Five Reasons Why Energy Drinks Are the Worst Focus and Energy Supplements

The energy drink business is booming. This extremely lucrative industry features catchy names, colorful cans, extreme advertisements and a variety of bold flavors. Quickly replacing coffee as the go-to drink of choice for teenagers, college students and young adults, these drinks promise hours of improved focus and enhanced energy. However, they provide those effects by using extremely high doses of caffeine and filling them with sugar - both of which can have very negative ramifications to your health. Plus, caffeine and sugar have both been proven to work for a limited period of time, before wearing off and causing crashes and fatigue, which is contrary to the reason you consumed the drink in the first place! Here are five reasons why energy drinks are the worst focus and energy supplement:

Too Much Caffeine
According to research done by the Mayo Clinic, the average human adult should only ingest a maximum of 300-400 milligrams of caffeine per day. Cola beverages have about 40 mg of caffeine per can, and your typical cup of coffee has about 90-150 mg of caffeine. Your average energy drink, however, has over 150 mg of caffeine PER CAN, with some having as much as 240 milligrams of caffeine in a 16 ounce can! Consuming two cans of energy drinks is roughly the equivalent of drinking 5-7 cups of coffee, which exceeds the recommended daily limit of 400 mg of caffeine.

So Sugary
Another reason why energy drinks are bad for focus and energy is because of all the added sugar included to hide the bitter taste of the caffeine. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should only have 25-40 grams of sugar per day maximum, and those sugar grams should be absorbed from natural sources like fruit. An average energy drink has 150-250 of calories from sugar. Research shows that 1 gram of sugar is roughly 4 calories, which means that a typical energy drink can has almost your entire daily maximum sugar intake. That's equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar!

Don't Even Work
The Department of Exercise Science at Creighton University decided to test the claims of the popular energy drink Red Bull, seeing how it worked to enhance athletic performance. This randomized, double-blind, crossover study of seventeen college-aged men yielded results that suggested there was no improvement or enhancement of their athletic performance. A second double-blind, randomized crossover study by the Utah State University also determined that caffeine-based drinks did NOT enhance the performance of 20 NCAA football players who participated in the experiment.

Sleep Slips Away
Studies have shown that regular energy drink consumption can disrupt sleep patterns and cause insomnia. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research analyzed the connection between their use and sleep problems among service members. They found that the 44% of deployed service members who regularly drank at least one energy drink per day were more likely to sleep less than 4 hours per night, as well as be more likely to experience stress, fatigue and depression. The service members felt they needed to compensate for this fatigue by increasing consumption, which caused a vicious cycle of caffeine abuse because of the harsh effects of caffeine withdrawal.

They're Health Supplements, NOT Beverages
Energy drinks are not even beverages as we think of them. They are technically defined as dietary supplements, like vitamins, instead of an actual drink, allowing for less regulation on the industry. They were originally intended to be used as a health supplement, with regimented use similar to other focus and energy supplements and vitamins. However, marketing and advertising companies quickly realized the potential to market to teenager and young adult males who were steering away from traditional soda beverages. They are intended to provide an increase in focus and energy, not be a refreshing beverage to quench thirst.

Energy drinks are an extremely unsustainable way to improve focus and energy, and are not conducive to a healthy lifestyle. They have lots of calories that negate the benefits of exercise, contain extremely high doses of caffeine that can cause health problems, and as research has shown, really don't even work as intended. Many students, athletes and service members have switched to using cognitive supplements to increase their focus and energy. Cognitive supplements are traditional dietary supplements, either in pill or capsule form, that combine natural herbs and vitamins to achieve very powerful improvements in focus, energy and mental performance, without using caffeine or sugar. These energy drink replacements are quickly catching on with mainstream consumers because they provide the positive effects with no calories, negative side effects, or caffeine withdrawal symptoms. If you a focus and energy product consumer, you may want to consider substituting your beverage for a natural cognitive supplement.

The Importance of Fluid Replacement During Exercise...

Your body is so efficient at many processes, but needs water to do most of them. One of the greatest ways we lose fluid from our bodies is through sweat. Our bodies try to cool themselves by dissipating heat during exercise in warm or hot weather in the form of sweat. This causes changes in the amount of water and electrolytes a person has and can affect athletic performance and health.

To maintain optimal fluid balance, you need to replenish the fluid losses. The rate of fluid loss during exercise is affected by duration, intensity, temperature, wind, humidity and how much or types of clothing you are wearing. Between different sports the difference in losses can be significant, as well as the differences between people with varying fitness levels. Due to this fact, there are not specific guidelines for fluid replacement.

As your muscles become more active, metabolic heat is transferred from the muscles to the blood and then to the body's core. This causes physiological adjustments that transfer heat from the core to the skin to be released and cool the body. When the weather is colder, or less humid, the amount of sweat your body loses is small in comparison to when there is a higher heat stress. If sweat is not able to evaporate from the body and drips, your body is signaling that a higher sweat rate is needed to achieve the necessary evaporative cooling. Increased air motion (wind) can assist the evaporation and minimize the amount of sweat being dripped.

When you live in a higher temperature area your body acclimatizes to the weather and you are able to achieve higher and more sustained sweating. If the area is humid, causing wet skin, or if your body is dehydrated, your sweating rate is curbed. How much electrolyte loss occurs is dependent on the concentration of electrolytes in the sweat and how much fluid your body is expelling. If you are dehydrated, your body can cause the concentration of sodium and chloride loss to increase, but your body is not better able to reabsorb these electrolytes. As you acclimate to temperatures, your body is better able to reabsorb chloride and sodium, and generally reduces the sodium concentrations in sweat.

If you are an athlete training or heavily exercising, you may want to monitor your body's weight changes during exercise to calculate how much fluid you are losing. From there, you can determine how much fluid you need to replenish your body. Weigh yourself naked early in the morning and after urination to determine your baseline, and then after a specific time of exercise. Subtract your body weight after your workout from your pre-workout weight, and subtract any urinary loss. If you drank beverages during your workout, this also needs to be added in.

Physiologic stress increases when you are dehydrated. You measure physiologic stress by core temperature, heart rate and perceived exertion. The more water you lose, the more physiologic strain is experienced by your body. This impairs both mental and aerobic performance. Your aerobic performance decreases when you're dehydrated because of the increase in your cardiovascular strain, core temperature, need for glycogen, and changes in your metabolic functions. This affects your ability to concentrate, do skilled tasks or strategically plan. You become at risk of heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke, skeletal muscle cramps, or in some long endurance events, hyponatremia.

Fluid Replacement

Prior to exercise, hydrate so that you start physical activities with normal hydration and electrolyte levels. Normal hydration is achieved when there has been adequate time since last exercise session and enough beverages consumed. Consuming liquids hours before you start exercising ensures that your urine output and body functions have returned to normal.

During exercise, monitor how you feel. If you are exercising at a high intensity for long periods of time, monitor weight changes. Consuming drinks that contain electrolytes and carbohydrates can be beneficial for some activities, dependent on the intensity and duration. Sodium in these beverages works to stimulate your thirst, carbohydrates for energy and general electrolyte replenishment.

After exercise, make sure to replace fluid and electrolyte losses by consuming regular meals and beverages over the next 24 hours. If you plan to exercise again sooner than that and feel significantly dehydrated, more focus will be needed to achieve rehydration. Drink 1.5 liters of fluid for every kilogram lost or 24 ounces for each pound. This rate of 150% of sweat losses is required because of the additional urine output that will occur from increased intake.

Some people find it hard to drink enough water to meet their needs. Beverages that are flavored, cooled and containing sodium may enhance the voluntary intake. Another trick is to fill up liter bottles (like soda pop bottles) with your daily fluid needs every morning and put them in your refrigerator, so you can visually see how much you need to consume and easily track. Dehydration can have serious side effects, so always work hard to make sure you are consuming enough fluids. 

Source : Emily Delacy