Leash the Beast: Energy drinks
I’m so-o-o-o tired!” As a teenager, you have a lot of demands on your time—studying and doing homework, participating in sports, drama, or other extracurricular activities. And then there are home and family responsibilities, not to mention time socializing in person and online. The truth of the matter is that teens today are busy. Really busy. Sometimes it feels like an impossible task to cram in everything that needs to be done. If only I had a couple more hours, you think while nodding off over your textbooks.
Energy drinks are advertised as the perfect answer. Drinks such as Volt, Red Bull, Nos, and others can contain as much caffeine as coffee and more than a can of Mountain Dew or Coke. With that much caffeine pumping through your system, completing homework, working out, hanging with friends, and completing household chores is no problem, right?
Well, it depends. While these energy drinks give you supposed “energy” (which in fact is just a really big caffeine buzz), they’re also depleting your system of liquids. Energy drinks are notoriously dehydrating. Maybe not a problem if you have just one, but what about drinking two, three, or four? In fact, pairing energy drinks with exercise is a big no-no. Your body is already losing precious liquid through your sweat and can get really dehydrated if you pair these two activities together.
What if the energy drink is combined with alcohol? A combination of these two can pose a serious threat, especially if you add an exercise such as dancing at a party to the mix. Here is something to be aware of when combining energy drinks and alcohol: energy drinks are stimulating to the body, while alcohol is depressing. Often the stimulating effect can make you feel as if you aren’t impaired when you really are. Also, there is a danger to your system because your body naturally becomes tired after drinking alcohol. An energy drink can cancel out that tired feeling, allowing you to drink too much alcohol, potentially leading to alcohol poisoning.
Marketing executives are smart, though. They know their target market is teens and young adults, and they make their commercials and advertising products edgy and cool. With such taglines as “Unleash the beast” and “It gives you wings,” who wouldn’t want to give energy drinks a try? Unfortunately, the ads don’t tell you that these hyperactive soft drinks can also dry out your system and leave you as tired as or more tired than before you drank them.
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