When my older brother first recommend I blog about this issue, I was skeptical at first thinking there might be a lack of evidence to support my fair and biased take on the subject. As I began researching the topic, I was amazed at the scientific evidence of health benefits that coffee provides.
If we begin by looking at the basic ingredients of Red Bull for example, we will see sucrose and glucose being the most used ingredients right behind water. This results in the beverage boasting a 27 gram sugar content (56g in Monster) per can. Surprisingly, the caffeine content comes in at around 80mg per can, while a cup of drip coffee rings in around 140mg per 8 oz serving. Compare this to a can of soda at 35mg and there is a significant difference. Coffee on the other hand, is 98% water and effectively has no substantial nutritional information, other than its caffeine content. This is part of the reason why coffee roasters are not required to add nutritional information on the sides of its coffee bags. On paper, or in spreadsheets, it would seem that the only major difference between the energy drink market and the coffee market is that the energy drink market is adding inches to the youth’s waistline and potentially increasing risk for diabetes.
When searching for the health benefits and risks for energy drinks, such as red bull, there was only one major negatice concern among doctors and watchdog groups…dehydration. With 12-28 year olds being the energy drink industry’s major market, marketing campaigns have targeted the sports arena. Promoting increase focusness and physical performance during sports. Now, as many of you may know, caffeine is naturally a diuretic and when combined with physical activity and perspiration can lead to dehydration. Now, its unfair to throw this on the energy drinks and not on coffee as well, however, most coffee drinkers (that I know) don’t slam a cup of joe mid morning jog. Conversely, I don’t forsee teenage soccer players chugging an iced coffee down at halftime.
When looking at the positive medical benefits that energy drinks provide, its seemed like a much more daunting task while slews of pages with respectable medical research that has been performed testing the effects of coffee come up with ease. Not only has it been shown that coffee may reduce the risk of diabetes II, Parkinson’s disease, colon cancer, and the development of gallstones, if you read my previous blog, it has the potential to treat Alzheimer’s. All these claims made by major universities while there is little to no substantial evidence to back up the energy drinks benefits if any. With the energy drink industry still relatively immature, who is to say that research will not come out supporting more benefits than a little extra padding for the winter time?
After reading several articles on the subject, I would probably give up energy drinks all together…if it wasn’t for the invention of the Jager bomb…
M
