Energy drinks could pose a risk to young brains, said UK researchers.
New research revealed that energy drinks could pose a greater risk to children’s and younger people’s brains than previously thought.
Those who consumed energy drinks were shown to have a higher risk of mental health problems such as depression, suicidal thoughts, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety, according to a study from Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health at Teesside University, and Newcastle University in the UK. It was published in the Public Health journal last month.
Researchers said they looked at data from 57 studies of more than 1.2 million children and younger people from more than 21 countries to come up with their conclusions.
It found that boys consumed more energy drinks than girls, while “many studies” reported an association between energy drink consumption and alcohol use, binge drinking, and smoking, as well as other substance use.
“Additional health effects noted in the updated review included increased risk of suicide, psychological distress, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, depressive and panic behaviors, allergic diseases, insulin resistance, dental caries, and erosive tooth wear,” an abstract of the paper said.
Regarding the impacts on mental health, it found that “frequent” drinking of energy drinks “was associated with suicide attempts and severe stress,” while there “were also higher rates of suicide ideation and attempts with [energy drink] intake greater than once per day.
“Longitudinal analysis reported that [energy drink] consumption was related to increased ADHD inattention, conduct disorder, depressive, and panic symptoms,” it continued to say.
A co-author, Shelina Visram, with Newcastle University, said in a news release that she is “deeply concerned about the findings that energy drinks can lead to psychological distress and issues with mental health.”
“These are important public health concerns that need to be addressed,” she added. “There has been policy inaction on this area despite [UK] government concern and public consultations. It is time that we have action on the fastest growing sector of the soft drink market.
The researchers, who are based in the UK, also called on the government to either ban or restrict the energy drinks for younger people and children.
“This evidence suggests that energy drinks have no place in the diets of children and young people,” author Amelia Lake, professor of public health nutrition at Teesside University, told Fox News on Thursday. “Policymakers should follow the example from countries that have placed age restrictions on their sales to children.”
It’s because, their study shows, the researchers have “found an even greater list of mental and physical health outcomes associated with children and young people consuming energy drinks,” she said.
“We repeated [the review] only to find an ever-growing evident space that suggests the consumption of these drinks is associated with negative health outcomes,” Ms. Lake continued.
Several countries have already tried to regulate energy drinks, including bans on sales to minors in Latvia and Lithuania. Other countries such as Finland and Poland are also reportedly looking to ban the products from being sold to people under the age of 18.
The study, meanwhile, drew a response from UK officials. A spokesperson for the UK Department of Health and Social Care told the BBC that “we consulted on a proposal to end the sale of energy drinks to children under 16 in England, and will set out our full response in due course” and that “in the meantime, many larger retailers and supermarkets have voluntarily introduced a ban on the sale of energy drinks to children under 16.”
But several years ago, Christopher Snowdon, the head of Lifestyle Economics at the UK-based Institute of Economic Affairs, found that such bans unfairly target teenagers and said there is a lack of evidence to link the drinks to negative behaviors.
“The current scientific evidence alone is not sufficient to justify a measure as prohibitive as a statutory ban on the sale of energy drinks to children,” he wrote in an article published in 2020.
The Defender’s Big Food NewsWatch brings you the latest headlines related to industrial food companies and their products, including ultra-processed foods, food additives, contaminants, GMOs and lab-grown meat and their toxic effects on human health. The views expressed in the excerpts from other news sources do not necessarily reflect the views of The Defender.
More Evidence to Ban Energy Drinks for Children, Study Finds
The sale of all energy drinks to young people and children in the U.K. should be banned, says a review of the latest evidence on their effects on health.
It highlighted links to more risks than previously found, such as anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts. These drinks often contain high levels of caffeine and sugar and are sold as providing an energy boost.
On the back of the review, 40 health-related organizations have written a letter to Health Secretary Victoria Atkins to repeat the call for sales of energy drinks to be further restricted.
Energy drinks are marketed as giving a physical and mental boost, and providing more energy than standard soft drinks. It is a huge and growing market, and up to a third of U.K. children drink them every week.
Colorado Father Urges Lawmakers to Limit Sale of Food Preservative Being Used in Suicides
A Colorado father, driven by grief, is pushing to make Colorado among the first states in the country to regulate the sale of sodium nitrate. The preservative, used to cure meat, is deadly in its concentrated form, which is widely available online and in some sporting goods stores. Bruce Brown’s son is among a growing number of people who have used it to end their lives.
Bennet Brown hid the depth of his despair from everyone but an online group with a perverse mission — to facilitate death. Instead of helping save lives, their website helps end them by using sodium nitrate.
Brown says his son didn’t want to die but by the time he sought help it was too late. It wasn’t until months later he learned of the trail of deaths from sodium nitrate. He sounded an alarm at the state capitol.
“The more families we hear from that have had this happen, so across the country, it’s on the rise,” said state Rep. Judy Amabile, who has introduced a bill to ban the sale of sodium nitrate in Colorado, except to those with commercial licenses. The bill would also require manufacturers to specify on the label that it’s a poison and how to reverse it.
Scientists Tricked Our Brains Into Craving Ultra-Processed Foods — and Now People Are Fighting Back
The quick inventory I took of my kitchen (which didn’t include my snack drawer) made it painfully clear I needed to do more homework on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), why we buy so much of them and how we can break this bad habit, which new research shows is a leading cause of obesity in North America. In the U.S., more than 42% of Americans are considered obese (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In Canada, it’s 27% (Health Canada).
Given the negative publicity swirling around these aggressively modified foods, it seems preposterous that we continue to consume so much. The reason might be that we can’t help ourselves.
Michael Moss, the author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (for a series he did on contaminated meat) blames the major food companies. “Big Food has made a science of hooking us on the ‘bliss point’ of sugar, the ‘flavor burst’ of salt and the ‘mouthfeel’ of fat, to use industry parlance,” says Moss.
In his latest book called Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, Moss compares food cravings with compulsions for nicotine and heroin. “People say to me, ‘It’s ridiculous to compare cookies to heroin.’ But these products are designed by some of the top scientists in the world to get the perfect formulation of salt, sugar and fat to get us not just to like these products but to want more and more of them.
If you’re eating protein, you could be ingesting hundreds of tiny pieces of plastic each year, research finds. A new study by researchers with the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto found microplastics — tiny particles ranging from one micrometer (one-thousandth of a millimeter) to half a centimeter in size — in nearly 90 percent of protein food samples tested.
The researchers analyzed more than a dozen different types of common proteins that could wind up on the average American’s plate, including seafood, pork, beef, chicken, tofu and several plant-based meat alternatives. They estimated that an American adult could consume, on average, at least 11,000 microplastic pieces per year, according to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Pollution.
It’s long been known that microplastics can be found in the digestive tracts of fish and shellfish, but the new research sheds light on the likely presence of the plastic pieces in parts of seafood that are typically eaten, such as fish fillets, as well as popular land-based proteins like beef, chicken and pork.
Increasing BMI in Kids Tied to 100% Fruit Juice Consumption — Findings Support Guidance Limiting Such Beverages in Young Children, Researcher Says
Daily consumption of 100% fruit juice was associated with a small increase in body mass index (BMI) in children, while an association between consumption and weight gain among adults appeared mixed, a systematic review and meta-analysis found.
In prospective cohort studies involving kids, each 8-oz serving of 100% fruit juice was associated with a 0.03 increase in BMI (95% CI 0.01-0.05), a link that appeared to be driven by younger children, reported Vasanti Malik, MSc, ScD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues.
The findings “support public health guidance to limit the consumption of 100% fruit juice, especially for young children,” said co-author Michelle Nguyen, HBSc, also of the University of Toronto, adding that whole fruit rather than fruit juices should be recommended, with water as the drink of choice.
PepsiCo CEO on Leadership, Ultra-Processed Foods, and Weight-Loss Drugs
PepsiCo (PEP) chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta isn’t a fan of the ultra-processed food label being increasingly slapped onto big food makers.
“I don’t like the word ultra-processed, and I don’t believe in it,” Laguarta told Yahoo Finance Live in an exclusive interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “I think we are using kitchen logic to define our product.”
In the meantime, Wall Street has continued to weigh in — mostly by putting pressure on the stock prices — on the impact on Big Food companies from the rising popularity of weight-loss drugs.
The maker of Pepsi soda and Lays chips hammered Wall Street profit estimates, with the company notching sales gains in all its business segments, save for Africa/Middle East. PepsiCo set its 2023 organic sales growth to 8.8%, compared to estimates of 8.3%. Earnings for the year are expected to rise 16%.
Quaker Oats Expands Recall of Granola Bars and Cereals for Salmonella Risk
The Quaker Oats Company has added two dozen additional types of granola bars, cereals and snack foods to a December recall over possible salmonella contamination.
The company, which is owned by PepsiCo., announced the additional recall in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday.
The expanded recall includes Quaker Chewy Granola Bars and Cereals, Cap’n Crunch Bars and select cereals, Gamesa Marias Cereal, Gatorade Peanut Butter Chocolate Protein Bars, Munchies Munch Mix and snack boxes that contain those products.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received at least 24 reports of adverse events related to the products initially recalled, but no illnesses have been confirmed to be linked to the foods, an agency spokesperson said Friday. Adverse events can include medical problems, but also complaints about the off taste or color of a product, defective packaging or other non-medical issues, the official said. FDA will continue to investigate the reports.
French Farmers Dump Manure, Rotting Produce in Central Toulouse in Protest Over Agricultural Policies
Angry French farmers dumped piles of manure in front of city buildings in the southwest city of Toulouse Tuesday, a pungent protest against the government’s agricultural policy which they say is leaving them to face increased hardships. Nearly 400 tractors and 1,000 farmers from across southwest France converged on the city after rallying before dawn at meeting points across the region.
They headed for Toulouse in the early morning light, honking horns and pulling trailer loads of hay and manure as they moved in on the ancient city center, blocking entire lanes on some roads and causing massive traffic jams.
When the tractors reached the regional authority building, they tipped dozens of trailer loads of rotting fruit, hay, and manure right in front of it.
The protesters say increased taxes and social charges are causing hardship for farmers across the region. The tax hikes and other fees come on top of increased costs for fuel and animal feed, and a general rise in the cost of living across the country. Elsewhere in the region, farmers targeted large suburban supermarkets, dumping manure in their parking lots. The farmers say many big supermarket chains refuse to pay fair prices for their produce.
Cereal is (largely) out, but hot honey sandwiches, cinnamon roll pancakes and wonuts — a waffle/doughnut hybrid — are in as more chefs try to lure us out for breakfast.
Why it matters: Fine dining restaurants, fast-food outlets and supermarkets are doubling down on breakfast and brunch in 2024, convinced they can squeeze more revenue out of society’s most-skipped meal.
Driving the news: Our post-pandemic dining habits have us eating meals earlier, relying more heavily on ready-to-eat snacks, trying to spend less money on meals, and seeking out less-processed foods — all trends that breakfast purveyors are trying to capitalize on.
Let’s talk cereal: We’re eschewing it in favor of protein-laden portables like bars, shakes and frozen burritos, dampening the profits of Kellogg’s, General Mills and Post Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It’s possible they could be vastly more efficient, but for that to happen we need to better understand the thermodynamics of computing
Microsoft is currently running an interesting set of hardware experiments. The company is taking a souped-up shipping container stuffed full of computer servers and submerging it in the ocean. The most recent round is taking place near Scotland’s Orkney Islands, and involves a total of 864 standard Microsoft data-center servers. Many people have impugned the rationality of the company that put Seattle on the high-tech map, but seriously—why is Microsoft doing this?
There are several reasons, but one of the most important is that it is far cheaper to keep computer servers cool when they’re on the seafloor. This cooling is not a trivial expense. Precise estimates vary, but currently about 5 percent of all energy consumption in the U.S. goes just to running computers—a huge cost to the economy as whole. Moreover, all that energy used by those computers ultimately gets converted into heat. This results in a second cost: that of keeping the computers from melting.
These issues don’t only arise in artificial, digital computers. There are many naturally occurring computers, and they, too, require huge amounts of energy. To give a rather pointed example, the human brain is a computer. This particular computer uses some 10–20 percent of all the calories that a human consumes. Think about it: our ancestors on the African savanna had to find 20 percent more food every single day, just to keep that ungrateful blob of pink jelly imperiously perched on their shoulders from having a hissy fit. That need for 20 percent more food is a massive penalty to the reproductive fitness of our ancestors. Is that penalty why intelligence is so rare in the evolutionary record? Nobody knows—and nobody has even had the mathematical tools to ask the question before.
There are other biological computers besides brains, and they too consume large amounts of energy. To give one example, many cellular systems can be viewed as computers. Indeed, the comparison of thermodynamic costs in artificial and cellular computers can be extremely humbling for modern computer engineers. For example, a large fraction of the energy budget of a cell goes to translating RNA into sequences of amino acids (i.e., proteins), in the cell’s ribosome. But the thermodynamic efficiency of this computation—the amount of energy required by a ribosome per elementary operation—is many orders of magnitude superior to the thermodynamic efficiency of our current artificial computers. Are there “tricks” that cells use that we could exploit in our artificial computers? Going back to the previous biological example, are there tricks that human brains use to do their computations that we can exploit in our artificial computers?
More generally, why do computers use so much energy in the first place? What are the fundamental physical laws governing the relationship between the precise computation a system runs and how much energy it requires? Can we make our computers more energy-efficient by redesigning how they implement their algorithms?
These are some of the issues my collaborators and I are grappling with in an ongoing research project at the Santa Fe Institute. We are not the first to investigate these issues; they have been considered, for over a century and a half, using semi-formal reasoning based on what was essentially back-of-the-envelope style analysis rather than rigorous mathematical arguments—since the relevant math wasn’t fully mature at the time.
This earlier work resulted in many important insights, in particular the work in the mid to late 20th century by Rolf Landauer, Charles Bennett and others.
However, this early work was also limited by the fact that it tried to apply equilibrium statistical physics to analyze the thermodynamics of computers. The problem is that, by definition, an equilibrium system is one whose state never changes. So whatever else they are, computers are definitely nonequilibrium systems. In fact, they are often very-far-from-equilibrium systems.
Fortunately, completely independent of this early work, there have been some major breakthroughs in the past few decades in the field of nonequilibrium statistical physics (closely related to a field called “stochastic thermodynamics”). These breakthroughs allow us to analyze all kinds of issues concerning how heat, energy, and information get transformed in nonequilibrium systems.
These analyses have provided some astonishing predictions. For example, we can now calculate the (non-zero) probability that a given nanoscale system will violate the second law, reducing its entropy, in a given time interval. (We now understand that the second law does not say that the entropy of a closed system cannot decrease, only that its expected entropy cannot decrease.) There are no controversies here arising from semi-formal reasoning; instead, there are many hundreds of peer-reviewed articles in top journals, a large fraction involving experimental confirmations of theoretical predictions.
Now that we have the right tools for the job, we can revisit the entire topic of the thermodynamics of computation in a fully formal manner. This has already been done for bit erasure, the topic of concern to Landauer and others, and we now have a fully formal understanding of the thermodynamic costs in erasing a bit (which turn out to be surprisingly subtle).
However, computer science extends far, far beyond counting the number of bit erasures in a given computation. Thanks to the breakthroughs of nonequilibrium statistical physics, we can now also investigate the rest of computer science from a thermodynamic perspective. For example, moving from bits to circuits, my collaborators and I now have a detailed analysis of the thermodynamic costs of “straight-line circuits.” Surprisingly, this analysis has resulted in novel extensions of information theory. Moreover, in contrast to the kind of analysis pioneered by Landauer, this analysis of the thermodynamic costs of circuits is exact, not just a lower bound.
Conventional computer science is about all about trade-offs between the memory resources and number of timesteps needed to perform a given computation. In light of the foregoing, it seems that there might be far more thermodynamic trade-offs in performing a computation than had been appreciated in conventional computer science, involving thermodynamic costs in addition to the costs of memory resources and number of timesteps. Such trade-offs would apply in both artificial and biological computers.
Clearly there is a huge amount to be done to develop this modern “thermodynamics of computation.”
Be on the lookout for a forthcoming book from the SFI Press, of contributed papers touching on many of the issues mentioned above. Also, to foster research on this topic we have built a wiki, combining lists of papers, websites, events pages, etc. We highly encourage people to visit it, sign up, and start improving it; the more scientists get involved, from the more fields, the better!
Its effects may appear to be magical, but there’s a lot happening under the surface when you’re enjoying your morning mug.
Whether you just like the taste of coffee, drink it out of habit, or truly rely on it for energy, it’s no secret the drink has magical powers. But have you ever thought about what it’s actually doing after you gulp down your morning mug?
Coffee comes from a bean, so it contains phytonutrients and polyphenols, chemical compounds found in plants that are believed to have antioxidant benefits, Dana Hunnes, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., senior dietician at UCLA Medical Center and adjunct assistant professor at the Fielding School of Public Health, tells SELF. “But for the most part, caffeine tends to be the nutrient in coffee that people are most aware of and that’s the best studied.”
From your brain to your bowels, coffee does work on your body. Here’s what’s really happening when you drink it.
The caffeine enters your bloodstream and quickly finds its way to your brain, where it works as a stimulant and boosts alertness and energy.
“The chemical enters your bloodstream fairly quickly,” Hunnes says. It can take as few as 10 minutes from drinking for caffeine to start working. Caffeine binds to adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine is a nervous system depressant, meaning its presence suppresses arousal and promotes sleep. When caffeine intrudes and binds to the receptors, adenosine’s effects are lessened, and we become stimulated. This increased brain activity then stimulates the release of adrenaline, which is what gives us that big burst of energy and attentiveness associated with a morning cup of Joe. Studies also have connected caffeine consumption to a boost in memory.
The downside is that drinking too much can cause insomnia.
“If you have caffeine later in the day, it can actually predispose you to develop insomnia or make it worse if you already have it,” Rachel Salas, M.D., an associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine who specializes in sleep medicine, tells SELF. It can keep anyone up if they drink it too close to bedtime, but if you’re prone to develop insomnia, a coffee habit can be the trigger that causes a chronic problem. Salas suggests stopping coffee (and all other caffeine) consumption at noon if you think it may be impacting your ability to fall asleep at night. If you can’t function before your morning cup, it’s a red flag you need to take a look at your sleep habits. Coffee is a helpful crutch when you’re tired, but it’s not going to actually give you more energy in the long term. Only good sleep can do that.
That’s partially because caffeine stays in your system for hours and hours.
“The way we metabolize coffee is called a half-life,” Hunnes says. In most people, caffeine’s half-life is 4 to 6 hours. “It takes about 6 hours to reduce the amount of caffeine in our blood by about 50 percent,” she explains. So if you drink a 200 mg cup at 9 AM, by 3 PM you’ll have 100 mg left, and by 9 PM you’ll have 50 mg. Keep in mind, that’s the average half-life—how quickly you metabolize caffeine really depends on your individual body chemistry and genetics.
Caffeine also impacts our pleasure centers, which improves our mood…and keeps us hooked.
“It can help you be more alert and reactive, but it can also help pep you up and impactyour mood,” Salas says. Like most drugs, caffeine in coffee increases the levels of feel-good chemical dopamine in our brains. (Other stimulants like cocaine have the same effect, but just much stronger.) This can improve our moods and increase happiness. But for daily drinkers, this can create dependence, resulting in withdrawal symptoms when you go without—it’s why habitual users tend to wake up grumpy and get headaches if they don’t get their fix.
Too much caffeine can have a negative impact on mood and mental health.
High doses can mess with your brain chemistry too much, and cause jitteriness and nervousness. Studies have shown that high doses of caffeine can increase anxiety and panic attacks. Those who already struggle with these mental health challenges tend to be more sensitive to caffeine and its mood-altering effects.
Drinking large amounts of coffee can cause a spike in blood pressure and heart rate.
Studies have suggested that coffee increases heart rate, thanks to caffeine’s impact on hormones and neurotransmitters. But drinking coffee in moderation—one to three cups per day–shouldn’t have a noticeable impact on a healthy adult. According to the Mayo Clinic, some habitual drinkers may have a slightly higher blood pressure, while others develop a tolerance and are not affected in the long term. There isn’t a clear explanation as to why caffeine causes this increase in blood pressure, but it’s likely due to increased adrenaline and other hormonal responses brought on by the stimulant.
Coffee stimulates bowel movements, and may even reduce the risk of gallstones.
Ever notice you really have to hit the bathroom after a cup of coffee? Experts believe caffeine directly stimulates the colonic muscles, prompting bowel movements. Plus, if you’re drinking it hot, the warm liquid itself can help relax the colon and prompt muscle contractions, adding to the laxative effect. When the muscles in the gallbladder specifically are stimulated, it increases emptying, which can reduce the risk of gallstones.
It’s a myth that coffee is dehydrating.
“It’s a very mild diuretic,” Hunnes says. “But it’s not really much of a dehydrator.” She says that if you were to drink a huge amount in one day, say 8 cups (which is not recommended), and have no other fluids all day, you might experience slight dehydration. But coffee contains a lot of water, and it counts toward your daily fluid intake just like a plain glass of H2O would.
Coffee may suppress appetite and boost calorie burn, but it’s not a magic weight-loss bullet (sorry).
Coffee is a known appetite suppressant and may stimulate thermogenesis, or the process our bodies use to create heat, which theoretically leads us to burn more calories. But there’s not much evidence that these effects are large enough to result in significant or long-term weight loss, the Mayo Clinic says. Black coffee is a good low-cal way to get your fix, but choking it down for its supposed weight-loss benefits probably won’t bring any noticeable changes.
Energy drinks are very popular, but they aren’t too good for your sleep patterns, finds a new study.
Many Americans will reach for energy drinks, but perhaps no more so than men. Since men are the main consumers of these highly caffeinated, fizzy beverages, a team of scientists led by Dr. Ronald F. Levant, a professor of psychology at The University of Akron, was curious to see if there was a link between energy drinks and masculinity. The scientists also examined the effects energy drinks had on sleep and how drink expectations influenced consumption.
Oftentimes, energy drinks are marketed in a way that highlights masculinity. Commercials may feature men engaged in adrenaline-pumping, risky activities, like snowboarding or skydiving. Many brands of energy drinks sponsor sporting events as well, including ultimate fighting leagues, motocross, and racing.
“While most men who buy energy drinks aren’t martial arts champions or race car drivers, these marketing campaigns can make some men feel as though drinking energy drinks is a way to feel closer to, or associated with, these ultra-masculine sports,” said Levant in a press release.
Levant and his team first had 467 adult men take the Male Role Norms Inventory short form (MRNI-SF) designed by Levant. The survey attempts to measure a person’s agreement with traditional masculine attitudes, such as “I think a young man should try to be physically tough, even if he’s not,” and, “Men should not be too quick to tell others that they care about them.”
The second survey men took measured expectations about the effects of energy drinks, and included statements like, “If I consume energy drinks, I will be more willing to take risks,” and, “If I consume energy drinks, I will perform better.”
The final survey involved in the study was focused on sleep in order to compare disturbances in men’s sleep patterns to a standard sleep quality index. It looked at things like how often the men had to get up to use the bathroom, plus how much trouble they had falling asleep.
The researchers found associations between energy drink consumption and beliefs in traditional masculinity, the efficacy of energy drinks, and sleep disturbances with a couple notable exceptions.
“Older men were, more or less, exempt from the trend, and non-white men who endorsed traditional masculinity believed in the efficacy of energy drinks, but this belief didn’t translate into actual use,” they said.
For younger, white men in the sample, the link was much clearer.
“The link between masculinity ideology and energy drink use suggests that energy drinks use may be means of performing masculinity…as a way to raise masculine capital,” Levant said. He added the performance could be a way of showing off that one is consuming products associated with a competitive lifestyle.
The study suggests this association could have a negative effect on men’s health. Excessive consumption of caffeine can accelerate heart rate and increase anxiety, along with contributing to insomnia.
“Energy drinks contain very large amounts of caffeine, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require caffeine quantities to be displayed on beverage labels,” said Levant. “Because of this, some people may drink more caffeine through energy drinks than they might have intended to throughout a day, and drinking large amounts can cause problems — especially for sleep.”
Source: Levant R, Parent M, McCurdy E, Bradstreet T. Moderated mediation of the relationships between masculinity ideology, outcome expectations, and energy drink use. Health Psychology. 2015.
It’s generally agreed by health experts that teens shouldn’t be using certain supplements, particularly some of those used to boost athletic abilities. Yet, according to CNN, more than two-thirds of vitamin stores still recommended a popular sports supplement — creatine — even when they were told the supplement was for a teen. It’s estimated that 30 percent of high school athletes are using this supplement, CNN said.
Creatine is one of 8 nutrients you can’t get from foods, and that’s why some people choose to take a supplement for it. Creatine is an amino acid found in animal foods that is important for muscle energy, proper function of your central nervous system, and brain health. But, it’s noteworthy that creatine can also be produced by the liver, so unless you’re a vegetarian who isn’t getting animal foods, you don’t really need a supplement for it.
Three important factors of fitness nutrition are a sufficient protein/high-fat/low-carb diet — which in and of itself will give you a source of creatine; getting enough essential amino acids, the most notable of which is leucine; and timing of meals. And while many athletes do this, carb-loading is not the most beneficial way to lose fat, gain muscle or boost your performance.
The bottom line is, in sports nutrition, the food you eat has an immense impact not only on your general health, but on the benefits you will ultimately reap from your workouts. This means making sure you have a proper balance of proteins, leucine and other essential amino acids that play a part in energy and sports nutrition ― and timing meals correctly. You also need to ditch energy drinks, sports drinks, most energy bars and even “healthy” drinks like vitamin water.
Once you find out what Red Bull energy drinks can do to your body, you’ll never touch one again. These types of energy drinks are commonly used to help boost energy in the afternoon or even students use them to pull all-nighters for studying. Red Bull is just one of these popular brands and has been shown to increase the possibility of a heart attack or stroke.
What Red Bull Does Really…
Blood can become sticky and cause strokes or a variety of other cardiovascular issues when you consume energy drinks. After just an hour after drinking a Red Bull will give you a system that is so abnormal that it’s comparable to that of someone with cardiovascular diseases.
Red Bull simply states their drink is just like drinking a cup of coffee or soda. While you might have the same effects like you would with caffeine, the reaction speed increases and energy comes from the sugar and artificial sweeteners.
However, while people have a general idea of what coffee does to the body, no one is really sure what exactly is going on when all of the other active ingredients in Red Bull react with caffeine and what it does internally.
Energy drinks are primarily composed of aspartame. This ingredient alone acts has properties that are fetal, allergenic, metabolic, neurotoxic, and carcinogenic. When you add this to the effects similar to when you have a crash and experience lethargy like you do shortly after having a soda, you’ll soon become addicted and crave these dangerous energy drinks throughout the day.
Energy Drinks are Banned in Other Countries
Approximately 3.5 billion cans of Red Bull energy drink was sold in 143 countries in 2014. However, people keep questioning the safety of it and other energy drinks. These energy-seeking addicts can die. Unfortunately, energy drink sales have also outnumbered the sale of bottled water.
Since energy drinks can be found in almost any supermarket, especially in an increased rate over the most recent years, instead, some countries have decided they aren’t going to allow consumers to be susceptible to the dangerous effects energy drinks may have.
Health risks of Red Bull have all been identified in Uruguay, Denmark, and Norway. These countries have all banned it. It is considered illegal for anyone under 16 years old to have Red Bull in Kuwait. This comes after two players of the national squash team had fatal heart attacks after consuming energy drinks.
People Who Are at Highest Risk
Impaired blood vessel functioning and an increased risk of blood clots are just two possible effects from drinking energy drinks. If you suffer from blood clotting disorders, caffeine sensitivity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome, high stress or anxiety, you are at high risk for strokes. Any woman who is pregnant or lactating must avoid these drinks.
Instead, Improve Energy the Natural Way
Simply eating right can help boost energy. Increase the consumption of foods that have omega-3 fats in them. Eliminating sugars and grains in your diet can also have longer lasting positive impacts on energy levels. Try to manage your stress level and start exercising regularly. This will help you to kick dangerous energy drinks to the curb.
First, let’s set the record straight by saying that sugar in and of itself isn’t evil, per se. It occurs naturally in plenty of foods, including fruits and milk. With that being said, adding excess sugar to your dietary intake simply isn’t necessary. In fact, you’ll notice numerous positive things happen when you decide to quit sugar for life.
Although people living in the Western world have been trained to desire sugary treats, as well as foods that include copious amounts of sugar for flavoring, we certainly don’t need it. If you stop eating anything but naturally occurring sugars, you’ll notice that 5 very distinctive things will happen.
1. Your Energy Will Improve
Ironically, many of us have a tendency to reach for sugar-filled items, including so-called energy drinks and caffeinated beverages, when we’re tired. Yet without all the sugar, we’re guaranteed to have a higher energy level naturally. In other words, all that sugar is blocking our body’s ability to keep our energy stores at maximal levels. Plus, there will be no up-and-down with your blood sugar, so afternoon crashes will become an experience of the past.
2. Your Weight Will Stabilize
Sugar makes you crave more sugar, and we’re not just talking about sugar in its raw form. Let’s face it: most sugar comes in high-fat and/or high-carb foods that have been processed or at least contain tons of unwanted ingredients. There is, of course, the exception of fruit, which are nearly all sugar.
By going on a sugar detox, your body will not be subjected to the need to deal with all those additional calories. You won’t feel hungry, and you’ll end up losing weight – or at least not seeing the scale fluctuate as dramatically.
3. Your Intestines and Colon Will Perform More Efficiently
If your insides could tell you what they wanted on a daily basis, they would say lots of fiber and a minimum amount of tough-to-digest, impure foods. When you remove sugar, you’re enabling your tummy and bowels to reset their abilities to process what you’ve eaten. You may even find that you go to the bathroom more often … this is a good thing. It means everything is getting back to a normal routine.
4. You’ll Stop Wanting Sugar
It’s a fact: sugar begets sugar. After you rid it from your food regimen, you’ll slowly begin to lose the desire to eat anything with sugar in it. Fruits will taste plenty sweet, and if you do take a bite of a cake or pie, you’ll be shocked at how overpowering and overly sweet it seems.
5. Your Skin Will Look Healthier
Have you noticed that you can’t seem to crack the case on why your acne appears and disappears despite all the creams, potions, and ointments you’re using? It may be that sugar is hurting your skin from the inside out. Many people report that their skin feels and looks healthier after they stop giving in to sugar’s pull.
Ready to Start Your Sugar Detox and Quit Sugar for Life?
While a cold turkey approach to your sugar detox isn’t always recommended, especially if you’ve been a sugar-holic for most of your lifetime, it’s definitely a good idea to start cutting back now. The faster you begin, the faster you’ll start to reap the advantages of going sugar-free.
In fact, in light of the countless dangers of consuming too much sugar, the World Health Organization has changed its sugar recommendation—advising no more than 5% of your daily calories should come from the sweet stuff, down from the previously recommended 10 percent. Considering the average American consumes close to 5 grams each day, we have some work to do.
Start small by evaluating everything you’re eating and drinking. If you are addicted to sugar-laced coffee drinks sold at popular coffeehouses, scale back on how many times you drink them. Then, scale back some more. Soon, omit certain sugar-laden products. Over time, you will physiologically adjust to your new habits.
Remember that it takes about three weeks before a new way of doing something becomes a comfortable routine. If you have slight missteps, such as eating a candy bar after a stressful workday, just keep forging ahead.
Advertisements
The results of your diligence will definitely be worth it.
Kids, six years old and younger, have turned up in hospital with abnormal heart rhythm, seizures and dangerously high blood pressure. The culprit? Energy drinks they may have consumed accidentally, a new U.S. report is warning.
U.S. poison control centres have received more than 5,100 calls about energy drinks and 40 per cent of the time, it’s kids encountering heart problems and neurological symptoms after consuming energy drinks unintentionally.
“Energy drinks have no place in pediatric diets. And anyone with underlying cardiac, neurologic or other significant medical conditions should check with their health care provider to make sure it’s safe to consume energy drinks,” Dr. Steven Lipshultz, of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, said.
He’s the lead author of findings presented Monday at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions event.
Researchers scoured the poison control records between October 2010 and September 2013. They found that in 42 per cent of the cases, kids were even consuming energy drinks mixed with alcohol.
Fifty per cent of the kids faced heart rhythm issues and even seizures.
Energy drinks contain pharmaceutical-grade caffeine and additional caffeine from natural sources that may explain why the kids’ hearts race and their blood pressure levels climb.
If the energy drinks had multiple sources of caffeine, the risk of side effects increased too.
Some energy drinks contain up to 400 milligrams of caffeine in a can or bottle – a cup of coffee contains about 150 mgs in comparison.
This isn’t the first study to warn about the hazards of energy drinks. Earlier this summer, French researchers said that even in adults, overconsumption can lead to angina, cardiac arrhythmia and even “sudden death.”
In that case, the researchers said that a typical 0.25 litre can is the equivalent of two espressos.
“Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells. This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart’s abilities to contract and to use oxygen,” the researchers warned.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against caffeine consumption for children and teens because of potentially harmful effects from the mild stimulant, including increases in heart rate and blood pressure, and worsening anxiety in those with anxiety disorders.
This weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) called energy drinks a “danger to public health,” especially among young people.
WHO health officials are concerned with the beverage because it can be consumed quickly, unlike hot coffee, and can lead to caffeine intoxication.
Aside from heart palpitations, the WHO review pointed to nausea, vomiting, convulsions and even death, which has been reported in the U.S., Sweden and Australia.
It’s calling for measures, such as establishing a limit on how much caffeine is allowed in a single serving, enforcing tighter labelling and creating restrictions for marketing the energy drink industry to youth.
Caffeine overdose is a real thing and it’s extremely dangerous, especially with temptation legally hiding anywhere from the coffee shop on the corner to the cans of energy drinks in the vending machines at the gym, grocery store, and even some public schools for kids. Caffeine can kill, and it’s exactly why a calculator has been designed by Caffeine Informer to inform consumers when it’s time to cut off.
Caffeine acts as a stimulant in the body and has some beneficial aspects to it too, as it’s been found as a potential protector against Parkinson’s disease and even some forms of cancer. But according to the calculator, if you weigh 125 pounds and drink down 106.64 cans of a standard Red Bull, you’ll actually just die. If you don’t know your weight and you’re off by 5 pounds and actually weigh 120 pounds, those four extra cans will kill you because you’ll only be able to suffer through 102.38 cans of Red Bull. Frighteningly enough, only 53.32 cans of Monster Energy Drink will kill a 125-pound person, and it’ll take four times the amount of a classic Coca-Cola until you finally drop dead.
You don’t need as much caffeine as the popular 24-ounce Monster energy drink cans contain to reap some of the proposed health benefits, or their rival Red Bull, which contains around 80 milligrams (mg) of caffeine in one 8-ounce can. While up to 400 mg of caffeine a day is completely safe for most adults, according toMayo Clinic, but that’s really the equivalent to a couple cups of coffee, or 10 cans of soda, or just two energy shots. Children should steer clear of any caffeine. There’s really no reason for a child to be exposed to that much caffeine in sugar-laden energy drinks or teeth-staining coffee.
“Safe doses of caffeine are usually quoted at around 200 to 300 milligrams, or two to four cups of coffee per day,” Dr. David Seres, associate professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University, said. Tip over that amount by just 200 to 300 mg and it’s considered a heavy pour that causes side effects such as insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, stomach upsets, abnormally fast erratic heartbeat, muscle tremors, and in severe cases, seizures and death.
You know you’ve overdosed if you’re feeling tremors or shaking throughout your body, which are the signs preceding the more life-threatening side effects. The overdose happens when the body’s central nervous system is thrown into a state of over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication. They body will actually expel the caffeine when it signals to itself it has had too much, just as the body would try to get rid of an alcohol overdose.
ARYAN'S BLOG 