Hello, welcome at this new vlog of Belicons.
Nice that you are watching.
Regularly we hear what foods and drinks are
or aren’t good for us and what kinds of
warnings we need against certain foods and
drinks.
But in practice it is very hard to draw a
line here.
Why would a sports drink be better than lemonade?
Both contain a lot of sugar and are sour,
which are bad for our teeth and in addition
because of the large amounts of sugar we can
gain weight when we don’t use that sugar.
So both aren’t qualified to drink in large
amounts.
But no one is saying that we need warnings
on the packaging of sports drinks or lemonade
or even a ban on selling them to children
or youngsters.
But they do in case of energy drinks.
More than that, in several countries it is
already forbidden to sell them to children
and/or youngsters and some shops chose to
stop selling them to children and youngsters
even though no one forced them to.
What is so different about these drinks?
Is it just a matter of a bad image, or is
there more to this?
Well, let’s take a good look at what we
find in an energy drink.
Of course there is water in an energy drink
to be able to dissolve everything else in
it and there are some vitamins and minerals
to make them look healthy.
But then there is sugar.
That is what an energy drink is about because
the sugar gives us energy to be active.
A can of 250ml contains about 9 sugar cubes.
The British National Health Service recommends
adults no more than 7 cubes of free sugar
a day and children only 6.
Free sugar means that this is only about what
is added to our foods and drinks and not about
the sugars we take in by eating fruit for
example.
So after drinking one can of energy drink
we already have crossed our limits of free
sugars for that day.
Sometimes we hear children and youngsters
saying that they drink 4 cans a day.
That means about 36 sugar cubes a day if they
are talking about cans of 250ml, but some
cans are even larger so in that case it is
even worse.
Sometimes the sugar is being replaced by artificial
sweeteners, but it isn’t sure that these
chemicals are good for us, moreover, the energy
drink won’t affect us in the way because
it gives us energy because of the sugar.
Does this make energy drinks the worst kind
of soft drink there are?
No, for in cola there is the same amount of
sugar.
So if we would call for a ban on energy drinks
because of the sugar, we should call for a
ban on cola too.
But it doesn’t end here.
There is also caffeine in an energy drink,
that makes us more alert.
There is about as much caffeine in an energy
drink as there is in a large cup of coffee
and about 3-4 times as much as in cola.
So this would make cola much more healthy
than an energy drink, although no one would
call cola healthy.
And coffee is healthier too because we don’t
add as much sugar cubes to a cup of coffee.
After about 5 cans of energy drinks we have
reached our limits of caffeine of that day,
That means that we cannot drink any cola,
coffee or even black or green tea any more,
for then we take in even more caffeine.
And then there is the taurine.
Some people claim that is the amount of taurine
that causes children and youngsters to end
in the emergency department of hospitals after
drinking energy drinks.
Others think that it is the large amount of
caffeine.
We don’t know enough about taurine to say
this for sure, however, it is a fact that
because of energy drinks children and youngsters
are admitted to hospitals and get physical
problems, like heart arrhythmia, weariness,
restlessness, kidney failure, liver intoxication,
convulsions, etc.
The reason for this isn’t sure, but it is
true.
So what is the difference between an energy
drink and other soft drinks?
That is contains a lot of sugar in combination
with a lot of caffeine and in addition it
harms the bodies of children and youngsters.
Why is there a ban on selling alcohol to children
and youngsters?
Because it harms their bodies and have other
negative consequences.
We have this ban in order to protect children
and youngsters.
Energy drinks can harm their bodies too and
are very popular and because of that they
easily drink too much.
If that is true, why wouldn’t we have a
ban on selling energy drinks to youngsters?
Why wouldn’t we protect them from this?
It only sounds logical to me.
These are my ideas.
Let me know what you think, on Belicons or
on YouTube.
And don't forget to mention your arguments
of course.
I'm really curious and I will see you next
week.
Bye!
