Energy drinks are a prevailing trend in today’s society – and honestly the craze is understandable.
What could possibly be unappealing about a product marketed to the public as a combatant to exhaustion, with the ability to enhance mental clarity, and on top of that provide a heightened sports/fitness performance?
But underneath the enticing promise of immediate benefits there is a commodity consisting of ingredients that can constitute major health risks, upset sleep patterns, and offer a truly limited improvement to physical performance.
Most energy drinks are loaded with sugar. This poses a significant increase in caloric consumption and can potentially result in metabolic issues.
Even when choosing drinks with a “sugar free” label like Celsius, Redbull, and Alani Nu, these drinks still contain artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame, both of which have been linked to increased cravings, heart disease, and metabolic problems/changes.
Besides the cardiovascular impacts from the artificial sweeteners in the drink, the rapid increase in heart rate and blood pressure can stress the heart further and increase likelihood for future heart related issues.
While the heightened focus induced by the drink is seemingly favorable, it is often accompanied by the subtle neurological responses of increased anxiety, shaking, and even headaches in more extreme cases.
The high levels of sugars found in many energy drinks are associated with weight gain, dental problems, and a likelier chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
In relation to physical activity enhancement, the caffeine that is providing the intensified results is simultaneously dehydrating the body, introducing an entirely different set of hazards to said exercise.
Frequent or regular consumption of the drinks promotes a caffeine based reliance. The dependency ultimately maximizes chances of withdrawal should anyone attempt to consume less or stop consuming the drinks altogether. This amplifies feelings of fatigue and irritation, also causing headaches and impeding concentration.
In relation to sleep, energy drinks’ revivifying qualities can hinder the body’s natural sleep cycle.
Consumption of an energy drink, especially during the late afternoon, can interfere with attempts to go to sleep for several hours after drinking it.
If sleep is attained, then caffeine can lower the amount of deep and restorative sleep that the body receives, affecting the quality and overall benefits of the sleep.
The combatant to a bad night of sleep is simply drinking yet another energy drink the next day. This never fully allows the body to recover from sleep deprivation and leads to limited healing, concentration, and mood regulation.
Finally, in reference to athletics, energy drinks do provide an edge to bodily accomplishment but at a price that’s concerning when thinking long term.
Energy drinks do undeniably improve alertness and reaction time, decrease the strain of an intense activity, and improve endurance.
However, all of these supposed benefits come at the cost of dehydration, gastrointestinal issues, cardiac overstimulation, fatigue, and sleep disruption.
The caffeine contained in energy drinks acts as a short term solution, but it has long term effects on the body’s physical wellbeing. Justifying the frequent consumption of energy drinks may seem like the only option now, but will ultimately catch up adversely in the future.
It’s important to keep in mind that today’s body will also be tomorrow’s body and the same body twenty years after that. So take care of it! Don’t let too many energy drinks impact lifelong health.
