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  • Are Energy Drinks Bad for You?

    Are Energy Drinks Bad for You?

    We all have those days when we need a pick-me-up. Some folks like to start their day with coffee, while others might prefer to have an energy drink with their lunch. Next to multivitamins, energy drinks are one of the most popular dietary supplements in the US. However, many people are curious as to whether these sugary, caffeine-filled drinks are actually good for them. Let’s take a closer look.

    Are Energy Drinks Bad for You?

    High Caffeine

    Caffeine is normally fine for your body to take in when it comes in smaller amounts, such as the 100 mg in a cup of coffee. However, the average energy drink has around 250 mg of caffeine, making it a significantly higher percentage of caffeine per liquid than most other beverages ingested for their caffeine content.

    This high amount of caffeine raises a number of health concerns. Primarily, high concentrations of caffeine have been linked to blood vessel complications, heart rhythm disturbances, high blood pressure, and increases in heart rate. Notably, the high quantity of caffeine can cause damage to younger people’s developing cardiovascular systems.

    With Alcohol

    Many younger adults and even some teenagers who commonly drink energy drinks will often mix them with alcohol. These beverages combined raise a number of serious health concerns. The dehydrating potential of both substances when combined is increased, and they each offset some of the visible negative effects of the other.

    When intoxicated, one of the limiting factors to binge drinking is the drowsiness that accompanies high alcohol intake. Likewise, when drinking energy drinks, the feeling of jitteriness and increased heartrate often keeps people from over-indulging in them. When alcohol and energy drinks are mixed together, however, they offset one another and can lead to a dramatic increase in binge drinking behaviors.

    Added Sugars

    A single 16 ounce can of energy drink can contain as much as 62 grams of added sugars. This is a tremendous amount of sugar, and well exceeds the recommended daily allotment of added sugars in an adult’s diet. Added sugars in energy drinks serve to sweeten and mask the powerful flavors that the high caffeine content generates.

    In the case of these larger, 16-ounce cans, the amount of sugar is enough alone to make them worrisome from a health perspective. The shorter, energy “shot” type of drink tends to have a high sugar content, usually around 30 grams, which still makes them high in added sugars. However, they tend to pack just as much caffeine as the larger-size drinks, so those health concerns remain.

    Sleep Patterns

    Excessive consumption of energy drinks has been shown to interfere with the natural sleeping patterns of teenagers and young adults. Due to the high caffeine content, it’s likely that younger people, with more sensitive systems, stay up for much longer than they may even want to with energy drinks.

    Staying up later means they’ll lose out on sleep, which will make it harder to focus on school or work the following day. This, in turn, leads them to drink energy drinks to wake up from their grogginess. Thus, energy drinks can be a negative, self-reinforcing habit.

    Organs

    The high amount of caffeine and sugar in energy drinks may also cause more strain on internal organs. For instance, the kidneys and liver, which serve to filter impurities from the blood, could be damaged by the high amounts of sugar and caffeine they filter.

    Likewise, energy drinks can have a negative impact on the heart, causing it to beat faster and increasing blood pressure. In short, energy drinks put the body into “overdrive,” pushing it beyond its normal operating limits and putting extra stress on the internal organs. Drink them sparingly, if you really want to drink them, and consider replacing them in your diet with drinks like coffee or tea instead.


  • Perk Up! Best Organic Energy Drinks

    Perk Up! Best Organic Energy Drinks

    We all need a nice boost from time to time. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep, or maybe you’ve got to pull an extra-long shift. In either event, an energy drink can be a great way to give yourself that boost to make it through the day. That said, you might not want to pick up just any old energy drink: a lot of them are quite bad for your health.

    Today we’ll be looking at a few organic alternatives to normal energy drinks. These are options that might not be healthy, per se, but they’re not as detrimental as drinks like Monster or Red Bull. Let’s start with some of the basics!

    Black Coffee

    The warm, bitter drink of choice for health-conscious people who need a boost is, of course, black coffee. If you don’t add any cream or sugar to the morning beverage, it’s got zero calories and it’s actually pretty good for you. There’s not really much to it, so all you get from black coffee is the caffeine content.

    As you well know, one of the most concentrated and efficient ways to get caffeine is just through drinking coffee. So, if you want a good way to get energy without taking in a ton of sugars and other compounds from energy drinks, go with a nice, black coffee. If you’re looking for the boost later in the day and don’t want such a hot drink, you can go with an iced coffee or a cold brew, both of which are also fine for your health.

    Black Tea

    Maybe the bitter, intense flavor of coffee isn’t your cup of tea. Jokes aside, if you don’t like coffee, maybe you’ll like black tea. You can drink it hot or cold, just like coffee, and it offers caffeine and no calories. That is, if you take it without any cream or sugar. This might all be sounding pretty familiar.

    In the case of sweetened tea, of course, that changes the conversation. Southern-style sweet iced tea has a tremendous amount of sugar added in, making it a decidedly different beverage. If you’re trying to watch out for your health, try to avoid ingesting that much added sugar! Black tea is quite good for you if you take it with nothing added, and it’ll give you a great boost of caffeine to get in gear.

    Schekter’s Organic Energy Drink

    Schekter’s is a true energy drink, in that it’s a canned concoction with a proprietary caffeine blend and an interesting taste profile. The basic flavor is a pomegranate taste, with hints of elderberry and lemon juice, giving the drink an unusual but good taste profile.

    The energy from this drink is described as “clean” and “jitter-free,” coming courtesy of an all-natural caffeine blend in the drink. As such, this drink isn’t dissimilar from coffee, aside from the added sugars from the fruit juices in the recipe. If you don’t mind a bit of extra sugar, this is a good option.

    Sambazon Amazon Energy Drink

    Another “proper” energy drink, Sambazon Amazon Energy Drink is also marketed as all-natural and organic. The drink has a number of antioxidants, courtesy of the acai berry and acerola cherry in the recipe. The company proudly proclaims that it obtains the ingredients used in the drink from the Amazon Rainforest, using sustainable methods to source them.

    The caffeine mix in the drink is obtained from guarana, green tea and yerba mate, and is supposedly a “cleaner” boost than some competitors. The amount of caffeine in one can is comparable to a double shot of espresso. That makes this a rather impactful drink, so it should help you tackle any challenges in your day!