We are all familiar with the mighty energy drinks. A quick source of energy and according to the label, all other sorts of goodness, conveniently packed in a flavored
drink. Can it be better? I can’t think of the best introduction than this video, I found recently.
In this rather short blog, I want to stress some of the negative effects of those drinks and mostly to raise awareness.
Marketing
This is huge. Without marketing, every multi-million company is not going to exist.
I am not going to list different branding or ways of advertising. They are all similar. They all want you to associate their product with high performance and energy demand. What can a 13-year-old kid, that is getting into mountain bike or downhill, think when sees a high-performance athlete in the same field advertising energy drink, claiming to get all the energy from it. “The more I drink the better I perform”.
Ingredients.
Most of the ingredients that are labeled are no more than a marketing trick. All the vitamin B or carnitine you see on the label exist in such small amounts that is not affecting you at all. And all of those, have no correlation of increasing energy levels, either.
The one and the only ingredient that gives you pure energy is sugar. Most of the energy drinks are packed with sugar. A substance that once entered your blood, is rapidly converted and used as energy. No need to remind you of all the bad consequences of sugar. I just want to mention that from an average can of energy drink you are getting an average of 28 grams of sugar per 250 ml. Some energy drinks are twice that size. So, think about how much sugar you buy in liquid form. And who drinks only one energy drink per day?
The other ingredient that people think provides them energy is caffeine.
Caffeine is a substance, a natural stimulant of the sympathetic nervous system. What it does is simply block the receptors, that are supposed to make you sleepy. Therefore you are tired, but you do not feel It. You are ready to rock.
The problem with caffeine is its afterlife. If you ingest 100 mg of caffeine, after 6 hours, half of it is still going to be in your system. That is 50 mg. After another 6 hours, 25 are going to be remaining. Caffeine makes you feel less tired and focused, but if you still have caffeine in your system before bed, your nervous system is going to be buzzed and will make it harder to rest. You are not fully rested but must wake up in the morning and be ready. What is the first thing you do? Coffee or energy drink.
It ends in a vicious cycle of constantly feeling tired and drugging with caffeine to block that feeling. Yes, drugging is the right word because we become dependent on that substance.
Sound familiar? This is another way of describing Chronic fatigue. Ignorance of the signals of the body.
Feeling tired is supposed to tell you that you need rest. But instead of rest, we prefer drugging and tricking the brain that, this is not true. Is the same if you cut yourself and instead of stitching it, you take a pill that makes you pain-free. Your blood is dripping down, but who cares if you do not feel it.
Ignorance is the biggest enemy of awareness. We feel something but try to ignore it and pretend that it does not matter much and is just temporary. My goal is not to make you quit energy drinks. That would be amazing, but unrealistic. My goal is to inform you and help you be more aware of what you put in your body and how that affects it.
Do not ignore the signals of your body, be aware of them, and take action accordingly.
Check out Episode 13 of Fit Life Radio to learn more about the danger of Caffeine.