Gabrielle Greene

English Comp 102

Professor Fandler
April 26, 2016
Are Energy Drinks Harmful to the Body?
Life is full of ups and downs, and stress beyond belief. Everyone has those days where
they just want to throw in the towel and take nap, but they can not. They have to go to work,
make dinner, do homework, or stay after school for something. And when they are feeling down
and just want to sleep and they need something to lift them up, they turn to energy drinks. People
love the fact that energy drinks gives them the boost of energy that they need. But do they really
look at the ingredients? Or think about the affects that even just one energy drink can do to the
body? No one bothers because it is giving them what they need. Energy. People may believe that
energy drinks do nothing but give the body a boost of energy that it needs, but they are also very
dangerous and harmful to the human body.
When energy drinks come to mind there are several brands that come up in a
persons head some of the most common brands are Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, NOS, Amp,
and many more. In the chart by The Caffeine Informer Staff, it shows that Red Bulls sales for
2015 was twelve thousand four hundred sixty-three million dollars (Caffeine Informer Staff,
Top selling Energy Drink Brands). The next energy drink following behind Red Bull was
Monster selling four thousand seven hundred seventy-three million dollars in 2015 (Caffeine
Informer Staff, Top selling Energy Drink Brands). Energy drinks are such a major selling point
and it will continue to grow. The problem with these energy drinks is that everyone, even kids in
middle school are drinking them, 66% of energy drinks are consumed by those 13-35 years old

(Gaille, Brandon). The fact that the age thirteen falls in this category is ridiculous, that is kids
that are in fifth grade. No one looks at the back or side of the can and wonders what actually is in
an energy drink. Well I will tell you. There are many common ingredients found in energy drinks
that are bad for you body, such as caffeine, ginseng, B vitamins, sugar, taurine, guarana, and so
much more. There are so many different ingredients that no one knows about in an energy drink
but the few listed above are the ones that I will inform you on.
One ingredient mentioned above that has some side affects to the body is caffeine. There
is a certain level of caffeine that a person can consume a day which is no more than four hundred
milligrams. But this is for a healthy adult and there are not a lot of healthy adults in this world.
For kids it is much less. Kids or teens can only consume about half of that. Too much caffeine
can cause restlessness, increased heart beat, or even insomnia (Caffeine Informer Staff). A lot of
caffeine consumed by the body can also dehydrate the body. The amount of caffeine found in a
twelve ounce can of a Red Bull is one hundred and eleven milligrams. Thats nearly half of the
total amount of caffeine a person can intake. But caffeine is not the only ingredient that contains
caffeine guarana; which is also found in energy drinks, has caffeine in it as well, making the
caffeine intake even higher (Caffeine Informer Staff).
Another ingredient that is in energy drinks is sugar. Sugar is not healthy whatsoever and
can do a lot of damage to the body. Sugar can lead to obesity, which is one of the biggest
problems in America. A twelve ounce can of Red Bull contains about thirty-seven grams of sugar
in it. The average amount of sugar a man should consume in a day is about thirty-seven and a
half grams and twenty-five grams for a woman (Gunnars,Kris). One can of Red Bull contains the
total amount of sugar a male and female is suppose to consume all day. Sugar can also lead to
tooth decay, an increase in type 2 diabetes, and can also cause your blood sugar and energy levels

to rise (Caffeine Informer Staff). When you consume a lot of sugar and your blood sugar and
energy levels rise, soon after you will feel a huge crash. This crash makes you feel like you were
on top of the world and now you are on the bottom not wanting to do a single thing.
Other less significant ingredients that are in energy drinks that also have some side
affects are ginseng and B vitamins. If someone obtains more than thirty-five milligrams of B
vitamins it can cause flushing of the skin. An intake of three thousand milligrams or more can
cause serious problems to the liver such as liver toxicity (Caffeine Informer Staff). That is a lot
of B vitamins anyone who consumes more than one hundred milligrams can cause sensory
nervous problems and skin lesions. Imagine if one was to consume three thousand milligrams
thats a lot. When it comes to the ingredient ginseng there are also some side effects. Ginseng is
connected to sleeplessness, headaches, insomnia and also palpitations. When ginseng and
caffeine are in a product together they can cause an increase in heart rate and can lead to high
blood pressure (Sifferlin, Alexandra). A lot of these ingredients in energy drinks are not healthy
and have some serious side effects to consumers.
Furthermore, many people nowadays consume a lot of energy drinks. With all of this
consumption of a substance and the ingredients in them sooner or later they just become use to
drinking them and it becomes a habit. One person from health news, Aaron Templin, said that in
high school he use to drink 3 or 4 cans of mountain dew a day. Later it was 2 shots of 5-hour
energy a day and sooner or later it was a twenty ounce can of monster a day (Miller, Anna
Medaris). It was an addiction. He said that it was too much energy (Miller, Anna Medaris). As
you can see from the example above then man got addicted to energy drinks and had to
completely stop because it was not healthy for him whatsoever. Energy drinks are addictive
especially if you are consuming one everyday. The energy drink market has risen up to 60%

throughout the years (Miller, Anna Medaris). Whenever anyone needs a boost of energy or needs
to stay awake they turn to them. People have busy lives whether its going to school then work
and wanting to hangout with your friends afterwards so you turn to an energy drink to give you
more energy so you can do everything. Anna Medaris Miller in her article says, From working
moms to doctors on the night shift, Americans' supply of good old-fashioned energy seems to
be wearing thin. For Templin, the artificial type helped him do it all in college. "I was staying up
late and partying with my friends and trying to keep up with everything I had going on, from
sports to my friends and studying, he says. (Miller, Anna Medaris). These drinks are dangerous
and the consumption of them need to be slowed down. It was said on the U.S. news that
Between 2007 and 2011 emergency room visits doubled involving energy drinks more than
20,000 according from a report from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (Miller, Anna Medaris). People should not be getting admitted into the hospital
because of energy drinks.
To continue, what types of people consume energy drinks? And the answer to that
question is everyone. Everyone ranging from girls and boys that are as little as middle schoolers
to men and women as old as 50. It is said that 50% of adolescents consume energy drinks
(Sifferlin, Alexandra). But how many consume them on a daily basis? Thats a great question. On
average about 31% consume energy drinks such as Red Bull, monster, etc., on a daily basis
(Sifferlin, Alexandra). When someone consumes a drink often a person can experience chest
pain, irregular heartbeat or sometimes even cardiac arrest depending on that persons health.
Even athletes may rely on energy drinks. People believe that consuming energy drinks before a
game will improve a persons performance, but is that the only thing that really matters? What
about the affects on the body after consuming a can of Red Bull before a game or practice?

According to Platforma SINC more than 50% of athletes drink an energy drink before doing
physical activity, Del Coso says energy drinks increases jump height for basketball players,
muscle force and power for climbers and trained individuals, swimming speed for sprinter
swimmers, hit force and accuracy for volleyball players and the number of points scored in
tennis. (Platforma SINC). Is that what everyone really cares about? But no one realizes that
energy drinks really only enhances your performance by 3-7 percent. Energy drinks taken by
athletes before a big game or practice causes sleeplessness, nervousness, and stimulation before
performance (Platforma SINC). It is not worth the nervousness and sleeplessness just to perform
better by 3 to 7 percent. On top of that energy drinks consumed before during or after physical
activity can also raise the risk of dehydration and increase the chance to have a fatal heat illness.
None of these side affects are worth only enhancing your performance by a tiny bit. An athlete
once said, My tenure as an energy-drink consumer lasted one day. If by wings, Red Bull
meant anxiety, shaky hands, nausea, and an eerie resemblance to Philip the Hyper-Hypo after a
candy bar, then yes, I had wings. (Lacke, Susan). This is proving that energy drinks cause more
damage and problems then they do help. There are so many other ways to get the energy people
want instead of having an energy drink.
Energy is something that you can get naturally instead of using an energy drink. It comes
from very simple things. Simple things that do not cause any harmful effects to the body. One
thing that someone can do to gain more energy is eating right. Most people do not eat right so
they always feel tired and sleepy, so they turn to energy drinks. But really if people just ate right
and ate something packed with protein and carbohydrates they would not feel so tired all the time
(Miller, Anna Medaris). Not everyone can eat right so another thing that someone can do to gain
energy is to get enough of rest. If they got at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, they would not

feel so tired all the time. The last thing that people can do is exercise. Exercise is good for the
body and can give people energy if they exercise on a daily basis. Worse comes to worse if none
of these things work for people and they still need a pick me up something to turn to is coffee.
Although coffee is not very good for your body it is a lot better than energy drinks and can wake
a person up if need be.
There are many other ways for someone to get the energy that they get from regular
energy drinks. There are energy drinks that people do not know about that give the same effect of
an energy boost that regular energy drinks give someone but a healthier way. Some energy drinks
that are a lot healthier than Red Bull, rockstar, monster, etc., are V8 V-Fusion + Energy Peach
Mango, Starbucks Refreshers Blueberry Acai, Zola Coconut Water with Espresso and so many
more (Editors of Womens Health). Lets take the V8 energy drink for example; this energy drink
gets its boost from green tea. It also gives everyone the amount of Vitamin C they need to
consume in a day in just one drink, and it provides a full serving of fruits and vegetables with
just have fifty calories (Caffeine Informer Staff, V8 V-Fusion Energy Drink). There are also no
added sugars and there is just 80 mg of caffeine which is almost half of the amount in a Red Bull.
Another alternative to getting energy and is not an energy drink and a lot healthier that
one is coffee. People think that coffee and energy drinks have the same amount of caffeine.
When it does not. As a matter of fact, when it comes to coffee and energy drinks there is a huge
difference. Coffee is just ground coffee beans or carbonated water and sugar, but energy drinks
are full of caffeine and sugar and other ingredients that can do a lot of damage to the body
(Lacke, Susan). Most people when it comes to energy drinks do not just take one sip and then put
it down. As it is said by Susan Lacke, And youre probably not sipping it throughout the
morning, like a cup of coffee. Many energy drinks can be finished in three gulps (some, like 5-

Hour Energy, can be downed like a shot glass). Thats a powerful caffeine bomb. (Lacke,
Susan). People take a huge gulp most of the time and that is why they get the side affects
sometimes that they do. The body can not handle that much caffeine and energy in such a tiny
amount of time. Coffee on the other hand people handle differently. They do not chug coffee like
it is a shot, they take their time and enjoy it. Doing this does not make them all shaky from all of
the caffeine.
Also, nowadays people like to go out and drink with their friends but they are also like to
mix their alcohol with energy drinks. Everyone now a days go out to parties with their friends
when they are in high school or college and mix alcohol with their energy drinks, this as a matter
of fact is not good. When mixing alcohol and energy drinks together it can mask the alcohol
affects. When doing this, it can make people binge drinking (Miller, Anna Medaris), causing
more intoxication. Furthermore, when mixing these two things together it intensifies the side
effects including anxiety, rapid heart rate and it can lead to clinically dangerous conditions
(Johnson, Natalie). But kids do not know about these side effects and they really probably dont
care. Brandon Gaille said, In one study, bar patrons who consumed alcohol mixed with energy
drinks were 3x more likely to leave a bar highly intoxicated and were 4x more likely to intend to
drive while intoxicated than those who did not consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks
(Gaille, Brandon). Kids do not care, all they care about is being cool and being like the people
who advertise them, that probably dont even drink any of the drinks that they help promote,
such as Blake Griffin with Red Bull. Did you know that over 46% of commercials are aired on
television channels that adolescents watch such as MTV, fuse or BET? (Sifferlin, Alexandra).
When kids see Blake Griffin or Anthony Davis along with so many more advertising Red Bull
they are going to want to do the same (Red Bull Athletes Browser). When kids or teens see

people that they admire promoting something they always want to try it because they think it is
the next big thing and they will be cool if they use it. But little do they know that the athletes or
celebrities that promote them probably do not even use the product because of the damage it can
cause.
Does the company Red Bull truly think about what they are saying when it comes to their
slogan Red Bull gives you wings? If they did, they would not have gotten into as much trouble
as they did because of their slogan. What did they mean behind the saying Red Bull gives you
wings? Was it that it would actually give a person wings when they were to drink it, or was it
just to show that it would give you a boost of energy like you were flying? Since they did not
clarify the true meaning behind it, they got into a little bit of trouble. Since their slogan is Red
Bull give you wings, people complained that this energy drink did not give them wings like
their slogan said it would. This made people very angry and so they complained. Because of this
slogan and the person that complained Red Bull said that they would give anyone who purchased
a can of while this slogan was used their money back, this cost the company $6 billion (Cornell,
David). They said that they would refund everyone either $10 in cash or $15 worth of their
product (Kunert, Paul). A spokesman said they did this to avoid the cost and distraction of
litigation (Kunert, Paul) this could have been a good thing or a bad thing. The company will
also change their future advertising slogan so no one else will think of any other extreme ideas
when it comes to the slogans. By doing this it will keep them out of trouble and make them not
have to spend money because of their slogan.
In conclusion, people think that energy drinks are not as bad as they really are. They do
not read the back of the cans of the drinks and look at whats actually in it. They do not know
about the long time affects or even the short term affects. They do not worry about finding out

what the ingredients actually are and how they affect the body. Basically, they do not worry
about energy drinks and their affects at all, they do not care to know what they are actually
consuming. Energy drinks are very harmful for the body and people need to realize that they are
dangerous. But, since every celebrity is endorsing them, everyone is going to drink them. People
need to take a stand and figure out the harmful ingredients and effects of energy drinks and then
maybe they will stop selling them or make healthier ones. Once people start to realize the serious
side affects of these energy drinks they will stop drinking them. They just need to be told and
informed about these issues.

Works Cited

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<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141002084308.htm>.

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