Though faux sugars like stevia and sucralose (known as Splenda) have no sugar content, they also have zero nutritional value and can cause digestive issues. Then there are the sugar alternatives found in many energy drinks. The seed itself isn’t unhealthy, but it’s an NCAA-banned stimulant -it can show up in a urine test and shouldn’t be consumed by competitive college athletes, says Gately.
If you’re starting your day with a quad-shot latte, reaching for an afternoon Americano, and taking down a Celsius before your men’s league basketball game, that’s overdoing it.īeyond excess caffeine and sugar, some popular “healthy” energy drinks, such as Celsius, also include guarana, whose seed s contain about four times more caffeine than coffee beans ( 1 ). The average person can safely consume around 400 mg (or less) of caffeine per day, or about four small cups of coffee. So it’s not about avoiding caffeine altogether, but rather about limiting your intake. “When you consume caffeine, it stimulates your nervous system causing your heart rate to increase, which pushes blood to your muscles and signals your liver to release glucose, providing you with energy,” adds Gately. Though some caffeine is perfectly healthy-it gives you energy and improves your ability to focus and concentrate-“some energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine that can be dangerous and negatively impact your heart, not to mention your anxiety and ability to sleep,” says registered dietitian Valerie Gately, MS, RDN, LD. Fortunately, it’s 2023, and there are plenty of healthy-ish alternatives to the sugar bombs of youth.ĭoes that mean we can consider these new-wave energy drinks to be “healthy”? Not quite. But that vice may come with downsides: caffeine jitters and an eventual sugar crash. Pear-shaped vs.A can of Red Bull or Monster can give you a boost when your ass is dragging at 3 p.m. However, they added, the results might be different with another energy drink or a larger group of volunteers.įollow me on Twitter and “like” Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. The increases in blood pressure and norepinephrine after consuming an energy drink may make people more vulnerable to cardiovascular problems, they wrote in a study published online Sunday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn. None of those stressors had a discernible effect.Įven so, the findings caused the researchers to fret. To see whether stressful situations would bolster the energy drink’s effects, the researchers asked the volunteers to answer math questions, squeeze a hand grip or submerge a hand in ice water for two minutes. That compares with an increase from 139.9 to 178.6 pg/mL after finishing the placebo drink. After consuming the real energy drink, the average amount of norepinephrine rose from 149.8 to 249.8 picograms per milliliter of blood. The biggest difference was in blood levels of norepinephrine, a precursor of epinephrine (a.k.a.
Those outcomes were essentially the same. By contrast, systolic blood pressure rose just 3% and diastolic blood pressure was flat after drinking the placebo beverage.īoth drinks led to a slight uptick in the heart rate – an average of 3.1 additional beats per minute for Rockstar and 4.3 more for the placebo.
After consuming Rockstar, their systolic blood pressure rose about 6%, from 108.4 millimeters of mercury to 115 mmHg, on average, and their diastolic blood pressure rose nearly 7%, from 64.3 mmHg to 68.5 mmHg, on average. The volunteers started out with heart rates and blood pressure readings in the normal range. Just like the volunteers, the researchers taking the measurements didn’t know who got the real energy drink and who got the placebo. All of those tests were repeated 30 minutes after their cans were emptied. Just before taking their first swig, the volunteers allowed researchers to measure their heart rate and blood pressure and to draw a sample of blood.
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