Healthy energy drinks: an oxymoron?

What are healthy energy drinks? Do they really exist, or is it just more hype? Did someone from the advertising department just put the word “healthy” on the can and hope no one would inspect the ingredients? In some cases they did, but not always.

First, let’s examine some science on what is healthy and unhealthy in any drink. That would be a good starting point, right?

What it is an energy drink, in essence, and what would qualify one to be called “healthy”?

Energy drinks are essentially a mix consisting of one or more stimulants, a flavoring, usually some added sugar for flavor, and herbs / amino acids / vitamins to dampen any jitters caused by the stimulant and to facilitate the creation of energy from natural form.

(This is the ideal than energy drinks can be, but in practice some manufacturers cut a lot of corners. It is advisable to remember: “Let the buyer beware!”)

Tea, coffee, and some forms of herbal stimulants such as guarana, coca, cocoa, yerba mate, khat, ephedra, and kola nut are widely used throughout the world. Tea and coffee are the most familiar and have been found to have some beneficial health properties, despite being habit-forming to some degree.

Most parents would not be overly alarmed if their children occasionally drink a coffee, a cola, or a cup of tea. Agree?

Unknown ingredients, when analyzed on a can label, are often the source of much public mistrust of energy drinks. Sometimes this distrust is justified and sometimes not, it depends on the ingredient it is and its purpose.

For example, ephedra, which is rarely used in energy drinks, has it caused some problems, such as irregular heartbeats, heart attacks, strokes, and even death in some cases. These are not symptoms that build a happy and growing customer base, as you can imagine!

Taurine, on the other hand, acts as a modulator, that is, a “governor” in the energy level. It is also an antioxidant, which helps neutralize the free radicals that the body produces in its daily processes. It has been found to be safe and valuable enough to be used in baby formula, so there is no reason to fear taurine. It has a purpose here. (Check Wikipedia for the many benefits of taurine.)

A legitimate cause for concern arises around the amounts of sugar and caffeine in many of these energy drinks.

High levels of caffeine and other stimulants are a concern among many parents and health professionals, but the same attention should be paid to the huge doses of various types of sugars in energy drinks.

The average American consumes about a half pound of sugar every day! A large part of this comes from soft drinks, including energy drinks and coffee drinks. With nearly two ounces of sugar in a tall can of common energy drink brands, it doesn’t take long to get our half pound of sugar.

High sugar intake often leads to weight gain, leading to type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is on the rise in the United States and around the world and is a serious and eventually fatal medical problem.

Dr. Joseph Mercola recently listed 76 different medical problems caused by our crush on sugar. The high levels of sugar in most energy drinks disqualify them from being healthy energy drinks.

Ironically, the casual surveys that I have conducted in so-called health food stores reveal energy drinks in their refrigerators that contain between 18 and 29 grams of sugars. Sugar is sugar, whether it is from organic cane or not. An exception to this is the use of agave syrup sweeteners, which contain more fructose, posing a special threat to health.

Another cause for concern is the way most manufacturers choose to sweeten their beverages without using sugar. Artificial sweeteners actually still lead to weight gain, and some of them have been found to cause structural damage to the brain and nervous system. Aspartame is the worst in this regard, causing tumors in research animals and infertility in later generations of offspring when pregnant mothers were fed aspartame, comparable to what humans could receive.

The potential for long-term damage to the nervous system is revealed in aspartame research by Dr. Russell Blaylock and others. Sucralose is another artificial sweetener that offers multiple reasons to avoid it.

Exaggerated caffeine content is often less likely when these drinks are sold as “healthy energy drinks.” It should be noted that brands that use guarana and green tea extracts as stimulants avoid the overstimulating potential of caffeine.

The combination of caffeine, delicious sweet flavors, and young inexperienced consumers of these drinks are legitimate causes of concern for parents. When alcohol is added to the mix, or some combination of other drugs, it is impossible to predict what might happen.

But, to be fair, this is not the fault of the energy drink itself, rather it is evidence of a lack of education on how to use these drinks responsibly.

When you know where the dangers lie and can find the rare drinks that qualify as healthy energy drinks, there is nothing to fear, and everything to gain, from these drinks.

Of course, there is an understandable tendency for parents to raise their hands and simply forbid their children to drink any of these strange potions. This would be reckless because the youngster will likely have energy drinks anyway, and will be estranged from his parents in the process.

Similarly, many older adults who are not at high risk of partying all night would be able to enjoy healthy energy drinks, if they could recognize one.

I hope this article can serve as a guide to demystify the puzzling topic of healthy energy drinks. I have found great satisfaction in using it as a healthier alternative to coffee.