Energy drinks are most commonly drunk by twenty-or-so-year-old gym bros who are on their protein/caffeine grind, or by the stressed and overworked teenage high school student. Nonetheless, these beverages have become a major ‘trend’ in recent years.
As the most common–and easiest–solution to a bad night’s sleep, long day, or to get a quick energy boost before physical activity, it makes sense why this new genre of drink has gained so much popularity and traction.
Whether it’s a Celsius Essentials Energy Drink, Red Bull, C4, or Jocko Go, they all serve the same purpose, and all are easily accessible at any given deli, gas station, supermarket, or any other business establishment.
The modern energy drink, as we know it today, originated in post-World War Two Japan. In 1962, a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company based in Tokyo called Taisho Pharmaceuticals was the first to produce Lipovitan D. Lipovitan D is an herbal energizing stimulant that looks and smells similar to cough syrup. With the target audience being Japanese truck drivers who needed long-lasting and effective energy to keep them awake for their long shifts, Lipovitan D was promoted to increase physical and mental performance.
As Lipovitan was being distributed and sold to truckers in small glass bottles all across Japan in the mid-to-late twentieth century, its main ingredient, taurine, took up around three thousand milligrams of the bottle. There was also a warning label on the drink cautioning people to consume no more than just one hundred milligrams of taurine per day.
Taurine is a naturally occurring chemical protein that can be found in the body; its functions include supporting nerve growth in the heart and brain, as well as improving mental performance and providing energy–hence why it is commonly found in caffeinated drinks.
As much as taurine is an important and useful chemical to the human body, it is, as most things are, only truly healthy in supplements. An over-intake of taurine can result in excessive tiredness, dizziness, and fatigue, similar to the effects of an over-intake of caffeine.
The first authentically marketed energy drink, Krating Daend, was introduced to Japanese businesses in 1976. It had three main ingredients: caffeine, taurine, and B-vitamins. This new way of consuming quick energy effectively and with ease stormed the Japanese beverage market, which thus allowed Krating Daeng along with other new, similar drinks to be the first popular energy drinks that took over the Asian food market.
Naturally, it did not take long for this new product to reach an international level; Austrian businesses soon claimed to have ‘discovered’ Krating Daeng and its purpose, effectively partnering with the brand and re-naming it to ‘Red-Bull.’
The rest of the story is history. As to be expected, this re-branding allowed for the drink to circle through all of Europe. With its costly combination of caffeine, taurine, and carbonation, everyone wanted in on this new market, and by 1997, the drink reached the United States.
With over 190 brands of energy drink across the globe, it is safe to assume these drinks have taken the world by storm–and seem to be accelerating in popularity too.
However, this new form of quick energy has some major and excruciatingly costly potential health effects. With some energy drinks containing up to five-hundred milligrams of caffeine, the equivalent of fourteen cans of soda, this excess intake can ultimately lead to nausea, seizures, and, potentially, even cardiac arrest which is often fatal.
It is also important to mention that another vital ingredient in almost every energy drink is sugar. The acidity and high-glucose levels of these drinks have the ability to result in dental complications such as cavities, dental erosion, and many more oral health risks.
Most notably, the cardiovascular and metabolic risks associated with caffeine overconsumption can have the greatest and most detrimental effect on those who over-consume. The chemicals in these drinks increase blood pressure and heart rate, as well as more complications such as sugar metabolism disorders, excess weight gain–all of which are main contributors to chronic kidney disease, which ultimately can have detrimental effects on the heart.
There are also mental, behavioral, and neurological effects that come with caffeine overconsumption related to energy drinks. According to a study done in partnership with the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Rome, a regular energy drink intake is correlated to increased involvement in risk-taking behaviors like vaping, substance use, weapon carrying, as well as physical altercations. There also comes risk with increased anxiety levels or an initial development of anxiety correlated to caffeine consumption; this can result in poorer academic performance.
As far as neurological effects go, there is proof of increased sleep problems like sleep disruptions and insomnia associated with an overconsumption of energy drinks. This idea of sleep deprivation as a result of too much caffeine can explain the behavioral problems also associated with the chemicals; it is a known fact that insufficient sleep ultimately results in issues like anxiety, feelings of tension, and poor grades.
One of the target groups and subsequent consumers of this type of product in recent years has tended to be adolescents and young adults. One-third of teens ages twelve to seventeen drink energy drinks regularly, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Along with this, it is also true that the number of U.S. Poison Control centers that concerned children consuming energy drinks spiked to around twenty percent back in 2023, and it is not outlandish to assume that number has only increased considering the debut of the wildly popular Celsius energy drink.
Ultimately, the consumption of energy drinks has become the norm among teenagers and young adults–which notably, is when people are most vulnerable to all the previously mentioned effects due to their smaller and developing systems. The quick chug of a typical-16 oz can has become a replacement for hours of valuable sleep.
This issue doesn’t have a straightforward solution. On the one hand, restrictions on the production of these types of drinks are an option; however, that’s simply unrealistic due to the size of the energy drink industry. Another solution could potentially be spreading awareness of the health effects, however that typically doesn’t cause substantial change. In some ways, the root of the problem doesn’t lie in the production, use, and contents of energy drinks themselves, but rather in the reason behind the purchasing of them. Most times, when it comes to a student buying an energy drink, it’s so they have enough liveliness to get through the school day, to be focused for a test, or maybe even to perform well at an athletic practice after school.
Students turn to artificial energy simply because they don’t have enough hours in the day to complete schoolwork and after-school commitments, while still maintaining a social life through it all. Of course there can be some discrepancy in terms of rigor of school and amount of extra-curricular activities, however regardless of that fact it is no secret that high school students tend to be overworked; whether it be derived from the constant pressure of qualifying for sufficient higher education, or competition via peers. If there was some sort of solution to that, or perhaps more hours in a day, then this issue may not have substance.
A regular energy drink intake is correlated to increased involvement in risk-taking behaviors like vaping, substance use, weapon carrying, as well as physical altercations.