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View: Drinks energizing towards dehydration
At a time when midterms run rampant and spring break is just around the corner,
many students look to energy drinks to help them stay awake to study or party.
These drinks have replaced coffee, and boasts about how many a student drank
to stay awake can often be heard around campus.
What some students may not realize is they have just fallen into the hands of
a clever and false ad campaign.
Promising a special boost, these ads make it seem like whoever drinks this liquid
will receive a magical burst of energy not available from the likes of coffee.
This magical burst is supposedly so powerful that vendors must charge $2 to $3
for a single can. However, experts warn energy drinks basically have fancy packaging
with nothing special inside.
“
These drinks are marketing ploys. I’m not aware of any scientific data
that they do what they say they’re going to do,” said Mark Kantor,
professor of family and consumer sciences and nutrition at the University of
Maryland who specializes in consumer education, in an Aug. 10, 2005, article
from The Seattle Times.
What these drinks will give consumers, however, is a highly addictive level of
caffeine. According to a New York Times article published Nov. 23, 2005, Roland
Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine, said it only takes 100 milligrams of caffeine a day to produce dependency.
Energy drinks typically contain anywhere from 80 to 160 milligrams of caffeine,
depending on the size of the drink.
France, Denmark, Norway and Argentina have all recognized the danger of the caffeine
level of these drinks and have banned sale of them. The drinks are also known
for causing extreme dehydration, and experts warn never to use the drinks as
thirst-quenchers or replenishing liquid when exercising.
Even worse than the old trend of using drinks to stay awake for studying, many
students now use the drinks to stay awake while partying as well. Instead of
getting much-needed rest on the weekends, students will order energy drinks at
bars and consume them in conjunction with alcohol to help them keep on trucking.
The most popular combo right now is an energy drink-vodka mix like Red Bull and
vodka. Medical experts warn this is particularly dangerous because “double
dehydration” will occur.
“
The more dehydrated you are, the higher the blood level of alcohol — the
higher the danger,” said Maher
Karam-Hage, medical director of the Chelsea Arbor Addiction Treatment Center
at the University of Michigan, in an Aug. 10, 2005 article from The Seattle Times.
While the caffeine does help a person to stay awake, it does not make them less
drunk.
“
The end result ... is they falsely lead the person to think they can drive [and]
operate machinery,” Karen-Hage said.
So don’t kid yourselves. The fact that you downed three Rockstars last
night does not mean you can now conquer Everest. It does mean, however, that
you are now $6 to $9 poorer and a whole heck of a lot more dehydrated.
Recommendation? Don’t waste more money sipping Evian. Just drink plenty
of tap water and try to get some sleep.
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