Energy Drinks....

[supercommuter]

Who here drinks energy drinks regularly? what are your views on them? Does anyone have any actual factual health trials or have they not been around long enough.

There is a huge amount of scare mongering that goes around about them like videos being shared on facebook of somebody with flail (sp?) chest and captions saying 'look at his heart from all this red bull'

I have to confess to drinking one most days (generally a sugar free monster variety). My father in law gives me a massive ear bashing over it. But in my eyes it is no worse than the 8 cups of sugary coffee he drinks a day.

1 500ml sugar free monster contains 150mg of Caffeine. which is 37.5% of your RDA of caffeine and no sugar. Why the hype and fuss?

[Puggit]

First of all, I think they should be banned purely on the amount of rubbish they create - definitely one of the worst litter offenders.

Your 8 cups of coffee/1 can of red bull analogy. Would you rather have 8 small waves of water lapping at your feet or one large breaker knocking you over? Kids drinking mutiple cans of this stuff is just not healthy.

[-crookedtail-]

I can't stand them, the smell alone is too much for me, they actually do make my heart beat weirdly! How anyone can drink one of a morning I'll never know, I had one once in he afternoon as I was falling asleep, drunk half of it and was bouncing off the walls. This guy I used to work with used to drink 3 of the 500ml Monster cans a day, mental!

He was always on edge and off sick too, wonder why!!

I'm not sure I agree with the 'its the same as coffee aspect either' tbh 150mg caffeine all at once versus 40mg per coffee spread out over the day cant be comparable imho.

[sc0tt]

I used to drink gallons of Red Bull and then realised how much money the bloody things cost.

Then I just stopped.

[captain_cynic]

I used to drink them when I was much younger (well over 15 years ago when Red Bull was a new thing to Australia). Now I rarely do, honestly the last one I had was in a Jagerbomb and still tasted like arse (so does Jagermeister though).

I much prefer the flavour of a nice cup of coffee for my caffeine fix. Far less sugar as well. Most of the people my age who still drink them are smokers, so they cant taste them anyway.

Puggit said:

First of all, I think they should be banned purely on the amount of rubbish they create - definitely one of the worst litter offenders.

I'm not a fan of them... but seriously, a ban?

There's something wrong when your first reaction to something you don't like is to ban it.

Puggit said:

Your 8 cups of coffee/1 can of red bull analogy. Would you rather have 8 small waves of water lapping at your feet or one large breaker knocking you over? Kids drinking mutiple cans of this stuff is just not healthy.

Very bad analogy, whilst I don't go to the beach often but when I do like to take some kind of board with me, so bigger waves are better.

[J8 SVG]

Love these on a hangover but not easy to find 100% of the time

Use to drink a lot more when I was in college and if we were playing xbox until silly o'clock in the morning (litre of tesco own kick! each!) but don't feel the need any more, water is a perfectly good drink after I've had my 7AM coffee

[spikedjack]

One sugar free monster a day here. I don’t drink anything warm which is part of the problem.

Have done the same for years, only real issue is the cost, must spend 30-40 quid a month on the stuff

[alorotom]

there was a study undertaken recently by the Kings Fund I believe into the effects of concentrated levels of caffeine and taurine on developing bodies and it was concluded that ingestion of energy drinks does create lasting changes to heart arrhythmia

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

Puggit said:

First of all, I think they should be banned purely on the amount of rubbish they create - definitely one of the worst litter offenders.

Completely. See a can on the floor, odds on it's a Monster or a happy shopper 30p energy drink one.

[Rawwr]

I like my toilet too much to drink energy drinks. My current drink of choice is Pepsi Max Ginger. It's divine

[supercommuter]

Thread moved...end of thread

Thanks for your views

[TartanPaint]

In moderation, fine.

I'm very anti-sugar and anti-refined-carbs, and more than convinced that our massive increase in sugar/carb intake and "low fat is good" brainwashing over the last 50 years is the root cause of our exploding T2 diabetes epidemic and heart disease (and probably Alzheimers and many other things we haven't formally linked to sugar/carb intake yet). Not particularly radical thinking, but it'll take generations to even start turning that supertanker around and getting back to how our grandparents ate.

So on that basis, to me, the full-sugar versions of any soft drink are pretty much the devil's own urine, and I just wouldn't touch them.

Sugar-free energy drinks (or coke, etc) seem pretty harmless though when consumed in moderation, as with all things. No worse than my 5-shot coffee every morning. Probably better in fact.

[supercommuter]

spikedjack said:

One sugar free monster a day here. I don’t drink anything warm which is part of the problem.

Have done the same for years, only real issue is the cost, must spend 30-40 quid a month on the stuff

This is the same as me, I don't like hot drinks really and i do like that caffeine kick which I find in the form of 1 sugar free monster a day.

I drink it normally over the period of an hour or two whilst working. So I am not sure about the full whack of 150mg in one go wave analogy.

[Thankyou4calling]

Calories are the unit used to measure energy. If an energy drink has zero calories.

How can it be called an energy drink? it doesn't provide any energy at all?

[supercommuter]

Thankyou4calling said:

Calories are the unit used to measure energy. If an energy drink has zero calories.

How can it be called an energy drink? it doesn't provide any energy at all?

They are a stimulant which provide the means of burning energy

[HarryFlatters]

Just finished my 3rd double espresso, so I'm feeling rather bouncy.

Used to drink a fair few energy drinks when I was younger and had a physical job. They were a tool, and I wouldn't consume them in the same way now.

Don't talk to me about Jaegerbombs though... They're something of a weakness of mine. Especially when there's a promotion on...

Me: Can I have two Jaegerbombs please?

Barman: They are 3 for a fiver.

Me: Cool, I'll have 9

[Thankyou4calling]

supercommuter said:

They are a stimulant which provide the means of burning energy

But burning energy surely isn't giving you energy is it?

[supercommuter]

Thankyou4calling said:

supercommuter said:

They are a stimulant which provide the means of burning energy

But burning energy surely isn't giving you energy is it?

Quite, it gives you the feeling of having energy, i guess.

[S9JTO]

Guy I used to work with drank 4 Monster/Relentless a day, I think he was a big time 'gamer' so it helped him stay alert late at night when he got home.

He would constantly have the blackest of bags under his eyes and looked generally ill... Nice enough guy, still on the ball technically but my god he looked severely unhealthy. This was coupled with the fact he never brought his own lunch, constantly eating at the local KFC, kebab shop or McDonalds. The healthiest thing I saw him eat for lunch was a steak and cheese melt from Subway

[Gameface]

I don't drink energy drinks.

I don't drink coffee.

I do however, partake in copious amounts of high quality cocaine.

So swings and roundabouts really...