Energy drink companies love to hype up their drinks with exotic sounding ingredients that claim to be the necessary ingredient to boost your energy levels. These ingredients sound natural and therefore safe. Most of these ingredients don’t really do anything to raise your energy, but they sure sound cool.
Many of these ingredients are not controlled and the long term effects are not known. Since most of these ingredients are used commonly, many people are unfamiliar with how to tell if the amount of stimulant is high or low.
Caffeine, Lots and Lots of Caffeine
Energy drinks do possess one ingredient we are all familiar with, caffeine. Caffeine is found in coffee and soda, but is nowhere near the levels found in an energy drink.
In general a safe amount of caffeine should be limited to around two to three hundred milligrams per day. A can of regular Monster contains a hundred and sixty milligrams, a can of the energy drink Cocaine contains two hundred and eighty milligrams of caffeine. Large doses of caffeine can dehydrate a person.
B Vitamins
This ingredient has to be healthy right? I mean it’s a letter followed by vitamin, it’s gotta be good for me. B vitamins help you break down food and convert it into energy. No one really knows if these help you actually energize you.
What we do know about vitamin B6 and B12 is don’t absorb well as a liquid and it is not an effective oral stimulant.
Taurine
Another popular ingredient, it’s similar in pronunciation to Taurus and put the bull in red bull. Taurine is an amino acid that can help regulate energy levels. That sounds pretty good right? The thing is, your body already makes enough Taurine, so your adding more for no reason.
No one knows the long term effects of adding additional taurine to your body. The fact remains why should you add more taurine, when your body produces enough of it.
Sugar
We all know what happens when sugar and a little kid is mixed together, basically a tiny tornado. Something similar may happen to you when you ingest mass amounts of sugar, maybe not a tornado but you feel that rush of energy.
It goes without saying energy drinks contain tons and tons of sugar. Sugar is necessary in your diet, and can be a good source of carbs. Too much sugar can cause weight gain, and has been linked to diabetes. Sugar also has a nasty crash afterwards.
Energy drinks love to show off their ‘natural’ ingredients. In reality some of these drinks contain some natural ingredients, but most of the time they are in such small doses they do nothing for you. Look for all natural energy supplements, supplements that don’t rely of sugar and caffeine to give you a boost.
Fred C. wrote this article on behalf of new Energy Supplement E Fact Energy. Check them out for contests!