.