I often get questions about the various energy drinks on the shelves these days. They are very popular with young people and make some almost crazy claims that you will have loads of energy, exellent athletic performance and so on.

In my mind I have to ask:

Do they really provide energy or is it just a temporary fake energy?

Are they alright for the body?

What actually is their "energy" formula?

Will they help people lose weight?

To begin, let’s look at what’s in the majority of these drinks. The key ingredients are usually carbonated water filled with belly fattening high fructose corn syrup, the amino acid taurine, caffeine, various random B-Vitamins to show you there is something healthy in there.

The big problem with high fructose corn syrup is it is simply wasted calories, which tends to turn straight to fat on your belly. High fructose corn syrup is actually far worse than plain refined sugar.

If these drinks have a reduced sugar or sugar free variety, there is another problem you need to be aware of. The artificial chemicals which artificial sweeteners are made of are harmful to your body. Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that many researchers have shown that they lead people to consume more calories without realising it, leading to more weight gain long term. This is a whole new discussion so I won’t go into much more detail in this article, but you should trust me that chemicals in your food are never a good idea.

Ok so what does the caffeine do? Many people believe that caffeine gives them energy but this is not really the case. The only real thing that can provide is the calories from protein, fat and carbs. Caffeine is however used as a pep up or to wake people up, it does this through the stimulation of the central nervous system, and does this at a cost to your body requiring more rest to recover. We should remember however, that the more you drink caffeine the less "energy" you will get from it anyway.

If you want to get some caffeine, you can use a more natural source like tea (green, white or oolong). These teas also provide beneficial antioxidants.

Now let’s take a look at the formula using b-vitamins and the amino acid taurine in these drinks. Taurine is not particularly unique you can get it from almost any protein source, and the majority of b-vitamins just make for yellow urine. Vitamins are always best obtained from real natural food, they are not properly used when added artificially to foods and drinks.

As you can now see, I believe you should never use these drinks. If you are looking for more energy it would be better to make your own using iced teas (green, white or oolong), a bit of 100% pure berry or pomegranate juice and you might use some non-denatured whey protein.

I hope this article has set straight some of the myths surrounding these drinks and their marketing, use this information so you can make better decisions about the health of your body.

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Brett MacPherson
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