The Ups and Downs of Energy Drinks!
Start your engines! The day has started and you are off to a great start. As the afternoon approaches you might feel a slight energy imbalance and you still have much to accomplish before your day is done. A lot of people around this time will resort to energy drinks that will give them that boost they need to power them through the rest of the day. How they have made their preferential choice is due largely to what ad has captured their desires, and let’s be honest, it also depends how attractive the ad makes them feel. For example Red Bull gives you ‘Wings‘ to go above and beyond to accomplish your goals. The ad does not however explain that Red Bull gives you wings, only for a few hours before you come crashing down. With focusing on the emphasis of the high they detour you from the nutritional and health effects that the beverage has been known for.
As we segway into this grand health paradigm shift people are starting to become more concerned with their health. We are shifting away from consuming things ‘just because’ and researching what we consume to make sure we are making the right choices. A lot more companies are giving consumers the opportunity to have healthy alternatives that are not going to break your pocket. For the most part a lot of healthy alternatives can be slightly less expensive and offer the peace of mind that this isn’t negatively effecting your health!
Lots of energy drinks have enough caffeine that equal a cup of coffee or more. These drinks are known to be very powerful and should be consumed responsibly. They have the tendency to boost heart rate, increase blood pressure, dehydrate the body and potentially cause insomnia. Since they contain caffeine and it’s known to be a diuretic it promotes fluid loss. A lot of people tend to drink energy drinks before working out. This can be detrimental because when you work out dehydration already occurs with sweating. So if you add to the cause then that is like doubling the dehydration you would experience. An important note is that energy drinks are a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant. By consuming them both together can also be potentially dangerous.
Coffee is typically consumed slowly if it is hot and this gives the body time to process the caffeine. However, energy drinks are usually consumed in large amounts at a time. They tend to have lots of sugars, which is also a form of energy. Some energy drink companies tend to say their drinks have vitamins, but they are typically are on a small scale and produce no real effect. People who are sensitive may experience; anxiety, palpitations, irritability and again insomnia.
There are natural/herbal energy drinks that tend to stay away from excess sugars. Things to look for would be; yerba mate, guarana, ginseng, and green tea. RevVNRG has the ingredients I’ve just mentioned and is an all-natural energy drink that comes in easy on the go packets! They have a classic flavor that has Acai. They have an energy drink just for immunity that has the Yumm Berry and they also have a flavor called Focus that has 5-HTP that helps with focus. Another way to maintain energy would be by taking a daily multi-vitamin. This will help you maintain nutrition as well as giving you useful energy daily. It is also great because they average about $30-50 per month and some people spend that much on energy drinks in one week!
Category: Fitness, Health, Natural & Alternative, Thought
looks like I have alternatives to coffee!
Great article… I like the NEW colours of RED BULL and they taste great
Thanks a lot for sharing a great article. I prefer drinking green tea as it has many medicinal benefits like weight loss, reduces the risk of heart attack, controls BP, depression and many more. I always recommend drinking green tea than any other drink.