What are the pros and cons of energy drinks?
Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Keri Peterson discusses the pros and cons of energy drinks. Watch Dr. Peterson's video for information on health and wellness.
Transcript
Drinking energy drinks may be at a cost to your health because there can be side effects, and they're just not studied well.
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Well, drinking energy drinks do work. They do increase your energy level. And they do work for the short term
to achieve their effect of focus and alertness and reduced sleepiness. But it may be at a cost to your health
because there can be side effects, and they're just not studied well. For example, caffeine in moderate doses
does cause these energy boosting qualities we discussed. However, the side effects can include insomnia, jitteriness,
rapid heart rate, and even elevations of your blood pressure. So certainly if you have high blood pressure, you should stay away from them.
The other cons is that the other ingredients that they contain, for example sugar. Over the short term, yes, it may give you
a nice boost of energy. But once your sugar levels drop, they really come crashing down. And as a result, you crash as well,
not to mention it's a lot of calories. The other constituents of energy drinks, for example guarana,
that's just another word for caffeine. These are herbs that also contain a lot of caffeine. So you may be thinking you only are getting
100 milligrams per serving, but check the label because if they have guarana in them, that's more caffeine on top of it.
diet nutrition
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