Stay Alert: The Science Behind Energy Drinks
From late-night study sessions to early morning work days, energy drinks have become the go-to quick fix when you are tired and in dire need of an energy boost. But behind the flashy advertisements and the celebrity promotional campaigns, have you ever found yourself wondering how energy drinks really work?
Whether it’s the caffeine or the B vitamins into their composition, it’s important to know what ingredients this magic potion contains and how they really work through your body. So, before you buy your quick-fix energy drink, spend a few minutes reading about its benefits and side effects.
Energy Drinks vs Sports Drinks: What’s the Difference?
Before you get familiar with the science behind these energy concoctions, you first have to know what energy drinks really are and how they vary from your regular sports drink!
Energy drinks are flavoured, typically carbonated beverages that contain stimulants such as caffeine, sugar for additional calories, vitamins, sodium, and other minerals. The primary purpose of these beverages is to provide rapid performance enhancement, energy boost and improve alertness when you are tired and unmotivated.
On the other hand, sports drinks are beverages that contain carbohydrates, electrolytes and even vitamins and other nutrients. Athletes drink these beverages post-workout in order to replenish lost fluids during the training.
From this, you can see that energy drinks are stimulants providing quick fixes for lack of energy, while sports drinks are rehydrators that help your body recover quickly after a tiresome workout.
Both of these drinks are completely safe to consume in the recommended quantities. However, overuse of the first can lead to jitteriness and dehydration, and overconsumption of the latter just adds unnecessary carbs to your diet.
How Do Energy Drinks Affect Your Body?
Even though there are scientifically proven benefits of energy drinks, it’s crucial for people to understand how they actually function and how they impact their bodies, both short-term and in the long run.
The primary two ingredients with energy-boosting qualities are caffeine and sugar. Caffeine, as a stimulant, blocks the adenosine receptors in the brain, which cause sleepiness and relaxation. This helps your body feel more awake and alert to its surroundings.
After the caffeine has taken effect, the high amount of sugar causes a rapid spike in glucose in your blood, giving you instant energy. Other ingredients in energy drinks, such as taurine and B vitamins, help enhance physical performance and aid your body in converting food into energy.
Through in-depth research on numerous athletes and sports professionals, scientists have demonstrated that an energy drink can enhance physical performance by significantly improving reaction time and mental awareness. The sudden energy boost it provides can also help you get your work done much faster, as your elevated heart rate pushes you to be more active and motivated.
As previously mentioned, with any stimulant drink it’s important not to overdo it with consumption. Most adults are fit to consume 400mg of caffeine per day. This is approximately 2 ½ cans of your typical energy drink. Anything more than that can cause anxiety, jitteriness, panic and even insomnia.
What Ingredients Are Energy Drinks Composed Of?
As energy drinks have become more and more popular, many businesses have started mass-producing them in an effort to assist exhausted parents and overworked adults. However, even with all the different brands on the market, one thing about these drinks has remained constant – their ingredients.
Every energy drink manufacturer adds a dash of their brand into their product, but the main ingredients that give these drinks their name remain overall the same and are:
- Caffeine: The key ingredient that prevents sleepiness and fatigue found in energy drinks is caffeine. This ingredient comes from natural plants, such as cocoa and coffee beans, guarana, and tea leaves. Besides these natural sources, caffeine can be manufactured synthetically. Both forms of caffeine are the same and perfectly safe for consumption.
- Taurine: This synthetically produced amino acid is contained in energy drinks. Taurine can also be found naturally in the human body and is consumed through food, such as meat and fish. This amino acid is included in energy drinks because it boosts mental and physical performance.
- Sugar: The world’s most predominant sweetener, sugar, is also one of the primary ingredients in some energy drinks. Sugar gives you the energy boost these drinks promise they provide. The level of sweetener in energy drinks is equivalent to the amount of sugar in popular fruit juices.
- Vitamins: Possibly the most beneficial element of an energy drink is all the vitamins infused into its formula. The most common vitamins in energy beverages are B-group vitamins. These vitamins can reduce tiredness and fatigue.
Daily Consumption of Energy Drinks: Pros vs. Cons
Although one energy drink a day can safely replace your usual cup of coffee, it’s important to note that even with the mass benefits of energy drinks, overconsumption can lead to a variety of health issues.
For that, you need to be familiar with the pros and cons before incorporating them into your daily diet!
1) Pros
- Energy boost and increased alertness: The primary benefit of energy drinks is the feeling of fatigue lifting almost instantly after consumption. This is extremely helpful if you are stuck in traffic and fighting your tired eyelids, or if you need some extra motivation to get you through a difficult task.
- Convenient size: Energy drinks most often come in cans. You can easily fit them in backpacks or purses and take them with you on the go.
- Flavour options: Just like any flavoured or carbonated drink, energy drinks also come in a variety of flavours. From sugary mango concoctions to sugar-free options, you can pick a flavour based on your mood and preference.
- Short-term performance boost: Scientists have proven that the energy boost you get from these drinks doesn’t just increase your mental performance, but your physical performance as well. Caffeine can help improve endurance and get you through a tough workout.
2) Common Cons
- High consumption of sugar: The typical content of sugar in energy drinks is around 150 – 300 mg per can. This large amount of artificial sweetener can cause rapid heartbeat, anxiety, panic attacks and unwanted sleep problems.
- Short-term energy boost: Sadly, the energy you get from a can of energy drink lasts a couple of hours at best. Afterwards follows an unwanted “crash” in energy, where you will feel tired and sleepy.
- Dehydration concern: Caffeine is considered a diuretic, which can be dangerous and lead to dehydration during summer or after a rigorous workout.
- Addiction risk: Regular consumption of energy drinks can lead to an unwanted addiction to these sugary beverages. This happens due to the dependence that you build on sugar and caffeine to get you through your daily tasks.
Conclusion
To sum up, energy drinks are great performance enhancers for short-term needs, as long as you don’t overuse them. They increase your energy and can even lift your bad mood when you are feeling low. However, consuming them regularly can cause damage to your heart and digestive system.
Not to mention, it can also build a dependency on the sugary rush. So, on that note, grab your daily drink and help yourself feel more alert, but maybe skip a day or two once in a while and let your brain get a break from all the caffeine.
