Staying Awake with Energy Drinks

by Shereen Jegtvig

You’ve probably seen beverages like Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar and other energy drinks.  They’re hard to miss – in their brightly colored, hip’n happening cans – usually sold close to the check out lanes or prominantly displayed at gas stations and convenience stores.  They promise to keep you awake, alert and energized so you can live a high energy life and feel like a rock star or an athlete. So what makes them so popular?  Probably great marketing to be honest, but they’re really not any better than a cup or two of coffee…maybe even worse?

Energy drinks are usually heavily caffeinated, just as much or more than coffee.  They often contain herbs such as ginseng or guarana, and sometimes a combination of B vitamins and amino acids such as taurine.  And sugar, usually lots of sugar or artificial sweeteners. The caffeine is a strong stimulant and is the main reason energy drinks will perk you up.  The vitamins aren’t any different than what you’ll get from your foods and the dosage of herbs may not be strong enough to do anything.  The reason for using taurine in Red Bull escapes me completely – it’s actually more of a depressant than a stimulant in larger doses – so it probably doesn’t do anything at all.

Basically, there’s nothing wrong with drinking energy drinks, but they’re bascially highly caffeinated soft drinks.  If you like the flavor and you want the caffeine, that’s fine, but look out for the extra sugar, colors and additives you don’t need.  We have a couple of energy drinks in our FoodEssentials database:

Both have lots of sugar, artificial colors and other ingredients I don’t like.  Personally, I’ll stick with my morning cup of coffee.

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