Minute Maid, Go Fast and Diet Coke have a new neighbor on the shelves at the PSU Mountain View Snack Bar. How does the newcomer differ from its shelf mates? According to its label, it’s dangerous.
An energy drink has a simple idea behind it – provide a beverage with caffeine and other ingredients to compound the effects of the caffeine to create power in a bottle. However, while many people around the country consume multiple energy drinks a day without much thought, perhaps now is the time to seriously consider what exactly one is putting into their body.
According to an article in “Health Politics” by Dr. Mike Magee, it is stated that energy drinks are, “a $3.4 billion a year industry that grew 80% between 2004 and 2005.” Twenty years earlier, Red Bull kicked off the energy drink craze in Austria, and, “today, more than 2.5 billion cans are sold each year in 130 nations.” Here at home, Red Bull dominates the energy drink market with 37% of the stock market share. But what exactly is an energy drink?
An energy drink is much more than caffeine on a sugar-high. While a cup of coffee just has caffeine in it, energy drinks have a wide variety of various ingredients ranging from the sublime to the extreme.
Some of the common, and yet unusual, ingredients found in energy drinks are guarana extract, taurine, and insoitol. Others read more like the back of a vitamin bottle, including riboflavin, niacin, ginseng, and vitamins B6, B12, and C. The latter tend to be harmless, even in the larger quantities present in energy drinks, but the former have some interesting histories.
Guarana extract, which, according to Bodyandfitness.com, is a South American shrub that comes from Brazil. It contains almost twice the amount of caffeine compared to coffee beans and it’s put into energy drinks to enhance the effects of the caffeine that is already present in the drinks.
Taurine, according to a informational sheet distributed by Ucdavis.edu, has no real value to an energy drink at all – its only medical claims are that it is used in the treatment of diabetes and epilepsy, although there is no concrete medical evidence to prove that claim. It also can be used to lower blood pressure, which does actually have some clout, according to the informational sheet.
Insoitol, according to that same sheet, also has little to do with increasing energy or performance. Its medical function serves to allegedly decrease cholesterol levels and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Again, however, the sheet cites that, “there is no scientific evidence to support claims regarding the efficacy of insoitol.”
There are many brands of energy drinks sold all over the country, but at this time four brands of the drinks are sold in the Mountain View Snack Bar: Bawls, Playboy, Go Fast and Redline.
Bawls literally has nothing in it. According to the back of the can, it has no vitamins and it does not contain taurine or insoitol, just calories, carbohydrates, and guarana extract.
Playboy is an interesting drink. The name “Playboy” is there for a reason – the drink is loaded with supplements used to increase one’s sex drive.
The ingredients on the back of the can includes horny goat weed extract, damiana leaf extract, glucuronolactone and schisandra extract, all herbs that in some way alter one’s sexual desires and moods. Horny goat weed extract is a known aphrodisiac, damiana leaf extract, according to Iamshaman.com, is the, “Herbal version of Viagra for Mexico,” which has a direct effect on the sexual organs and glucuronolactone and schisandra extract is used to fight fatigue and improve endurance and energy levels, respectively.
Go Fast is actually a drink one could get behind. The nutrition facts on the can state it contains more than a complete daily value of riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins B, B6 and B12, along with ginseng, ginkgo biloba extract, and the necessary and obvious additions of caffeine and guarana extract. It also contains taurine and insoitol, but, as stated previously, there is no medical support that either of these ingredients affect the drink at all.
Then there is Redline, a new drink that only recently found its way to the shelves in the Snack Bar. While Playboy and Go Fast both state on their cans, clearly in capital letters, that they have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, the warning label on Redline makes that seem like child’s play. The warning label takes up almost one-quarter of the entire bottle, and the warnings are not to be ignored. In print that young eyes would even have trouble reading, it states that one should not consume this beverage if they are under 18, if they are taking any sort of drug that contains ingredients found in many asthma and allergy medicines, if they are pregnant or nursing, or more than fifteen pounds overweight.
Perhaps the two most interesting facts about Redline is the last line in the warning, “The consumer assumes total liability if this product is used in a manner inconsistent with label guidelines,” and the fact that, regardless of the fact that is says on the bottle that this drink is a “fat incinerator” and has “freeze and burn rapid fat loss technology,” it clearly states in the warning that Redline should not be used for weight reduction.
What is extremely disconcerting about the presence of this energy drink at PSU is the incredible amount of cautious and downright negative reviews it has received. These reviews are not just speaking about taste or its lack of ability to give the energy promised, but about the consequences of not following the directions on the bottle explicitly. For students who frequent energy drinks and consume two or three of them in a day, this could literally be lethal.
One bottle of Redline is two servings. It states on the bottle to never exceed more than one serving daily. Students who were to consume two or three Redline’s daily, thinking that is it not any different from other energy drinks they regular, would have consumed four to six times the recommended amount of Redline for a twenty-four hour period.
Basically what it boils down to is this – use one’s head when deciding what energy drink to grab for that mid-afternoon pick-me-up or the casual drink. The effects desired are far beyond the normal aftereffects of energy drinks like Bawls or Go Fast, and the desired results might not end up being desirable at all.