good or bad for you?

I've been making all these posts where energy drinks have just been getting a bad reception. I decided to do a little research to see if they really are unhealthy.

Some people think they are a gift from god that helps them get up in the morning, others think that they are a gross unhealthy sin. When you start to judge them though, first you need to remember that they're all made differently. One can be very healthy filled with very little caffeine and chemicals while another can be jam packed with caffeine, surgar, and excessive amounts of vitamins. It all depends on the formula of the drink.

Lets talk about the dangers first since thats what everyone is mainly interested in. Excesses of caffeine and sugar are unhealthy. While they are safe in moderation, caffeine is extremely addictive. In addition too much caffeine can lead to high blood preasure, anxiety, insomnia, and a rapid heart beat. When mixed with physical activity or alcohol caffeine intake can lead to dehydration which can make it very hard to lose weight. The sugar in energy drinks is high. Too many energy drinks can lead to gaining weight. Energy drinks in moderation can be healthy.

Healthy energy drinks are good for you because of their herbal and nutritional ingredients such as guarana, ginseng, and kava kava. Their ingredients can increase calmness and memory while reducing stress. The key to all energy drinks is moderation as too much of any energy drink can lead to unhealthy results. Even healthy energy drinks contain some caffeine and sugar. The key is to drink the healthy amount which is usually recomended on the can.

http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/68385.aspx

Now this is just Silly

Energy drinks may be the next thing to get banned. The minimum age to buy energy drinks like redbull may be elevated to 19 in Long Island. In fact any drink with more than 80mg of caffeine may be a part of this restriction.

The most recent major ban was alcoholic energy drinks like Four Loko. The ban created backlash that is now hitting non alcoholic energy drinks. Even though energy drinks have been getting negative publicity for years, authorities are trying to complete their agendas.

The energy drink Cocaine has seen this problem before. They had to go off the market for a short period of time after recieving accusations of promoting drugs.

'The caffeine content of energy drinks varies yet the amounts are often unlabelled and few include warnings about the potential health risks,' said Dr Roland Griffiths in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

'It's like drinking an alcoholic beverage and not knowing if it's beer or scotch.'

In Britain beverages with more than 150mg of caffeine per liter must be marked with a label describing it's contents but no warning has to be present. Redbull's manufacurer does state that it is not recomended that the drink is not recomended for pregnant women or children and advise not to drink more than two cans a day.

Redbull is banned in Norway, Uruguay and Denmark. The company sold 3.5 billion cans in 143 countries within the last year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336957/Americas-ban-non-alcoholic-energy-drinks-proposed-Long-Island.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Red Bull Cola Banned

YES it’s finally happened. Cocaine was actually found in an energy drink! Trace amounts of cocaine have been found in the energy soda. Now Germany is trying to get a nationwide ban of the drink. It’s already been banned in six states.

The amount of the drug found is a very small amount, about .13 micrograms per can. It takes about 12,000 Liters to feel the effects of the drug. The plant cocaine comes from is used to flavor the redbull but the drug must be removed before it is used.

The plant cocaine comes from is known as the coaca plant. It is banned everywhere in the world except for the Andes region where it is a major part of the culture. The Bolivian president Evo Morales is a big time coaca grower himself. he got quoted saying,

"Let's say [Red Bull Cola] doesn't take out the cocaine alkaloid. Have any of those millions of people across the world who have drunk that soda ever gotten sick or felt drugged?"

Many Bolivians feel that this incident was a great opertunity to show that coaca is safe without being turned into cocaine. American scientists also add that the traces that were found were so miniscule that there was no real reason to take action.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4274275,00.html

 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1900849,00.html

a little something called COCAINE

Did you know that an energy drink is actually banned? I know it sounds crazy but I just found out that there’s a drink that was banned. The energy drink Cocaine was pulled off the shelves after causing too much controversy from its name.

No, it doesn’t actually contain cocaine but after being marketed on Myspace, (which at the time was still the top social network) to young teenagers the company was forced to with draw it’s shipments to stores in the United States. In addition the drink was banned from Seven-11 stores around the country.

The parent company of the drink Redux which was attempting to market the energy drink to an older crowd of 20 – 30 year olds did attempted to market itself to an older crowd by avoiding the normal extreme sports commercials and cartoon commercials couldn’t stop it’s negative attention.

Their straight forward slogan saying that they are a legal alternative. The website was also quoted with statements like, "We created Cocaine, in large part, because those that analyze the energy drink industry itself described energy drinks as 'Speed in a Can' and 'Liquid Cocaine',"

What causes all the problems is the fact that this drink makes too many references to the street drug, including the claim of causing euphoria minutes after finishing the drink. The name of the drink on the can also looks like cocaine itself. The company is fighting an uphill battle but it makes one great point in saying that the leading soda company in the world actually had the banned substance in it.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/78750/cocaine_energy_drink_pulled_from_7eleven.html?cat=71

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/the-end-of-cocaine-the-beverage/

The Future of The Blog

I have learned a lot from my research that I used to make this blog. I orginally started this blog for my English class. Sadly the semester is almost over and this blog may be too. I told my friends in my dorm about the blog and they love the idea but I have very little motivation to keep the blog running. If I do keep it running I would like to find more research on my topic and find concrete answers to my questions that I asked in the infant stages of my blog. If I ever do find the answers I may blog about them but I doubt my blog will get many visits once the semester ends. I would like to leave my readers off with a thankyou and a happy holliday season.
-Mitch

Something Extra

Last night my roomate told me about this drink that helps you sleep better. I have not been sleeping well for the last week so I thought I'd give it a try. I know this blog is about energy drinks and study pills but I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this drink too just because its the complete oposite of energy drinks. So anyway I went to a local deli and tried it out. Within minutes I was exausted and ready to pass out. In the morning I woke up and I felt awful. I had no problem waking up but I just felt extremely restless. It was more than 10 hours after I drank it and I still felt the effects. After looking at the drink on the web site I now know its not even ensured by the FDA. My recomendation is STAY AWAY from this drink.

http://drinkneuro.com/products/sleep/

What I've Learned from this Blog

I've noticed positive and negative perceptions of energy drinks and study drugs. In my opinion most people have trouble telling facts from fiction and believe what they heard first, It is very difficult to change their minds. I also learned a lot about the values of college students get tossed away as long as they get the grades they wanted.

Energy drinks are generally used by people to stay awake. They are considered a miracle drink to those who use them to study but the general perception of them is that they are poison and easy to overdose from but they still drink them anyway. Are people unconcerned with their health or just ignorant? I personally think that the health risks of energy drinks are still minimal but that is just my opinion.

Study drugs have become a staple in some students' daily lifestyles. Students take study drugs to stay awake for endless hours and study for tests. Until I started blogging I never knew that they were abused so much. Up to a third of college students consume study drugs to keep up with their fast moving lifestyles. They don't care that they are extremely unhealthy, or they're illegal without a perscription. All they care about is success. I am surprised that study drugs have a more positive perception than energy drinks. In a lot of situations energy drinks can help just as well as study drugs. What I've learned from this blog is that People ignore the law, health, and morals in order to be on top.