- Energy drinks!
(upbeat music)
We hear all the time that
they're really bad for us,
especially for teens,
but we all drink them anyway.
So are energy drinks really that bad?
First, let's rewind back to 1997,
the year Titanic came out in theaters,
and I looked like this.
It's also when RedBull
became the first energy drink
to reach the market in the US.
Since then, energy drinks like RedBull
have skyrocketed in popularity.
But things started
getting intense in 2011,
when the American Academy of Pediatrics,
an organization of over
60,000 pediatricians,
recommended that kids and teens
should never drink energy drinks.
The reason why they were so worried?
Caffeine!
They were also concerned
about student athletes
who were confusing energy drinks
for sports drinks, like Gatorade.
But anyway, 2011 was a long time ago.
So we emailed the AAP to
see if things have changed.
Their answer was no.
They confirmed that "The 2011 report
"was recently reaffirmed by the Academy."
But caffeine is in a ton of things,
like coffee, tea, soda,
and even chocolate,
and the dangers of caffeine
really boil down to
how much you have.
A cup of coffee usually has between
95 to 200 milligrams of caffeine.
So, for adults, the experts recommend
no more than 400 milligrams a day,
and for kids, no more than 100 milligrams.
All right, so a little bit of caffeine,
probably not that bad.
But high doses can be lethal.
Yeah, it can kill you.
(screaming)
So how much caffeine is
actually in energy drinks
to get all these doctors so worked up?
Although the FDA doesn't
require companies to list
the amount of caffeine in beverages,
many brands do it voluntarily.
They're right there on the label.
So, in this little bottle,
you've got 200 milligrams,
you've got 160 milligrams
in this can of Monster,
and 114 milligrams in this RedBull.
But caffeine often isn't
the only ingredient
in energy drinks.
There can be lots of other additives,
like guarana and taurine.
Shoot, is it taurine?
Guarana is a plant from the Amazon,
and its seeds contain about double
the amount of caffeine
found in coffee beans.
Taurine, on the other
hand, is an amino acid,
which, if you took notes
in your biology class,
you would know is the
building block of proteins.
It's in a lot of other things.
It's even in our own nervous system.
And it's often marketed
as a performance enhancer.
And then, of course, some of these drinks
have a lot, a lot of sugar,
and we all know how much sugar can lead to
diabetes and obesity.
So what does the research
say about all this?
Well, in 2011, a paper published
in the journal Pediatrics
reviewed the effects of energy drinks
on children, adolescents,
and young adults.
The paper looked at 121 reports,
2/3 of which were published
in academic journals.
And in all of this research,
there are still two big unknowns.
One, does your age affect how your body
responds to caffeine?
And two, how do all these
additives and caffeine
interact with each other?
Clearly, there's still a
lot they're figuring out,
but in the meantime, the experts warn
that energy drinks could
be especially risky
for kids with heart
problems, ADHD, or diabetes.
So, given all these concerns,
it may come as no surprise
that some places have pushed for
completely banning the
sales of energy drinks
to anyone under the age of 18.
As far as we can tell,
that hasn't passed locally
here in the US, but in 2014, Lithuania,
well, known for storks
and hot air balloons,
became the first country to actually ban
the sale of energy drinks to
anyone under the age of 18.
But not everyone is a fan of these ideas.
Some think these restrictions are unfair.
If you aren't worried about
selling coffee or tea to kids,
why single out energy drinks?
So, the American Beverage Association,
the trade group representing
many of these energy drinks,
came up with another idea:
voluntary guidelines for
labeling energy drinks.
So now that you know all this,
how do you feel about energy drinks?
Do you think there should
be more regulation?
Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for watching!
