Are you feeling listless and drained? Do you believe an energy drink would bring back that get-up-and-go spirit?
If you do, you are among a growing majority of people, young and old, men, women and children, who are resorting to energy drinks as a pick-me-up. Some people are so addicted to energy drinks that they need it like a caffeine addict needs his daily doses of java. And the coffee addict and the energy drink lover have a lot in common. If you look at the nutritional information of an energy drink, the main ingredient listed would be caffeine, comprising at least 32 mgs of the can’s total content. Pairing up with caffiene are various kinds of sugars, each capable of giving you a higher high. That burst of energy from the can, direct into your bloodstream, is thanks to the combination of these worthies.
“An energy drink is a type of beverage containing stimulants, chiefly caffeine, which is marketed as providing mental or physical stimulation,” says Safeek Ali, dietician and nutritionist, Mediclinic Welcare Hospital in Dubai.
Such drinks, he says, should be consumed with caution as they contain powerful ingredients and the individual response to the contents, including caffeine, may vary from person to person.
What can an energy drink do to you? Dr Ali tells you: “Its stimulating properties can boost heart rate and blood pressure, dehydrate the body, and, like other stimulants, prevent sleep.”
While consuming an energy drink makes you feel good for the moment, it is no friend of yours in the long run. “The long-term side effects from consuming energy drinks are not fully understood yet,” says Dr Ali, but concedes that for most people, energy drinks consumed in moderation will produce no adverse, short term side-effects.
But that’s not the bright side because when it comes to these liquids, people don’t know when to stop. In fact, among the young – teens and 20somethings – energy drinks are the fashionable glugs.
The FDA (the U.S. Food and Dug Administration whose guidelines are followed world-wide) does not have a specific category or specific regulations for energy drinks, says Ali. “Typically, energy drinks have been marketed as either dietary supplements or conventional beverages, depending on the product’s ingredient, intended use, and labelling,” he says. As a matter of fact, some of the claims of energy drink manufacturers make can be misleading, he says, such as promising “improved performance and concentration”. Many young people fall for these claims and make it a rule to chug down several cans during exams hoping to ace it.
It is also not surprising that underhand tactics are at the root of these drinks’ formulas. Some manufacturers may disguise the caffeine, for example, with the stimulant Guarana, which has the same effects as caffeine, says Dr Ali. “The American Food and Drug Administration has designated these drinks as ‘GRAS’ (an acronym for Generally Recognized as Safe),” says Dr Ali. “If a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts and is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) food additive tolerance requirements, the ingredients in these drinks are normally considered as GRAS.” France has banned a brand of energy drink because its caffeine content exceeds the legal limit. Some countries add a warning label on energy drinks to warn pregnant women and children.
So what’s the safe limit? “A can a day,” he says. But because of their high caffiene content, it is easy to get addicted to them and before you know it, you are graduating from one can a day to several. This ups your caffiene intake dramatically. Caffeine, says Dr Ali, is a diuretic, meaning it causes your kidneys to remove extra fluid into the urine, leaving you with little fluid in the body and thus, in a dehydrated state. Too much caffeine will not only give you heart palpitations, it will make you anxious, jittery and irritable all the time.
A high number of athletes consume energy drinks during their workouts and this can be dangerous because they sweat during their exercises, and need elctrolyte replenishment. Excessive consumption of energy drinks can leave them short on salts due to dehydration.
The other trend with energy drinks is their use to spike alcohol with. This is a more dangerous habit than drinking it on its own. “Alcohol is a depressant, while an energy drink is a stimulant, and when you combine the two, you are giving a mixed message to your brain, confusing it in the process,” says Ali.
Diabetics too need to keep away from such drinks as they are high in sugar. Some energy drinks say they contain B-vitamins, but that’s a frivolous pursuit. The best way to get important nutrients, says Dr Ali, is from fresh food and not through the contents of trendy cans.
© Gulf News
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