It is said that the average American consumes about 280 mg of caffeine a day, which is the equivalent of about three cups of coffee.
Caffeine is basically a mildly addictive stimulant that occurs naturally in many leaves, seeds and fruits, but we’ve cleverly figured out how to manufacture this wonder drug in a meth lab. I mean a lab. Some think it’s horrible that caffeinated drinks are marketed to kids, teens and any and all other H. sapiens. Others think it’s impossible to carry on in our modern society without them.
We’ve been drinking coffee for eons and it has yet to kill us off, so we better have a good reason to cease the consumption of energy drinks altogether like everyone seems to be saying we should.
Let’s take a quick glance at the energy drink caffeine levels we’re pumping into our bodies and what this might actually mean for us.
Rockstar
Monster
Redbull
Coffee
Coca Cola Classic
10
10
9.5
7-51
2.9
Now that we have these estimates, we need to think about whether or not we’re consuming too much at once. And just a side note, don’t be fooled by those energy drinks boasting healthy alternatives in yerba mate and guarana. These are simply natural sources of caffeine just like coffee is.
For most people, 200-300 mg of caffeine (or roughly 2-4 cups of coffee) a day has little effect. But apparently 500-600 mg of caffeine a day can have serious health risks and many report insomnia, nausea, fast and irregular heartbeats, nervousness, irritability, muscle tremors, anxiety and headaches.
These affects of course are tied in with a slew of other factors like age, weight, smoking habits, drug and medicine use, stress and other health conditions, but the fact remains:
There is such a thing as too much caffeine.
So how much caffeine is in a whole can of the most popular energy drinks?
Rockstar 16 oz
Monster 16 oz
Redbull 8 oz
Coffee 8 oz
Coke 12 oz
160
160
80
57-145
35
So what does this mean for us?
Well for some of us, it means we’re addicts. But there’s evidence that the caffeine addiction is nowhere near as dangerous as alcohol and nicotine addictions, so what’s the big deal?
It would take closer to 60-100 cups of coffee to deliver a lethal dose of caffeine, but I say anyone who’s crazy enough to consume 100 cups of anything could stand to get a little taste of Darwin.
It’s the gray area between ‘harmless’ and ‘deadly’ that I worry about. And maybe also the fact that people who drink coffee sip slowly so as not to incinerate their tongues. People who drink energy drinks tend to pound as if they’re being timed.
The thing is, if caffeine is proven to get our heart rates up (and sometimes irregularly so), then I wonder if it’s a good idea for high schoolers to be downing energy drinks before a game.
And if caffeine’s proven to give some people headaches and nausea, then I wonder if we workaholics and students ought to be arming ourselves with something that actually weakens us.
Perhaps there is no solution. Perhaps the fact-paced world we’ve created demands more energy from us than we naturally have.
But then again, I think we can all find a way to budget the time in our day just a little bit better to allow for one more hour of sleep and one less can of concentrated liquid energy…
This is Part 2 in a series of 5 articles pertaining to Energy Drink Nutrition. To read more, do continue:
• Energy Drink Sugar – This Just In! Energy Drink Sugar Levels Anger Tooth Fairy
• Energy Drink Herbal – Energy Drink Herbal Ingredients: Are They Really As Healthy As They Say?
• Energy Drinks Taurine – Energy Drinks with Taurine: Info Straight from the Bull’s Balls!
• Energy Drink Carb – Energy Drink Carb Levels: Would Dr. Atkins Roll Over in His Grave?
![[del.icio.us]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[diigo]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/diigo.png)
![[Facebook]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Twitter]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Email]](http://energydrinkvault.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Related Posts:
- Energy Drink Herbal Ingredients: Are They Really As Healthy As They Say?
- This Just In! Energy Drink Sugar Levels Anger Tooth Fairy
- Energy Drinks with Taurine: Info Straight from the Bull’s Balls!
- Hidden Energy Drink Ingredients You Should Know About
- Energy Drink Carb Levels: Would Dr. Atkins Roll Over in His Grave? (Athletes, This is For You, Too)
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting statistics there on the caffeine… I didn’t know so many consumed such a high quantity! I actually quit caffeine about a year ago, as it was giving me the jitters and making it hard to sleep at night. With that being said, despite the cognitive abilities that caffeine is known to stimulate, I still think it’s probably more harmFUL in the long run than harmLESS. It’s become quite popular amongst college and high-school students like you noted, so it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a regular habit for many of them.
Wow, Travis, congrats on quitting! People don’t give caffeine addiction as much weight as they should. I can only imagine how hard it is to quit because I personally know how hard it is to go without caffeine for even a day (sounds scary when I put it like that!) so I do applaud you. And I agree with you 100% – more harm than good.
I hope the jitters and insomnia have left you now that you’ve cut it out completely. Congrats again!