Why are Energy Drinks Bad for You? [Reasons You Must Know]

Energy drinks have widespread popularity among teenagers and young adults.

Despite its vast popularity, health experts and a nutritionist is not impressed with the effects of energy drinks on the teenage body.

In fact, they don’t even recommend it to young adults aging between 20 and 39 to trust such mental boosting drinks.

Why?

Precisely because of several studies calling out energy drinks to be not heart-friendly and much more!

Studies have also reported that there have been many emergency department visits by people because of energy drinks.

But not all energy drinks come to the harmful groups, there are also such drinks that have got some amazing benefits for you.

This opens the gate for an important discussion which we take up in the following sections.

Are Energy Drinks Bad For You?

Many mounting pieces of evidence highlight the negative effects of energy drinks on the heart, kidney, and other major organs of the body.

But before we go further on discussing how energy drinks can affect your body, it’s important to know what exactly is an energy drink.

What Is An Energy Drink?

Energy drinks claim benefits like:

• Alertness
• Concentration
• Attention
• Energy

To some extent, many energy drinks succeed in showing off the results.

Further, pieces of evidence also support that energy drinks offer 30-60 grams of carbs per hour can be considered good for your performance.

The benefits and the dangers, hugely depend on the ingredients present in the energy drink.

Some of the popular ingredients that add up to its credibility include:

• Caffeine
• B Vitamins
• Guarana
• Ginseng
• Gingko Biloba
• Antioxidants
• Trace minerals
• Amino acid derivatives

But the ingredients that might serve as disadvantages of energy drinks include:

• Sugar or syrup
• Artificial sweeteners
• Chemicals and preservatives
• Other ingredients

Here, we could see that energy drinks definitely serve a purpose. But why are energy drinks bad for you?

Dangers Of Energy Drinks On The Body

Energy drinks are taken in moderation usually don’t have much negative impact on your body.

But excess of it has been associated with dangers like:

• Heart arrhythmias
• Headache
• High blood pressure
• Anxiety

As depicted by a US-based study, more than 20,000 emergency visits were reported in 2011 related to energy drink usage.

Further, some of the major problems that came out as  dangers of energy drinks on the body are:

#1. Effects On Heart

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association well-established risk factors of arrhythmias were found in participants after consumption of energy drinks.

This study considered 34 adults aging from 18 to 40. After overnight fasting, the participants were given 16-ounce bottles of energy drinks or a placebo. It was a double-blinded study where none of the participants or the researchers knew who drank which drink.

The observations showed a change in the time that the chambers need to contract and relax.

This rise showed that the chances of life-threatening arrhythmias were higher in people who drank energy drinks.

Another study conducted in 2018 established a link between increased heart rate and systolic blood pressure due to energy drinks.

This can be because of the high amounts of caffeine. As per experts, consuming more than 400 milligrams of caffeine in a day can cause:

• Heart palpitations
• Higher blood pressure
• Increased heart rate

Usually energy drinks contain 70 to 240 mg of caffeine per serving and a cup of coffee has got 100 mg of caffeine.

Hence, one must not mix too much energy drinks and caffeine as energy drinks usually are stimulatory and stimulate heart actions.

#2. Effects Of Additional Sugar Present In Energy Drinks

Energy drinks are often loaded with artificial sweeteners to boost the taste. Though it definitely boosts the taste, but is just not the best thing for your body.

However, some energy drinks boast of using calorie-free sugars like:

• Sucralose (Splenda)
• Aspartame
• Saccharin

But they still can raise your insulin levels and cause problems.

According to clinically-based pieces of evidence, artificial sweeteners have been linked with many disorders like:

• Metabolic syndrome
• Obesity
• Lower satiety
• High calorie consumption
• Weight gain

Further they have also been found to cause alteration with the health of your gut bacteria raising the number of bad bacteria and curbing down good bacteria.

This could lead to severe gastric problems that might need treatment.

Hence, even if going for an energy drink make sure you go for the ones that include natural sweeteners.

#3. High Sugar Content

Even if using natural sweeteners, many energy drinks have quite a high sugar content. Usually, they pack around 27 to 31 grams of sugar per 8 ounces.

However, according to the American heart association, healthy sugar intake marks 25 grams of sugar or six teaspoons of it for women, and 36 grams or 9 teaspoons of it for men.

According to this measure a 24-ounce energy drink can have triple the amount of sugar as compared to health recommendations.

This excess sugar can pose serious side effects and threats to the body like:

Causing inflammation around major tissues and organs leading to chronic diseases in longer duration including cancer, debates, and even heart diseases.

Further, the high sugar rush can also lead to:

• Obesity
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver

#4. Interactions With Alcohol

Young adults often mix alcohol and energy drinks for doubling the fun.

In fact according to the reports of the national center for complementary and integrative health, almost 25% of college students like their alcohol with energy drinks.

However, this combination is not at all healthy as it alters the intoxication levels it makes you feel alert, and reduces the effect of intoxication.

Yet you would be facing the alcohol’s effects like slurred speech, poor coordination, and memory impairment.

It can also lead to binge drinking has it keeps you alert masking the intoxication of the alcohol. This makes you drink more.

For people who don’t know what binge drinking is, it’s taking down 5 or more drinks in just two hours.

It can further lead to health conditions like:

• Chronic diseases like high blood pressure, stroke, heart diseases, and liver diseases
• Cancer affecting the throat, breast, mouth, esophagus, colon, and liver.
• Interruption in learning and memorizing process
• Alcohol abuse

#5. Harmful Effects Of Energy Drinks On Teens

Teenage is a phase of growth and development, and in such a vulnerable face the tendency of The negative effects of energy drinks go high.

According to the NCCIH energy drinks can have an effect on severe health conditions among young teenagers like:

• Impaired cardiac and nervous functioning
• Interruption in the cognitive development
• High risk of depression and major mental illness
• Sleep disorders

#6. Interactions With Medications

There are many such ingredients found in the energy drinks that can interact with the chemical composition of your medications.

Hence, if you are on some medicines or even dietary supplements it is highly advisable to consult a doctor before taking any energy drinks.

#7. Niacin Overdose

Most of the energy drinks contain Vitamin B3 or Niacin which doesn’t cause any harm to your body. But when a person is taking a supplement rich in Niacin, chances of overdosing the vitamin go high.

Some of the common symptoms of the overdosage include:

• Skin flushing
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Diarrhea
• Itching
• Gout

However, this doesn’t mean that we ask you to totally cut down on energy drinks. There are still, ways to drink these beverages without inviting the side effects home.

Energy Drinks – The Safer Side

Though energy drinks come to the unhealthy category of drinks, but yes we can still have it and stay healthy. People without any underlying health conditions can follow moderate consumption of the drink.

However, the better option can be going for alternatives.

Healthier Alternatives Of Energy Drink

Here are some of the natural energy and focus boosting alternatives that you can try rather than going for the unhealthy energy drink:

#1. Water

One of the major reasons for energy drainage is not taking enough fluids. Hence consuming enough water in a day can help get rid of the need of having an energy shot.

According to health experts, healthy water intake should be 12 glasses for women and 16 glasses for men.

But if you find it difficult you can even add fruits chunks to your water or fruit juice.

#2. Quality Sleep

Maintain a good quality of sleep at night.

However, if you are having problems sleeping you can follow some easy tips:

• Workout most of the days of the week
• Try taking a healthy 8 hours sleep at night
• Don’t go to the bed with a heavy stomach
• Avoid smoking at night

You can even sneak out and take a nap in the afternoon if sleeping at night is a tougher solution.

#3. Brewed Coffee

Each cup of coffee delivers 100 mg of caffeine to your body which is enough to keep you up. However, don’t add sugar to your coffee as this alters its effectiveness.

Instead you can go for stevia, erythritol, or monk fruit for flavoring.

#4. Unsweetened Tea

Green or black tea to serve the purpose of energy drinks healthily.

A cup of brewed black tea offers 50 mg of caffeine while green tea would yield 30 mg of caffeine. You can even add natural sweetener to your tea for enhanced flavoring.

Till now you must have get enough info whether energy drinks are good for you or not! To make it more clear let us answer your some most frequently asked questions.

FAQs

Lets start with the certain list of common questions related to energy drinks.

1. Why are sugar-free energy drinks bad for you?

Sugar-free beverages like zero sugar energy drinks usually trick your body to follow the same metabolic process that the body does when expecting sugar.

Hence your body starts producing insulin to curb down excess sugar in your body. This raises the amount of insulin and also the threat of diabetes type 2.

Further, it also leads your body to store more calories as fat and use fewer calories as energy making you feel hungry and overeating.

2. Are energy drinks bad for your kidneys?

According to a recent study, drinking two or more energy drinks in a day regularly can increase the chances of chronic kidney health conditions.

Both carbonated and energy drinks have been linked to the formation of kidney stones making the energy drinks not safe for your kidneys anymore.

3. How many energy drinks are too many?

According to popular pieces of research and studies, 400 mg of caffeine is safe for consumption. Anything more than that can cause severe problems.

Hence the number of energy drinks that you have depends on the amount of caffeine. More caffeine content makes energy drinks bad for your heart.

4. How long does energy drink last in your body?

Usually, an energy drink kicks in within 10 minutes of having it. The real benefits come in 45 minutes from taking it. And further declines within 2 to 3 hours.

However, the ingredients of the energy drink can stay up to 12 to 13 hours in your body.

5. What does energy drink do to your stomach?

Too many energy drinks cause an imbalance in the pH of your stomach. It does by relaxing the esophagus and cause heartburn and irritation to the stomach mucosa. Further, it can even cause cramps, nausea, and diarrhea.

With this we guess its the right time to make our conclusion on this war of energy drink good or bad!

Conclusion

There can be many reasons why energy drinks are good for you but health experts find it not worth trying.

Energy drinks have got a widespread fan following but according to studies, taking excess energy drinks can be a serious threat to your heart.

Pieces of evidence also claim it off pulling down your immunity and causing obesity. Many such factors have pulled out a complete negative side of the beverage.

But yes, there are still healthy alternatives to such beverages to help you pull through the day before your exam!