Need a burst of energy to keep you going during the day? According to Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times, about one-third of all 12 to 24-year-olds regularly consume energy drinks. Energy drinks are soft drinks used to increase the users’ mental alertness and improve the physical performance of the drinker by caffeine, vitamins, and herbal supplements. These drinks may seem like a good idea because they give you the extra oomph you need to get school work done or survive through work without passing out.
Some energy drink options include Red Bull, Amp, Jolt, Mad-Croc, Full Throttle, Cocaine, Monster, NOS, and Rockstar.
Junior Sharon Miyagawa enjoys drinking Red Bull and Mad-Croc energy drinks.
“I drink them everyday it’s warm outside,” she stated.
“I really like them, but I wouldn’t recommend them. Energy drinks are really bad for you and drinking them, especially at this age, is a bad habit,” she added.
The reality behind energy drinks is that although they may taste good and work efficiently, there are a lot of side effects. For one, they are addictive. This means that just like with any other caffeinated beverage, headaches tend to occur in their absence.
Headaches aren’t the only issue with energy drinks according to Dr. Dave Moore of the New York Daily News.
“Caffeine is a drug of dependence, and withdrawal produces agitation - especially in the developing body of a teenager,” stated Dr. Moore.
Along with the addictive properties, some energy drinks cause a major crash. According to www.factexpert.com, the high amount of sugar in energy drinks is what causes this crash. The site goes on to explain that the energetic high produced by the large amount of sugar in energy drinks can be “ephemeral and short-lived” and causes the crash once the sugar works its way out of the bloodstream.
Senior Jennifer Brown drinks energy drinks almost every day.
“I drink anything from Full Throttle to NOS. They’re really great for a boost of energy, but I always get really tired later in the day,” she explained.
Senior Brian Holtzner also claims to have suffered from these sugar crashes.
“I got mild crashes when I first started, but they went away as I started drinking energy drinks more often. Right now I’m up to about two or three drinks a day so I don’t get a crash at all,” he explained.
This seems to be a reoccurring trend among energy drink fiends. People like the fact that energy drinks get you motivated, but once you start drinking them you may become dependent on them for motivation. It’s a vicious cycle because people tend to drink more energy drinks right before the huge crash in efforts to prevent it, and end up becoming addicted to the drinks. These people end up consuming them daily to prevent headaches from withdrawal.