Still, the growing popularity of energy drinks such as Red Bull, Full Throttle, Monster and others requires that consumers understand their effects and potential risks – especially since they’re being marketed to young adults and children.

Red Bull and Other Energy Drinks

So what are “energy drinks” anyway? Energy drinks are what the beverage industry call a “functional drink.” These are drinks that are designed to beneficially affect one or more target functions in the body (like increasing energy, for example) beyond what is achieved by a normal diet.

Although there are no regulations actually defining functional drinks, they typically contain the following types of beverages:

•  Sports Drinks such as Gatorade, Powerade, or All Sport. Sports drinks are “hydration boosters” designed to prevent dehydration as well as supply the body with electrolytes and carbohydrates that are lost during hard work or exercise. They do not usually contain caffeine since caffeine’s diuretic properties run counter to the sport drinks’ goal of improving hydration.
• Nutraceutical Drinks. These include any beverages that are designed to promote and enhance health through the addition of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, or extracts from teas, herbs, fruits, or vegetables. Examples include evoLv, vitaminwater, and Acai Immune Booster. Nutraceuticals do not normally contain caffeine as an added ingredient although many herb and tea extracts contain various amounts of caffeine naturally.
• Energy Drinks. These are beverages designed to increase “energy” and contain various levels of caffeine in combination with other “energy-enhancing” ingredients such as herbal extracts, taurine, and B vitamins, among others. I’ve placed the word “energy” in quotes to denote the fact that in the context that we’re using it, “energy” is not a single physical attribute but a number of characteristics including alertness, clarity, physical endurance, drive, and so on.

There are other types of functional beverages but these three make up the lion’s share of the category with energy drinks dominating the other two. Globally, energy drinks compose more than 47% of the overall market share for functional beverages. In the US, the percentage is even higher at close to 63%.

As you can imagine, these types of quantities translate into big bucks for manufacturers. According to a 2008 Datamonitor report, the US energy drink market – this is for energy drinks only – is projected to more than double over 2008 figures and reach $19 billion by 2013. $19 BILLION!!

This market has attracted more and more manufacturers increasing consumer choice and fueling market growth even further. Here in the US for example, there are currently more than 300 varieties of energy drinks representing more than 200 brands being sold everywhere from brightly lit supermarket shelves to dark, seedy mini-marts where the cashier sits behind bulletproof glass. With market figures this large, everyone wants to jump in and get a piece of the action.

As large as the energy drink market is, almost 80% of it is dominated by 5 major brands: Red Bull at 43%, Monster at 14%, Rockstar at 11%, Coca-Cola’s Full Throttle at 7%, and PepsiCo’s Amp at 4%. As the clear market leader, the Red Bull name tends to be used to describe energy drinks in general, no matter who the manufacturer.

“Red Bull Marketing”

Athletes looking to enhance their physical performance used to be the primary source of energy drink consumers. However, the performance gains tended to be overshadowed by the increased dehydration caused by the caffeine. Also, several sports associations, at one time including the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee, classified caffeine as a banned substance. Although many of these banns were eventually lifted, by then most athletes especially body builders, had moved on to functional beverages that included creatine or other muscle-building ingredients instead of caffeine.

Today, the majority of energy drinks are marketed in a totally different way. Instead of targeting athletes, a relatively small market anyway, marketers focused on a much larger part of the population: young adults aged 19 to 30. Rather than emphasizing athletic performance, manufacturers began to advance energy drinks as the answer to being able to manage today’s young adult modern lifestyle composed of college, careers, late night video games, weekend parties, and budding relationships.

“Life is fast. How do you keep pace with it all? Easy! Pop open a can of Red Bull…” Its been reported that as much as one half of all college students drink at least one energy drink per month seeking to increase their energy level and compensate for lack of sleep or to give alcohol an extra boost. The use of energy drinks have become commonplace on most American colleges.

Energy drink manufactures know exactly what motivates their target group and they spend millions of dollars sponsoring sports teams, creating branded clothing and other merchandise, and hosting “extreme sport” activities such as BMX motocross, snow and skate boarding, and windsurfing to name a few. Red Bull in particular is active in everything from Formula 1 racing to stunt flying. What better way to appeal to the young, especially young males, than with sleek and sexy cars, planes, helicopters, and extreme sport competitions?

Manufacturers also host or sponsor music festivals, celebrity concerts, and break-dancing competitions – all done to make sure their products are associated with what the young consider cool and trendy. And it works.

It works so well in fact that most young adults nowadays simply consider energy drinks a normal part of who they are. As a result, any attempt to question the safety or potential misuse of energy drinks is seen by many young adults as a direct attack on their lifestyle, a result that I’m sure has manufacturers smiling in their board rooms. It’s also why my previous post on Red Bull gets strong emotional comments like the ones I’ve listed throughout this post.

The “Magic Mix” – Energy Drink Ingredients

What makes energy drinks so “potent” – and I’ve put this in quotes because it’s another one of those words that has both negative as well as positive connotations – is the combination of ingredients they contain. Although there are a number of different energy drinks on the market, they all tend to include the same basic ingredients designed to give you an initial energy boost as well as to maintain that energy for as long as possible.

Front and center in all energy drinks and responsible for most of the energy boost is caffeine, taurine, and sugar. Manufacturers can also add other ingredients such as B-vitamins, ginseng, guarana, yerba mate, and green tea extracts in order to enhance the overall flavor, the amount of energy and its duration, or to satisfy any health claims. Although the actual concentration of each ingredient is usually proprietary, the list of ingredients in your favorite energy drink is usually pretty easy to find.

But Do They Actually Work?

Do they work? Does Red Bull really “give you wings?” Do energy drinks really increase your energy? In a word, yes. Study after study, some of the sponsored by Red Bull, consistently find that energy drinks increase concentration, reaction time, alertness, as well as physical performance and endurance. They do help you stay alert and perform at peak levels for longer times. Energy drinks do in fact work – one of the reasons that professional and amateur athletes were originally attracted their use.

So if energy drinks do in fact work, why aren’t we all chugging them one after another? Why doesn’t every employer in the world supply energy drinks to all of their workers in order to increase production? Well, it turns out there are some risks, which is why many of the sports associations, and some countries, originally banned their use. Although most of these bans have been reversed or overturned, that doesn’t mean the risks went away. They’re still there and if you routinely drink energy drinks, you need to know what they are.

The Down Side – Potential Risks

One characteristic of Americans is our belief that if a little bit of something is good, then a whole lot must be better. It’s not always true, especially when it comes to energy drinks. Since the main active ingredient in energy drinks is caffeine, drinking too much can easily result in the “jitters” as well as nervousness, headaches, insomnia and nausea. However, this varies greatly from one individual to another since some people have a greater caffeine tolerance than others.

A more serious risk is the potential association between the consumption of energy drinks and cardiovascular events such as increased blood pressure, increase heart rates, and in some cases, cardiac arrest and death. Although the supporting data and research is very limited, there have been enough documented cases to raise some serious questions.

The response from the energy drink manufacturers is that their products usually contain less caffeine than a typical cup of coffee. This is a true statement but there’s more to it than that. You’ve got to consider the context as well as the fact that coffee does not contain ingredients designed to sustain the energy boost. Most people don’t drink one or two cups of coffee while they’re playing a sport like basketball but many young adults will chug one or two cans of an energy drink without even thinking about it. This creates two problems. The first is a potential caffeine overdose (of the 5,448 US caffeine overdoses reported in 2007, 46% occurred in those younger than 19) and the second is the dehydrating effect caffeine creates.

You also need to keep in mind that in the US, energy drink manufacturers do not have to list the total amount of caffeine in their product. They only have to list that it contains caffeine and in most cases, this only means added caffeine. They don’t have to identify other sources of caffeine and list them as caffeine. For example, many energy drinks like Amp, Monster, and Rockstar contain guaranine, an ingredient that comes from an Amazon plant long used by the natives to increase awareness and energy. Guaranine’s active ingredient? Caffeine.

Apart from the physical health risks are some that are behavioral. Several studies have associated energy drink consumption with increased risk-taking behaviors. Although I don’t doubt the research, you have to consider the fact that we’re talking about a population (19 to 30 year olds) that’s already prone towards risk-taking behaviors. However, it might be that a little bit of extra energy is enough to increase those behaviors.

A final behavioral risk is the common practice of mixing alcohol with energy drinks, especially among college students. One study found that almost 25% of all college drinkers mix energy drinks with alcohol. This is a very dangerous habit since several studies have shown that the boost in energy from the energy drink tends to mask the effects of intoxication leading the drinker to believe that they’re totally OK to drive home.

 Whether you think these potential risks are valid or not, please pay particular attention to the following points:

1. It’s difficult to determine the actual amount of caffeine in a drink. Although manufacturers are required to list ingredients on the label, they are not required to list actual quantities or concentrations. Yes, you can get an idea of relative amounts by the order the ingredients are listed in but this not the same as knowing exactly how much of each ingredient is present. This makes it difficult to determine exactly how much caffeine is actually in the drink. Also, pay attention to the serving size. Many drinks list the amount of caffeine on a “per serving” basis while the can or bottle contains more than one serving.

2. Despite the research, no one knows for sure. Although caffeine is one of the most studied and researched chemicals in the list of energy drink ingredients, the others are not. Very little is known about some of the individual ingredients and even less is known about what, if anything, changes when they’re combined in various proportions.

3. No upper limit on caffeine. In the US, there is no upper limit on how much caffeine can be in an energy drink so you can be getting more caffeine than you think, especially when you take into account the caffeine that’s naturally part of some of the other ingredients (such as guaranine or guaranine seed extract). Interestingly, the FDA does place an upper limit on the amount of caffeine that goes into cola’s. Go figure.

4. Confusion with Sports Drinks. Energy drinks are often sold next to, or in relation with, sports drinks making many consumers think that they are both similar products. They are definitely not the same. As already pointed out, energy drinks should not be taken when exercising or performing physical labor due to their dehydration effects.

5. Effects on the heart. Energy drinks do increase your heart rate and your blood pressure. Yes, so does coffee but coffee doesn’t contain the same ingredients designed to boost and sustain the energy so it’s not a valid comparison. The increase in heart rate and blood pressure is probably not a big deal for healthy individuals (check with your doctor if you have doubts) but it should be obvious that energy drinks should not be consumed by people with hypertension or by women who are pregnant.

 My Best Energy Drink Recommendations

After reading more research papers than I really cared to, I found that there were some recommendations that they all seemed to agree on. These include:

•  Energy drinks should not be consumed before or during exercise or manual labor.
• Energy drinks are not a substitute for water or sports drinks for hydration.
• Monitor your kids. Children or adolescents should not consume energy drinks.
• Do not mix energy drinks with alcohol. Period.
• Do not drink energy drinks if you have hypertension, have an underlying medical condition, or are taking any kind of prescription medication.
• Do not drink energy drinks if you’re pregnant.
• Do not exceed the recommended daily allowance (usually one can per day).
• Know the signs of too much caffeine (jitters, restlessness, fidgeting, anxiety, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat)

References and Recommended Reading

What’s Your Take?

If you fall into the “Red Bull” demographic, I’m sure you’ve got a strong opinion on this topic.  Scroll down to the comments and lay it on me!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Email Me:  Hiram Perez   

Technorati Tags: red bull, caffeine, energy drinks, amp, rockstar, monster, performance, sports drinks, gatorade, functional, jitters

Related posts:

1. The Dangers of Red Bull
2. How Caffeine Damages Your Health
3. Soft Drinks Linked to Heart Disease?

I’ve mentioned before in several posts how addictive caffeine is.  Like refined sugar, the energy “boost” you get from a cup of coffee is short lived – and the subsequent energy “crash” leaves you craving another cup.  As you can imagine, putting your body through this constant up-and-down energy cycle is really hard on your health.

Those of you that regularly follow my blog know that I don’t drink coffee.  I’ve never liked the taste of it so I never developed the habit (and addiction) of drinking it every morning.  But before you say, “What a hypocrite!  It’s easy to advise people to give up something you don’t drink yourself!” let me remind you of my own “caffeine cross:”  Dr. Pepper soft drinks.

A typical cup of coffee contains about 100 mg of caffeine with most cola-based soft drinks (including Dr. Pepper) containing around half that amount (40-50 mg per 12 oz).  As a reference point, a Red Bull contains 80 mg in an 8 oz can and most tea (iced or hot) comes in around 40 mg per serving.  Even a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of chocolate milk is going to contain caffeine (5-10 mg).

So what’s the big deal with a little caffeine?  If it’s in just about everything we drink, what’s the harm?  Well, first off there’s the psychological harm.  Caffeinated drinks are addictive, and any addiction, even a “small” one like caffeine, takes a psychological toll.

The Psychological Toll

Like I mentioned, my addiction is drinking Dr. Pepper (I like his “buddy” Mr. Pibb even better!) and even though I’ve quit drinking them several times before, I can still be occasionally caught drinking one or two.  It’s like they “call” to me, doing everything they can to convince me how good they’ll taste and how wonderful they’ll feel going down my throat – cool, sweet, delicious.  They “tell” me that I can have just one – that just one won’t do any harm.

So what happens when I succumb to the temptation?  I feel guilty and angry at myself.  I criticize myself for being weak.  I beat myself up.

Sounds exactly like a junkie craving their next “fix” or an alcoholic trying to resist taking that next drink, doesn’t it?  That’s my point – it’s exactly the same kind of addiction, and like any addiction, it takes a toll on your psyche, on your self-image and on your feelings of self-worth.

The Physiological Toll

Second, there’s the harm caffeine is doing to your body, the physiological damage.  Caffeinated drinks tend to be very acidic with cola-type soft drinks having a pH of 2.5 (about the same as vinegar – yikes!) and coffee a pH level of 5.  A pH of 7 is considered neutral and anything lower than a 7 is considered to be “acidic.”  Obviously, a diet with a high acidic content isn’t very good for your teeth or digestive system.  Besides, all you have to do is to take a look at the residue inside your coffee maker and just imagine what’s being left inside your body.

However, much more damaging to your body is the effect caffeine has on your adrenal gland, the gland that’s responsible for producing adrenaline.  Getting a shot of adrenaline into the blood stream is what gives you that feeling of alertness and energy.  But keeping your body in this “fight-or-flight” state is extremely exhausting to your body.  In fact, Stephen Cherniske in his book, Caffeine Blues, calls this constant state of alertness “caffeinism.”  He goes on to state that, “After prolonged ‘caffeinism,’ your body enters a state of adrenal exhaustion. Your caffeine consumption has simply pushed your adrenal glands so much that they’ve burned out.”

In the book, Herbal Defense, author Ralph T. Golan, ND, states that, “Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don’t have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of coffee to get the same result and it’s barely keeping them awake. That’s severe adrenal depletion.”

In Active Wellness, by Gayle Reichler MS, RD, CDN, she notes that, “Within five minutes after you drink your morning coffee, the caffeine begins to stimulate your central nervous system, triggering the release of stress hormones in your body, causing a stress (“fight or flight” ) response. The stress hormones are useful if you need to prepare yourself to fight or flee a dangerous situation, but if you are simply sitting at your desk you may feel a short charge of alertness, quickly followed by feelings of agitation. Within the next hour or so, after the stress response dissipates, you will probably feel more tired and hungry. At these low-energy times, many people reach for another cup of coffee, or eat a snack that is often high in sugar to “pep up” and stay alert. However, both caffeine and sugar only give you temporary feelings of increased energy, which quickly dissipate. For some people, this cycle of low energy followed by an infusion of caffeine or food continues the entire day — leaving them feeling exhausted and unable to focus by 3:00 p.m. because they are drained from the ups and downs in energy their body endured throughout the day.”

By the way, I found a great article by Dani Veracity that contains excerpts from quite a few books (including the previous three) on the effects of caffeine on the body.  Rather than try to reproduce them all here, you can read the entire article at:  http://www.naturalnews.com/012352.html

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that caffeine has no part to play in a healthy lifestyle.  That’s it.  You really can’t come to any other conclusion once you know how caffeine effects the body.

Fighting the Beast

So how do you get this monkey off  your back?  How do you fight the “caffeine beast?”  Good question – and if I could honestly say that I never touched another Dr. Pepper after I swore I’d never drink them again, I might have some answers for you.  But I can’t make that claim.  I’ve slid backwards just like everybody else.  But I have made a few distinctions that do help:

• Every day, your battle begins again. There’s no such thing as “I’ve kicked the habit for good and now I’ll never crave caffeine again.”  There’s always going to be a stressful situation, or a deadline, or what seems to be a perfect reason for a quick burst of energy.  These are simply excuses and before you know it, you’re back to several cups (or cans) per day.  Fighting the “caffeine beast” is a constant moment-to-moment, day-to-day battle.
• There’s no such thing as “just one.” Either you control caffeine or it controls you.  There’s no middle ground.  It’s like trying to quit anything – if you have “just one,” then you haven’t really quit.  If you tell yourself, “I can handle it,” you’re just kidding yourself.
• It’s painful. There’s no headache worse than a caffeine headache.  Your head pounds and your entire body aches.  You literally feel like you have the flu – in fact, having the flu is more fun.  But like any physical addiction, your body will react painfully when the drug is removed.  You’ve got to be prepared for this, have strategies to help you deal with it, and be determined to work through it.
• It’s worth it. You don’t realize how much energy caffeine is robbing from you body until you break your addiction from it.  The inevitable energy “crash” that follows the initial adrenaline burst doesn’t bring you back down to “zero” – it falls below that point so after a while, it takes more and more effort just to function.  Breaking the caffeine addiction frees up all this energy for more productive activities.

And what if you backslide?  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and then begin the process again with a little more grit and determination.  It’s a daily battle, but I’m right there fighting along side you!

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: coffee, coke, dr pepper, mr pibb, cola, caffeine, caffeinated, adrenaline, jitters, energy, red bull, jolt, addiction, addict

Related posts:

1. The Dangers of Red Bull

The premise sounds good – drinking a beverage that gives you extra energy, and nowadays, who can’t use a little extra energy?  Energy drinks have become a 1.1 Billion dollar industry with all of the major producers, and most of the smaller ones, jumping to get a piece of the action.

Targeted primarily to teens and young adults, energy drinks combine varying amounts of caffeine, vitamins, sugar, and other ingredients such as taurine and ginseng.  Most energy drinks have the same amount of caffeine as 1-2 cups of coffee.  Red Bull in particular has the equivalent of 1 cup of coffee, Jolt Cola the equivalent of about 3 cups.

So where’s the down side?

There are several in my opinion.

First, I’m not a big caffeine junkie having learned the hard way how addictive it can be (I used to pound down a six-pack of Dr. Pepper every day).  If you’ve ever been “hooked” on caffeine and then tried to quit, you know how bad caffeine addiction can be.  Anything that is that addictive can’t be good for your body.

Second, mixing Red Bull with vodka has become a very popular drink.  Combining the Red Bull (or any energy drink) with alcohol is a really bad idea.  According to experts, the caffeine in the Red Bull can mask the effects of the alcohol.  In other words, people actually become more drunk than they think they are.  This can lead to some really bad decisions – like deciding to drive yourself home, for example.

Third, researchers are finding that drinking energy drinks such as Red Bull may increase the risk of stroke and heart attack, even in young adults.  Studies have shown that healthy blood vessels can show some signs of damage after drinking just one can.  It’s for this reason that Red Bull is banned in France, Norway, Denmark, and Uruguay with other countries currently performing studies of their own.

What’s my take?

Well, those that know me know that I don’t believe in artificial stimulants.  If you don’t have enough energy to make it through the day, then you’re not getting enough sleep, exercise, or proper nutrition.  There should be no reason to “boost” your energy level by artificial means.  If you’re in good health, you should be able to do this naturally.  My advice is to learn how to balance your health the natural way and ditch the artificial “crutches.”

Lastly, if you do enjoy energy drinks such as Red Bull, drink them responsively.  That means don’t drink too many, don’t drink them when performing strenuous physical activities or playing sports, and for God’s sake, don’t mix them with alcohol.

>>Update:  be sure to see my latest post on this topic titled “How Safe are Energy Drinks Like Red Bull?“

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: red bull, energy drinks, caffeine, heart attack, heart disease, balanced health

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