Interesting FACT

The Truth About Energy Drinks

Added by Division on Aug 20, 2009 | Visited by 9398 | Voted by 51 persons

The other day I had an interesting chat with my friend from Mozambique about our kids. Obviously we also discussed children’s’ health issues. My African counterpart complained that nowadays more and more kids (and people in general) in their country have diabetes, cancer, overweight problems or other illnesses, which 25-30 years ago were quite rare or affected mostly the elderly. Since Africa is not so much “suffering” from industrialization, we came to the conclusion that these hazardous trends have been caused by massive inflow of various colored drinks and fast foods.







If fast food has got a massive coverage about its unhealthiness, the wide variety of beverages still is a kind of shadow zone, continuously having massive advertising and promotion. The fact that on most labels of those drinks one can find probably half of the Mendeleev table chemical elements (colorants, preservatives, emulgators, taste enhancers, and so on) seems not to bother too much neither parents, nor kids. Above that, the plastic bottles are now said to be quite harmful, too, especially when the liquids are stored for quite a while in them and if those bottles get under direct sunlight.







If with these fizzy chemical drinks we all just get slowly poisoned, the new kind of energy drinks that appeared about a decade ago and are steadily getting widespread, will probably not only poison us, but also affect our hormonal and psychological well-being.







Since their introduction at the end of the 20th century, energy drinks have continuously gained popularity, especially among students, who have been consuming Red Bull to stay awake when learning for exams. Since then a number of studies have been carried out on energy drinks and most of them showed that Red Bull along with other energy drinks can be hazardous for health, containing high amount of caffeine and sugar. The caffeine content in some drinks equals 14 cans of soda. Obviously the producers of energy drinks doubt such study results, claiming that the amount of caffeine in energy drinks is the same as in a cup of brewed coffee, large cappuccinos or lattes served in Starbucks, the difference is that no one asks Starbucks to put a warning label on their products. This is, however, the only defense argument brought by the energy drink manufacturers. The truth is that these companies will never recognize that one small shot of their energy drink can lead to serious health problems.







Some healthcare experts proposed the introduction of warning labels on energy drinks. In response Maureen Storey, PhD, a spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association said that if energy drink companies put labels on their drinks, the same labels should be put on coffeehouse coffee. Some companies add herbal ingredients, for example taurine and guarana, along with different vitamins and minerals, but all of these are just part of a marketing campaign that aims towards persuading people that the drinks are healthy.







It is worth mentioning that today only in the United States the energy drink market is a $5.4 billion a year business.







Due to the fact that the high amount of caffeine in energy drinks raises blood pressure, people get a temporary feeling of energy, which lasts for a very short period of time. Then the human body suffers a fast drop in energy as a result of caffeine and sugar leaving the bloodstream. As a result of the fast energy decrease, people can experience sluggishness, mood changes, and a burned out feeling. Sometimes the feeling of energy is false.







The poison control centers in the United States reported on several cases of bad reaction on energy drinks. Some of the outcomes from energy drink consumption were published in the journal \"Drug and Alcohol Dependence\"; these include nausea and vomiting, high blood pressure, tremors, dizziness, and numbness. Other studies found that the possible health risks from consuming energy drinks such as Red Bull and Burn also include depression, poor sleeping habits, additive behaviors and even premature aging. Sometimes young people combine energy drinks with alcohol (vodka in particular), which can have very serious consequences and even lead to death.







After a number of deaths have been registered in France and Denmark among young people that mixed energy drinks with alcohol, the governments of both nations decided to ban the sales of Red Bull and the like.







According to nutrition coach Josh Rubin from San Marcos, California, energy drinks are \"a scam to get people to keep coming back. When you eat sugar, gluten, etc. your body releases opiates. Then when you stop drinking this crap, you body craves it and you need more.\" In addition, the company producing energy drinks do not inform people that these drinks can cause addiction and those who stop consuming caffeine can suffer from headache, fatigue, depressed mood and difficulty concentrating.







Some people consume energy drinks when they\'re thirsty, without being aware of the fact that high levels of sugar thicken their blood, while caffeine leads to dehydration, which means that you need to drink even more again to quench your thirst! Thus, you create a vicious circle, which is quite hazardous for those who regularly do physical exercises. Energy drinks can worsen insulin sensitivity, leading to diabetes, obesity and chronic illness, with children considered to be the most vulnerable. Still, companies such as the Austrian Red Bull GmbH, continue producing their drinks and young people continue consuming them for different purposes. Hope it won\'t require a lot of victims to finally understand the serious problem behind the energy drinks.







Having established the above, I did a small experiment on myself: one day in the gym and after sports I was consuming Red Bull, and I obviously felt energetic, though it was somewhat an unnatural feeling, like it was not me inside. Then it happened exactly, how it is described above: sudden loss of energy, very bad overnight sleep, and next day I felt ruined. In a few days I took a bottle of natural well water from the countryside, and drunk only that. Men, that was not only the true thirst quencher, but also a tasty truly healthy drink, which felt like passing the energy of Earth into the body! Try it yourself, if you don’t believe me.