When Energy Needs a Warning Label

More than 1/3 of the country consumes caffeine habitually. Mountain Dew contains 25 percent more caffeine than a Coca-Cola. And in as little as three cups of coffee ice cream contains the caffeine equivalent of four cans of Diet Pepsi!

No matter how it’s presented or what statistic is used, we’re a caffeine-crazed nation. Whether it’s in the bottle or the pill, in chewing gums or in nutritional supplements, in grandes or lattes, caffeine is king, to the point where many of us can’t function effectively without it    (how often have you heard someone say, “I have to have my morning coffee to get me going” only to see them drinking it throughout the morning and into the day and night).

I’ve railed against the overconsumption of caffeine in the past, particularly with regards to the amount of caffeine found in sports and energy drinks. Now, researchers from John Hopkins University are entering the fray, hoping their expertise on caffeine’s dangers will convince regulators to start branding highly caffeinated beverages with warning labels.

It’s estimated that energy drinks – bursting from the seams with caffeine – are a $5.4 billion a year industry and rapidly growing, by approximately 55 percent per year, according to the report researchers from John Hopkins University recently published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal. Despite the fact that energy drinks like Red Bull and Amped have caffeine levels that are up to and in excess of 10 times the amount of caffeine found in a regular 12 oz can of Coca-Cola, these drinks are on the shelves for any one and everyone to drink at their leisure, likely unaware of the very real health malady known as caffeine intoxication.

Becoming intoxicated by caffeine depends on a number of factors, but tremors, headaches, insomnia, tachycardia (rapid heart beat) and impaired speech can occur after the chronic use of caffeine. Sometimes, it can happen with as little as 250mg of caffeine (about two cups of coffee).

And if you thought 250 mg was a lot, take into consideration that some energy drinks contain 500 mg of caffeine!

While adults can come to their own decisions about what effect caffeine has on their body and whether or not they can live with or without it, children and teenagers are some of the prime buyers of energy drinks and they often buy them oblivious to the fact that excessive caffeine can do serious damage to the body. For example, according to some surveys on teenagers and their use of caffeine, more than half reported consuming at least one energy drink in the last month and 20 percent of them reported experiencing heart palpitations. What’s more, 1/3rd of the respondents who said they’d consumed an energy drink in the last month mixed it with an alcoholic drink. As lead researcher Dr. Roland Griffith said, alcohol ups the ante in terms of risk because the combination of caffeine and alcohol “gives a false sense of alertness” and “provides incentive…to put themselves in danger.”

Providing warning labels to energy drinks provides parents with the kind of information that can help them and their kids make more informed decisions. I’m not saying caffeine can’t be part of a healthy lifestyle, but the key is moderation. And with energy drinks having between three and 10 times the amount of caffeine a typical soda has (with names like “Amped” and “Full Throttle” to boot), these are not exactly great sources for moderate amounts of caffeine.