[Closed] energy drinks...are they bad news?

Depends who you talk to.

Personally I wouldn't! However I do 'use' redbull when I need it - silly early car journeys etc.

Btw afaik many of the studies refer to Red Bull which contains taurine (an amino acid) as well as an actually fairly modest amount of caffeine. Most of the others contain guarana which is a plant that contains lots of caffeine, so in theory not that different to coffee.

suppose there's a shed load of sugar in there

Cor blimey, just read the wiki article about taurine - fascinating stuff. Apparently it's really important for health in all sorts of areas, but its advertised benefits in Red Bull have not been proven apparently.

Does it really give you wings?

No, in moderation, it's the dose that makes the poison. IIRC the only death atributed to Red Bull was a Mexican itinerant worker in SoCal? He'd drunk 4 cans a day without fail for years, at the start of his night shift and cloapsed with heart attack.

seems common to live on it in california - where some of our jobs were 24/48 hours long

far too sickly sweet - prefer coffee !

Yes, they are bad for you. A can of Monster is the same as eating 1 1/2 family size trifle. Also a friend told me a mate of his use to drink 10-15 cans of red bull a day which eventually lead him to been hospitalised.

Used to drink up to 10 cans on an evening with a shed load of vodka. Then a substitute product dropped in price.

Rarely drink the stuff these days. Most of the sponsored athletes fill their cans with proper energy drinks (so I'm told).

They're not for me, I wouldn't touch 'em.

Kev

I can only stomach the Monster/Relentless ones which are a bit more fruity. Redbull will give me the shits within an hour of drinking it. Hence why i dont drink it.

In my opinion, the popularity of Red Bull type energy drinks are a triumph of style over substance, i.e. clever/successful marketing.

One or two cans of Red Bull (or A. N. Other energy drink) is probably no worse for you than if you were to drink other sugary drinks and coffee (I don't believe the caffeine in a can is much more than a strong coffee).

In moderate consumption the worst thing's probably that they're full of sugar, so in that respect will be 'bad' for you for the same reasons as Coke, Pepsi, etc.

I know people who drink 2 litres of Coke a day. Which is probably doing them a lot more harm than someone drinking a couple of cans of Red Bull.

In my opinion, the popularity of Red Bull type energy drinks are a triumph of style over substance, i.e. clever/successful marketing

I would offer anecdotal evidence from someone very sensitive to caffeine and apparently other alkaloids in beverages - Red Bull is significantly better at keeping me awake and alert when deprived of sleep without side effects than coffee or Coke.

Or are the 'caffeine makes me more alert' claims all just in the mind... as some studies suggest...

1 1/2 family size trifle

Great comparison, how many blancmange's?

Or are the 'caffeine makes me more alert' claims all just in the mind

I dunno, I can't think that I had any expectations before I started it.

There really is a marked difference between the way the three things affect me. Coffee makes me feel bad, coke ok but not particularly powerful, and Red Bull seems to un-tire me very efefctively.

I think there are studies that show something of an effect, no?

They are definitely the local chavs daily drink of choice.
Not mine though
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/are-they-supposed-to-do-that-energy-drink-content

I know people who drink 2 litres of Coke a day.

Guy in my office was drinking gallons of it to collect tokens for free electronic stuff. He ended up with an xbox, ipod and Nintendo DS. When we quizzed him on how many tokens he'd needed to get all that we worked out he'd drank about 1000 litres to get the necessary tokens and with the money he'd spent on the coke, he could have bought the gadgets anyway!

Or are the 'caffeine makes me more alert' claims all just in the mind... as some studies suggest...

I read one study that suggested that what caffine mostly does is stave off the 'downer' you're on from your last caffine hit.

Red Bull, you can ignore the Taurine and Guarana as marketing bull (ho ho), what you've got is a small can of high-sugar caffinated beverage. The worst thing out of that lot is the sugar.

Ergo, if you want to drink Red Bull, consider the sugar-free stuff. Personally, I think they both taste like Germoline and I'll stick to my Mountain Dew now that it's finally available over here.

I think they both taste like Germoline

Root Beer.

Now that really [i]does[/i] taste like Germolene.
(Quite liked it though. Shame McD's stopped selling it...)

Red Bull, you can ignore the Taurine and Guarana as marketing bull (ho ho), what you've got is a small can of high-sugar caffinated beverage.

For me, it seems to do a lot more than just the caffeine would suggest. It has less caffeine than an espresso for example and does a lot more. About the same as two cans of coke and also does a lot more.

After a drinking session in Prague where 7 of us sat around all day (from 11am) drinking vodka redbull I'm very wary of it now. Three of us stopped around dinner time (probably 7pm) and the other 4 kept going till the early hours, probably switching from VRB to something else at some point.

The 3 of us who stopped couldn't eat as we were shaking and not feeling at all well, getting to sleep was a complete nightmare. I was sitting rocking on a chair at one point wanting to sleep but panicing about the irregularity of my heart beat. The 4 who kept going were pretty sick the next few days and lost a day of the stag do.

I know a lot of that is to do with the opposing effects of V & RB but it gave me enough of a scare not to overdose on it again!

I should add my experiences are based on a SINGLE can dose, taken once in a blue moon 🙂