“Red Bull® gives you wings” is the tag-line for the mother of all energy drinks. The problem is that they are not lying. Keep drinking Red Bull, Monster, RockStar, Full Throttle, Lost, Jolt, SoBe or the hundreds of other energy drinks that have flooded the market and a little bell will ring for you on the Christmas tree just like it did for Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life. Oh, come on Dr. Z you sound like an alarmist wacko! What harm could a little energy drink do when it contains vitamins and other “stuff” that are supposed to be good for you?

Forget about all of the marketing Bull (pun intended) claiming multiple benefits from the intake of these drinks and let me ask you an honest question. Do you really think that sucking down a drink multiple times a day laced with glucose, sugar, caffeine, and other stimulants is really good for you? No, most of us have enough common sense to understand that the constant and artificial stimulating of our body’s metabolism is not really good for us. But we live in a society that doesn’t consider something bad until it actually causes something bad in us or a loved one. When it comes to these energy drinks it is time to start thinking ahead. This is especially true for parents who have the responsibility for the health of their children.

So, why exactly am I coming down so hard on these drinks?

If you go to the websites for these products you will find that they highlight the ingredients like B vitamins, the amino acid Taurine, and any of the herbs. They want you to believe that these drinks are actually good for you. Most do not tell you how much caffeine they contain but tell you that it is a “trusted” stimulant. Almost all of them also contain artificial sweeteners including Splenda® (sucralose) and Equal® (aspartame) in addition to the glucose and sucrose. Read my articles on Splenda® and aspartame on www.ZimmerNutrition.com!

They understand full well that you will be more than willing to overlook the negatives of their product if they can give you any reason at all to do so. If they just get you to try their product you will experience the immediate joy of tasting glucose and sugar and the shortly delayed, but inevitable “rush” of the “trusted” stimulants. They know that you will more than likely become addicted to the drink and you will crave more. Unfortunately, they are right!

Here is what you are doing to your body at a basic level. The intake of over 50 grams of glucose that you get from these drinks causes your pancreas to release a large amount of insulin. This insulin release causes multiple metabolic problems in the long-run. First, when you factor in the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) that is high in simple carbohydrates and typically void or low in vegetables the addition of extra glucose into your system causes your cells to become less and less sensitive to insulin. You will develop insulin resistance over time which is the first step in the development of diabetes. Well before this, however, you will experience periods of low blood sugar and will begin to feel a lack of energy. Guess what you will crave? You got it, an energy drink. You then recharge your glucose levels to start the dog chasing his tail all over again.

On top of this, when your body senses that it has enough glucose it shuts down the enzymes that break down your fat cells. In other words, you stop burning fat. This is pretty logical when you think about it because you do not need to burn fat for fuel when you have plenty of fuel (glucose) in your blood already.

I wish I were done with the negatives and you will be too when I am finished.

As insulin continues to increase, your body will become more inflamed. Insulin increases the activity of a molecule that signals your body to become more sensitive to inflammation. So that you do not think that I am making this up, the complex is called NF-kappa beta. Here is the reference for one of many studies showing this relationship:

Inflammation and the IKK beta/I kappa B/NF-kappa B axis in obesity- and diet-induced insulin resistance. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003 Dec;27 Suppl 3:S49-52

As your body becomes more inflamed you will have more joint and muscle pain. The inflammation will also have a negative effect upon brain function and you will experience poor memory, attention deficit problems and “brain fog.”

Now, let’s throw another monkey-wrench into the mix. Stress releases three hormones (cortisol and two adrenalines) that oppose the effects of insulin. The body functions well when stress hormones and insulin are balanced. How in the world would this be possible when you are adding glucose to increase insulin and live the stress filled life that is the American way? The monkey wrench is that we then add stimulants like caffeine to the mix. Talk about adding a match to some gasoline!

So, you drink your energy drink and get a caffeine rush of energy boosted by a glucose rush. You eventually crash and add another energy drink on top of a poor diet and lots of stress. Do you get the picture of a rag doll being whipped from here to there? That is what you are doing to your body when you drink these energy drinks.

The problem is that it could take many months to years before you destroy your health. It will sneak up on you and you will eventually go to your doctor to explain how your symptoms came out of no where. One moment you felt fine and the next you did not. Say hello to heart disease, stroke, hypothyroidism, anxiety, diabetes, and depression. You chalk it up to getting old.

The scary part of this is that our children, teens, and those in their twenties are drinking these energy poisons at an alarming rate. We have to take a stand against these drinks right now. Please stop your kids from drinking these energy drinks right now. Please stop drinking them yourself. You are headed for a fall. Mark my words.

Before I finish, I want to address an argument that I have gotten when people equate consuming energy drinks to drinking coffee. A typical energy drink supposedly has a similar amount of caffeine as you would get if you ordered a Starbucks coffee. (I say supposedly because most of the drinks do not disclose the amount of caffeine they contain.) Why then do I not write an article about the dangers of coffee to your health and that of your children? I have a couple of points to make in that regard. The first is that it is not good for anyone to drink many cups of coffee each day, either. Stop it! However, here is the BIG difference. A can of Monster Energy drink contains 54 grams of sugar. A teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams. Doing the math you find that Monster contains the equivalent of 13 ½ teaspoons of sugar. Can you even imagine putting 13 ½ teaspoons of sugar into your coffee multiple times a day? That, my friends, is a BIG difference. The argument equating the two is a poor one.