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Energy drinks are one of those trends that is hard to understand.
They often don’t have as much caffeine, and they’re absolutely loaded with sugar and other ingredients that are just too dangerous to justify consuming.
But how bad are they really? The Mayo Clinic wanted to find out, and what they found was ugly.
25 healthy adults were told to drink 16 ounces of Rockstar Energy drink, as well as a placebo drink that had similar nutritional value but without the stimulants.
Rockstar raised blood pressure and stress hormone levels much, much more than the placebo did. It raised blood pressure about 6.4% over 30 minutes, whereas the placebo drink only raised it by 1%.
This is bad news, since these levels could put those who consume energy drinks at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Norepinephrine, which raises stress levels and is the hormone connected to the fight-or-flight response, had levels raised by 73.6% in energy drink consumers, compared to 30.9% for placebo drinkers.
But what about the claims that they make you better at challenging tasks, or keep you awake, alert, and sharp? Well, there isn’t great news there either.
The study had the drinkers of both beverage do different tasks—such as solving math problems, putting their hands in cold water, or gripping a hand weight—to see if any change was observed in energy drinkers’ response to stress. There was no change whatsoever.
Of course, this was only a small sample, but it doesn’t bode well for energy drink consumers. If you really need a boost, coffee is a healthier choice. Or even better, try sleeping more, exercising, and eating well before you pump that taurine into your body.
