Energy drinks. (Pat Wellenbach/Associated Press)With names like Rock Star, Full Throttle and Monster, it’s no wonder new super-caffeinated energy drinks appeal to teens.
But energy drink consumption is something parents need to think about too. As I write in today’s Well column, heavy consumption of caffeinated energy drinks may be a predictor of risky behavior by teens. In addition, teens and young adults are mixing alcohol and energy drinks, which can increase the risks associated with alcohol consumption.
To learn more about the caffeine content of the beverages your teen is drinking, check out the Web site Energy Fiend, which lists caffeine content of dozens of different beverages. Although I haven’t checked every item for accuracy, I have checked several of the listings and found the data to be reliable.
To read more about energy drinks and the association with risky behavior, read today’s Well column here. Are you a fan of energy drinks? Do you allow your teen to consume them? Post your comments below.
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I don’t drink them myself, but my brother is a Marine stationed in the California desert. He says they are extremely popular among the young enlisted who train for hours in the heat. He used to drink one or two a day, but he started feeling sick and getting moody. Once he cut out the energy drinks, using Gatorade or plain water and the occasional cup of coffee instead, he felt significantly better.
As far as an association with high risk behavior goes, it’s harder to get higher risk than being a US Marine, and most Marines are 18-25 years old.
— AnneI am a pediatric RN. I have noticed that many of the teen patients with pancreatitis whom I have cared for recently have reported to drink the high energy drinks you have highlighted in this article. Something in my nurse/mother intuition tells me these drinks contribute to their problem.
— melindaMy son was addicted to energy drinks. He passed away in 2005 after a motorcycle accident where no one else was involved. I definitely agree with the article about the correlation between risk taking behavior and the consumption of these drinks.
I would also question the relationship between attention deficit disorder and self-medicating. Many people with ADD are addicted to caffeine and stimulants have a calming effect. Energy drinks would take this to the next level.
FROM TPP — I’m sorry for your loss. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
— Roxanne M. SmithDo you allow your teen to consume them?
Seasoned parents who’ve raised teenagers could only laugh at the above question. We’re an easily satistied lot being happy junior is doing well in school, has nice friends, has sex with nice friends,uses condoms, and drug use and alcohol is is confined to on Saturday nigh parties.
— MARK KLEIN, M.D.I don’t drink them, although I do drink Mountain Dew. It is my weakness. I try to drink it in moderate amounts though - no more than one per day.
— AndyThe New Cook
Caffeine is the much maligned ingredient in these drinks, but after looking at the list it becomes obvious that its pretty easy to get similar levels of caffeine from coffee; but teens who drink lots of coffee aren’t having these problems. I think the real culprit is going to turn out to be the high amounts of sugar, along with the caffeine, that is causing nausea and heart palpitations; or even more likely, some secret ingredient in the energy drinks that make them irresistable…after all, coca-cola used to be made with cocaine.
— NicoleYou don’t have to wait ’til your kid is in HS to find out if he’s likely to be a seat-belt-eschewing tweaker later in life–if he gravitates toward super sour or super hot candy, that’s a clue, too. I noticed this in the 80s: the kids that went for the atomic fireballs and the so-sour-it-makes-your-eyes-well candy were the ones who liked fireworks and three-wheelers. In due time these were the kids who got mohawks and eight earrings, skateboarded themselves into hospitals regularly, and drank, smoked and snorted themselves in and out of rehab. Those of us who favored chocolate candy and did not, for instance, see what it’s like to snort the contents of the Pixi Stix (rather than simply trading them and the MaryJanes and rest of the Halloween trash haul to the future drug addicts in exchange for edible candy), we chocolate eaters were the ones who remained in school until graduation, whereupon we went to good colleges and adopted safe coffee habits and sedate red-wine drinking. Want your kid to grow up to be a long-lived bore? Don’t wait for the Red Bull years: take away the gateway candy now.
— Nom, nom, nom!From the perspective of a parent, seeing one’s child taking risks is scary. But from the perspective of the child, risk taking is a necessary part of individuation and growth.
Tacitus wrote, “The desire for security stands against every great and noble enterprise.” The same is true for people.
I honestly hope my son never takes the risks I took as a teenager, because I know that a half-dozen times the difference between life and death was sheer luck. But at the same time, I’ll be worried if he doesn’t.
http://www.boldizar.com
— BoldizarWe have a one carbonated beverage per day limit. My son wanted an energy drink this weekend. We let him - as long as it is not frequent. Clearly people are drinking this for medicinal purposes, so it is not surprising they would not feel boundaries that they can rush across.
I too suspect that there will be more consequences down the road than this.
Then again, I drink lots of coffee.
— Dr. RobI haven’t read the column in full yet, so forgive me if you mention this, but there may be a marketing component too. Red Bull, for example, has a competition where people make funny vehicles and try to fly them off a cliff into water (or something like that). Names like Monster and Rock Star also seem intended to push the image of throwing caution to the wind. Combined with the caffeine, maybe the kids have some desire to get a little crazy before popping the can and amplify the effect of the caffeine with expectation and a commercially influenced image of what will happen. I mean, some kids are a little impressionable and susceptible to advertising and peer pressure, right?
FROM TPP — NOtably, the drinks companies claim they don’t market to teens. I think the advertising and “viral” marketing campaigns I’ve seen suggest otherwise.
— JesseIt’s not the caffeine in these drinks that fuels recklessness, it’s the taurine, an organic acid that is essential to cats. My cats act recklessly and take enormous risks all the time, making them seem a lot like teenagers.
— Janet VI am currently a rising 3rd year med student. The only time I even started drinking coffee was during gross anatomy in my first year. Now, if I have to study (which seems like always), I have two cups of coffee in the morning. That is it. If I am on vacation, or it is the weekend, I don’t drink any. All throughout high school and college, people I knew were pulling all nighters, drinking tons of Red Bull and coffee, and generally not getting rest.
Sure, I may not have had the 4.0 that these people had, but I had my 3.3, still got into med school, and probably saved my health along with it. I always try and get my sleep, even if it has to win over academic achievement. I don’t see a point in ruining my health over some book work. In fact, maybe it is the explosion of expectations of kids today that leads to much of this. Maybe we should be looking at both sides of the equation, and put health above stellar academic achievement.
— John-Robert La PortaFrom the Well column article
‘Energy drink marketers say they don’t encourage consumers to mix the drinks with alcohol. Michelle Naughton, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, which markets Amp, said, “We expect consumers to enjoy our products responsibly”‘
Maybe ‘Amp’ doesn’t, but I’ve seen specially branded refrigerators full of cans of energy drinks (often but not always Red Bull) installed in bars which are clearly designed to suggest to patrons that they order a mixed drink with them.
— FJPI am not surprised, nor is the phenomenon limited to teens. I worked in a schamncy cocktail bar in Manhattan for years and after several incidents we removed any drinks with Red Bull from the menu. The (largely male) patrons who drank Red Bull cocktails all too often became overly boisterous, aggresive and even violent.
— ellaAs someone in my late 20’s, I have to say I would be genuinely worried about high-school aged teens drinking this stuff. The only times I’ve consumed energy drinks have been late nights at bars and clubs when I wanted to stay out with friends rather than succomb to sleep. They work, and that’s why they’re a successful product. But I can’t imagine that level of rush in the mid-afternoon when one is already wide-awake.
If our teenagers feel that they need the extra boost, chalk this up as more evidence that our teenagers are too over-extended between school, homework, extra-curriculars, jobs, family responsibilities, etc. When I was in high school I felt incredibly over-extended, but there weren’t the same kind of products available to me. I don’t know if I would have tried them if they were. But in the ultra-competitive environment of many high schools these days, I’m not surprised that kids are looking for any advantage they can find.
Bottom line? I’d ban them in high schools.
— LizYou know what I would like to see? I would like to see a study that ties people who play football to risky behavior. I’m sure that there is just as much anecdotal evidence and correlation=causation fallacies to show that football is a gateway drug.
— ElaineIt seems to me that the overconsumption of these drinks is dangerous enough, but what really scares me is the trend of people mixing these beverages with alcohol. Considering the serious dehydration that could result, this seems like a recipe for disaster.
— HeronMy teenage daughter did a community service project thru the local YWCA on healthy eating habits for teenage girls. Part of her presentation was a quiz of sorts, a comparison of how much caffeine is in coffee/tea/energy drinks. Almost every girl in the class failed - none had any idea that the drinks had so much caffeine. I think advertising geared to teens overpromises what the drinks can do without disclosing the harm.
— prklyprI used to drink Jolt in college constantly (and not sleep for days at a time), but some of the things on this list are completely insane. I guess I was consuming the same amounts of caffeine as the highest mg per drink, but spread out over the course of a day. I can’t imagine what these levels of caffeine in one shot would do.
Risk taking? Sure, makes a little more sense if you’re compltely unable to sit still for the 5 seconds necessary to decide something is a bad idea. With some of these drinks, that would be the case.
— AnnaThe missed Celsius in this article. I hated that one because I hate all drinks with Aspartame/Splendida/saccharin. Give me good ole sugar any day of the week. I’ve tried them all.
But what they didn’t mention was that:
1) teenagers don’t take time to read the labels
2) they drink these liquids in 0.3 seconds
3) they’re just looking for a new buzz until it wears off
I read everything about Spike Shooter. After I bought, it said to drink ‘half a can’ and no more until you get used to it. I did that & they were right. I got a large shot glass. I filled that with Spike Shooter and that was enough until the next day. That one shot kept me up for about 12 hours. I can’t imagine drinking . . . I mean, chugging that down and still expect to be standing. I can’t imagine drinking more than one can per day like some have done in the other posts I read.
Some are using these energy drinks as an initiation into their clubs/groups/gangs to see who can out buzz the other. Again, stupid high school stuff. These drinks aren’t half bad, but you need to be careful with them. Drink them in “true” moderation. I never was moody, depressed, or had any bad side effects afterwards. Of course, I drank water when I was thirsty and didn’t drink any other caffeinated drinks on those days with Spike, Redline, Red Bull etc.
You need to learn to be smart about this stuff. I’ve stopped drinking all of them. But I do still drink them occasionally when I need a lift. Now I know which ones will give me the exact lift I need when I need it cold.
— Apres SkiRoxanne, I truly am sorry about your son. I do have to agree with your comment on caffeine, though. I have had a form of ADHD my whole life, which is now more ADD. When I was younger, I used to run all over the place and be extremely hyperactive in classrooms - not any longer. However, concentration is still an issue (i.e. I basically have my own personal radio station in my head that plays all day sometimes). Caffeine does have the effect of making it easier to keep such noise suppressed to a minimum. However, one cup is enough: the extremes that these kids are taking it to is well beyond the call of duty.
— John-Robert La PortaMy children are absolutely not allowed to have any energy drinks…My oldest who is 13 a while back, was drinking them…and not a lot of them..one every other day or so..and got a horrible kidney infection. This may sound gross, but reality…his urine looked like orange juice…and you are supposed to be able to see through it !! He felt really bad, and had to take lots of medicine to get things clear..so NO NO NO. I think they should be outlawed!!!
— AmyI drank RedBull and Vodka…..dangerous YES..I felt really strange,sweating, rapid heart beat for hours into the next day,….i emailed RedBull Company and asked if it was possible to OD from RedBull…no reply, no surprise.
— TanyaOf cousre they don’t market to teens - Rock Star and Monster are names that are totally grown-up and serious. Get real. These companies say whatever they want.
In 1996 when I was a freshman in college you know what was in my welcome pack? No-Doze. No joke. They pushed the stuff on us.
Plenty of adults drink these things too, by the way. Whatever, have one once in a while but if you spend $3 on a drink daily, whether it be Starbucks or these canned drinks, I hope you’re also not complaining about gas prices because you can drink water and take a run for free.
— mbJohn-Robert La Porta’s comment (#12) medicine’s become so female dominated medical schools need affirmative action to recruit males.
I love female docs so long as they’re focused on practicing medicine rather doing it more or less part time to make family ends meet. Not only are they usually academic overachievers it’s one of rare times guys ever have to get a women to really listen to them.
— MARK KLEIN, M.D.