By DR MUKUHI NG’ANG’A
Every day, we see advertisements for energy drinks. They are
marketed as drinks that are designed to improve your performance,
increase your energy levels and stimulate your mind.
They
supposedly can help hasten your recovery from illness and even help
boost your endurance and stamina at the gym/sporting activities. But is
all that hype true?
Are these drinks truly ‘energy giving’?
Back
in primary school, most of us were taught that energy giving foods were
mainly starches (carbohydrates) like maize, wheat products, yams, sweet
potatoes and the like. These are foods which literally boost your
body’s energy stores and can keep you going for hours.
Most energy drinks contain large amounts of caffeine, which is a stimulant – not an energy giving food/substance.
It
gives you a temporary mental high while your body’s energy levels
remain low. To counteract this, some of these drinks contain lots of
sugar.
The only problem with these drinks is that the
sugar in them is a ‘simple sugar’ (similar to over-the-counter glucose
and sugar). It does not give long-lasting energy (it is comparable to
drinking very sugary tea when hungry). You feel better temporarily but
after a short while you feel hungry again.
Too much caffeine is dangerous to your health
In
a bid to give energy drink users a greater buzz, some companies have
resorted to using large amounts of caffeine in their products. Although
most regulating bodies require companies to state that the drink has
caffeine, most do not insist on the producers telling the consumer how
much caffeine is actually in each drink.
Too much
caffeine can lead to nervousness, irritability, insomnia, rapid
heartbeat (and, sometimes, irregular heart beat) and problems with blood
pressure. There have been reported incidences of confusion and seizures
(rare).
‘Wide Awake Drunks’
One
of the most popular trends among people under 40 years is mixing
alcohol with energy drinks. Generally speaking, as one takes in more
alcohol, your brain and body slows down. Eventually, you become drunk,
go into a stupor and black out.
When you mix alcohol
with energy drinks, you are trying to keep your body alert and
invigorated as you continue to drink. Remember, fatigue is one of the
ways the body tells you that you’ve had enough to drink. The consumption
of high amounts of caffeine contained in energy drinks reduces
drowsiness without diminishing the effects of alcohol.
This
results in a state of ‘wide awake drunkenness’ where you have high
alcohol levels in your blood (which would ordinarily even cause you to
black out) yet you are wide awake and are able to continue drinking.
Most people are surprised at the vast quantities of alcohol they can
consume when they are also consuming energy drinks.
What
people don’t realise is that regardless of how alert they may feel,
their normal abilities are impaired and they should not be performing
tasks such as driving.
When caffeine is taken in very
large quantities, it causes you to urinate more often. Alcohol has the
same effect. When taken in combination, it can lead to dehydration.
Guarana and Ginseng
Some
energy drinks contain guarana and ginseng. Most of us don’t even know
what those are yet we still drink them. Guarana is a plant extract which
contains caffeine in varying quantities. If taken in large doses, it
can cause caffeine toxicity. If an energy drink advertises that it has
no caffeine, but has guarana, you are still ingesting caffeine.
Ginseng
is a herbal extract thought to have stimulant (and some even say,
aphrodisiac and healing properties). Although the quantities found in
energy drinks are rarely toxic, it can interact with your regular
medication and cause side-effects.
Weight and diabetic issues
Although
you are unlikely to get overweight or obese from drinking energy drinks
only, they can hinder your weight management plan.
Those
drinks that have lots of sugar can contribute to weight gain
(especially if you keep taking large amounts). They can also make your
diabetes harder to control as they can affect your blood sugar levels.
Sports drinks vs Energy drinks
Both
energy drinks and sports drinks target young, active people. They
particularly seek out those who are keen on sports/gym/exercise
activities.
They are both routinely advertised as “exercise drinks’.
The
only difference is that sports drinks are supposed to contain only
water and natural salts that the body loses during a workout (they
should not contain stimulants like caffeine).
They are
not supposed to give you a high. They should just replace what you lose
as you exercise. However, neither sports drinks nor energy drinks
should take the place of regular meals or natural products such as
water, fruit juices and milk.
Energy drinks for the sick?
Some energy drink companies advertise their products as being good for people recuperating from an illness.
There
is no medical evidence to support this marketing campaign. High amounts
of sugar and caffeine are the last thing a sick person needs.
Lethal ‘combos’ used by Kenyan teenagers
Most
supermarkets, bars of repute and fuel station stores cannot legally
sell alcohol to teenagers yet teens still feel that they need to get
high each time they go out.
To deal with the alcohol restrictions currently in place, a rather dangerous trend has emerged among urban Kenyan teens.
They
are now mixing energy drinks, cigarette smoking and either marijuana or
miraa or khat or drug-spiked shisha to get their high.
The
cumulative effect of these substances is highly dangerous to the brain.
Most parents are oblivious of this trend because their child comes home
looking fairly alert and not smelling of alcohol which gives the parent
a false sense of security.
This article was first published in the Business Daily.