You seem them advertised all over the place. Energy drinks can be found everywhere from health food stores to your common supermarket. The claims associated with these drinks range from the sublime to the preposterous. Yet, millions of Americans are buying these high powered pick-me-ups on a regular basis without giving even a single thought to how good or bad these drinks really are.
The truth is, not all energy drinks are the same. While many of the ingredients are common among them, each drink has its own little twist to it. And reading the labels of these drinks isn't going to help the average consumer much if they don't know what to look for.
The problem with many of these energy drinks is not what you know is in them but what you don't know or aren't familiar with. While one of the most common ingredients in these drinks is caffeine, this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as problems go. And yes, caffeine, especially in large quantities, is dangerous as it raises your blood pressure to begin with, not to mention other problems associated with the use of caffeine.
But what about the other common ingredients in energy drinks, the ones you probably never heard of? We are just beginning to learn of the problems associated with some of these ingredients, especially when mixed with other things, such as drugs.
To give you an example of what I am talking about, guarana, which is a very popular ingredient in many energy drinks, is a central nervous system stimulant. What you don't know is that consuming these drinks and then mixing them with drinks containing ephedrine or diet pills can be very dangerous.
Another popular ingredient in these drinks is taurine, which is actually something that we naturally get from foods that contain vitamin B6. We normally get more than enough taurine in out diet and the extra amount that we get from these drinks, depending on how much we consume, can become toxic in our systems.
But even worse than what we know about the ingredients in these energy drinks that can be harmful, especially if mixed with other items, is what we don't know. The FDA has all but admitted that many of the ingredients in most popular energy drinks have not been fully tested as to their degree of "safeness." This is not to say that these ingredients are good or bad, simply that we don't know. When you combine these factors with what we do know, that caffeine and some ingredients in these drinks can be harmful, it is almost like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver to your head, especially if you're like most people who consume energy drinks. It is common knowledge that most energy drink consumers are not casual users and consume large quantities of these drinks. This fact just makes the consumption of these drinks that much more dangerous.
For what it's worth, there have been deaths reported, though not many, because of caffeine overdose from these drinks. At the very least, this should at least get energy drink consumers to drink in moderation until the FDA has had time to fully study the effects of these drinks and the ingredients in them.