Nutrition 911, Part XIV: Energy Drinks – Do They Really Give You Wings?

By Steve Edwards

Energy drinks have taken over the soft drink market in a caffeine-fueled frenzy. By listening to the ad campaigns, you'd be sure that this has everything to do with your health. Now instead of leaving the convenience store with a gut bomb, you can grab a Monster can of Adrenaline that promises to Redline your performance until you're partying like a Rockstar. But do energy drinks really give you wings? Or are you more likely to experience a fleeting glimpse of euphoria, only to come crashing down like Icarus? This week, we take a deeper look at energy drinks, 911 style.

Since Red Bull entered the U.S. market in 1997, energy drinks have been chipping away at the soft drink and bottled water companies' stranglehold. According to an article in The New York Times, energy drinks have now surpassed bottled water as the fastest growing category of beverages. This isn't to say that they're hurting the soda companies, because pretty much everyone now makes an energy drink, from Hansen's to Steven Seagal. Despite a slew of drinks with far more provocative names such as Who's Your Daddy?®, Cocaine™, Jones Whoopass™, and Beaver Buzz™, the industry leader is still Red Bull, with sales over $3 billion last year.

The where and why?

Energy drinks have been around for decades, particularly in Asia and mainly in Japan. They weren't soft drinks like they are today. Instead, they were small vials of liquid promising to increase performance. These vials were usually filled with caffeine, many herbs containing caffeine, and some vitamins. Their target audience was businessmen, to aid their long work schedules.

Red Bull took its name and certain ingredients from a Thai supplement. It was watered down and sugar was added so that it could be consumed as a soft drink, targeting the under-30 crowd. And voilà, a new market was formed. Pretty much everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. The more consumer-friendly varieties tend to be larger and resemble soft drinks, but there are still some aimed at more "sports-specific" audiences like bodybuilders and ravers. These will often come in a smaller package resembling the vials that you get overseas, which are probably more suitable for those who want to feel as though they're doing something illegal.

The what?

So what's in the stuff that makes it so special and, even more importantly, is it special? The ingredients vary, but there is one constant: caffeine. No matter what any energy drink professes, its secret ingredient is caffeine. Many contain various forms of caffeine like guarana, yerba maté, and tea, but caffeine is the business they're in. Everything else is a side dish.

As an example, let's take a closer look at Red Bull's active ingredients.

• Sucrose and glucose. Like most soft drinks, the number one ingredient by far is sugar (check out "6 Foods with Hidden Sugar" in the Related Articles section below). This is where all of the calories in a Red Bull come from. Sugar provides an instant energy rush, but its effects are anything but energizing after only a few minutes. A study conducted at the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom proved exactly the opposite of this instant energy-rush effect. The study showed that a high-sugar and low-caffeine energy drink would promote sleepiness, not energy.
  
  "Energy drinks are a misnomer," reported Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, to HealthDay News. "Sure, they provide energy in the form of calories, usually from some form of a simple sugar, but simple sugars are digested, absorbed, and metabolized very quickly, so the energy they contain doesn't last long."
  
  Sugar, however, does speed the other ingredients into your system quicker. That's the point. Let's have a look at them to see what they do.
  
  
• Sodium citrate. A food additive or preservative, usually added because of its tart flavor. But it's also alkaline and inhibits blood clotting. Because it's an effective buffering agent, it may help you utilize other nutrients better. A British study in 2003 also showed that it improved running times. However, in this study, the amount used was 37 grams. Since a Red Bull's only measurable ingredient is 27 grams of sugar (not counting the water), it's unlikely that the amount of sodium citrate will add any noticeable velocity to your wing speed.
  
  
• Taurine. Originally came from bull bile, which is where Red Bull got its name. Now it's synthesized, and of all the ingredients in a Red Bull, it's the least understood. While it's associated with many benefits—and some dangers—virtually nothing is proven other than it is essential for your cat's health. In the energy drink world, some studies showing that it could reduce muscle fatigue are the most promising. But studies have concluded that it is not an energy enhancer.
  
  
• Glucuronolactone. A naturally occurring chemical compound produced by glucose metabolism in the liver. Because it was once rumored (now disproved) to be linked with brain tumors during the Vietnam era, it was not a popular ingredient, until Red Bull used it because of its reputation for improving memory retention and concentration. Years later, there is still no conclusive proof, but it's become a popular ingredient in energy drinks across the board.
  
  
• Caffeine. Now here's the business. Caffeine is a plant alkaloid found in over 60 species of plants, including guarana, kola nut, maté, tea, and, of course, coffee. Over 19,000 studies have been done on caffeine and most of them have been positive—the truly dangerous conclusions drawn by some studies have yet to be proven. The upside is so well known that there's no need to go into it. Caffeine is now arguably more popular than ever, and it's estimated that 90 percent of American adults consume it in some form. But this is nothing new; it's been used as a stimulant for as long as we've been recording history (and perhaps it's even the cause of us recording history).
  
  Caffeine is not without its downside. Too much can make you jittery, anxious, unable to sleep, and even paranoid. It increases the production of stomach acid and can lead to an assortment of ailments. It's also addicting. And those who drink caffeine daily will suffer withdrawal symptoms if they can't get it. It has a toxic dosage, but it's so high that death by caffeine is highly unlikely, if not altogether impossible, unless it's consumed in its pure form. It is worth noting that over a certain amount (the average being around 400 milligrams, or 3 or 4 cups of coffee), caffeine intoxication may occur, which is an unpleasant condition that may include heart palpitations, irritability, anxiousness, and insomnia. We discussed this back in "Nutrition 911, Part XI: Coffee, Tea, and Caffeine" (see the Related Articles section below).
  
  
• Inositol. I'm only going to go into this ingredient enough to show why many ingredients are added to supplements and drinks—only for show. As a supplement, inositol has some promising science behind it, but you would need to drink approximately 350 Red Bulls—enough to kill you from caffeine intoxication—to get the dosage used in the studies. It merely sounds important. Many "teas" and other convenience-store elixirs also tout important-sounding ingredients on the label, but they only contain trace amounts of those ingredients.
  

How much?

We refer to both the amount of ingredients and the cost of such ingredients. Energy drinks are expensive, and given the amount you get of each ingredient, you'd better really like the way they taste. If not, you're being ripped off.

Let's start with sugar. First off, sugar is not performance enhancing, so paying extra for it makes little sense. If you want sugar, buy something that tastes good. Many energy drinks are also made with artificial sweeteners, which are exactly the same low-grade additives that you can get in a can of Big K® diet soda for 25 cents.

Caffeine is cheap, as is coffee, and the average cup of coffee has three times more caffeine than the average energy drink. There are whole Web sites set up to help you do the math on this. One such site, Energyfiend.com, lists the milligrams of caffeine per ounce contained in each energy drink. The more commercial brands like Rockstar and Red Bull have far fewer milligrams than some of the more esoteric brands. But nothing beats a good old cup o' joe, except the 1-ounce caffeine shots.

While the above-listed ingredients are the flagship ingredients of promotion, they aren't added in amounts that are effective. If you like the science behind taurine or inositol, you're better off buying it in bulk and then drinking plain coffee or tea.

So will they give me wings?

While there is little doubt you will gain a burst of energy from these drinks, it's unlikely to be sustained energy. Furthermore, the type of rush you get will be followed with a crash that will make you crave more. Because these have very little nutritional value, chances are that consuming more than a couple will leave you feeling edgy or downright irritable.

Energy drinks may have a place in your diet, but with proper fueling and regular exercise, you are unlikely to need them regularly. We tend to be low on energy because we make poor food choices, sleep too little, exercise too little, and stress too much. No drug can offset this behavior except during the short term. Energy drinks should be nothing but an emergency solution.

And when you want to party like a Rockstar?

Energy drinks are popularly used as cocktail mixers. Bars commonly promote such concoctions and energy drink companies often sponsor social gatherings. While mixing stimulants and depressants has been common among the partying sect for a long time, that doesn't make it safe. A 2006 study found a possible link between energy drinks and seizures, and research shows that combining heavy stimulants with heavy depressants could lead to heart failure. Remember that all rock stars don't make it through their partying years.

How to best enhance your energy

Your lifestyle has more to do with your energy level than anything else. Energy drinks should be reserved for the occasional pick-me-up or for sports performance. Consistent and intense exercise keeps your hormones working in balance and your body on an even keel. A proper diet with plenty of fiber, protein, vitamins, and good fatty acids that's supported by plenty of fresh water will give you long-term, sustained energy. Finally, getting ample sleep helps you recover from the stress and breakdown of everyday life. This is your real Pimp Juice if you want to keep your Diesel engine going Full Throttle all day, even if you've got to catch a Red Eye.

5 Ways to Sneak Fitness Into Family Time

By Suzy Buglewicz

After spending several hours a day at a desk job or sitting in traffic while shuttling overscheduled kids from one activity to the next, it's tempting for families to want to spend their downtime plopped on the couch. The next time you find yourself with an hour or so of unscheduled free time, grab the kids and get moving. Research shows that families that work out together are more likely to stick with it, since they can motivate and encourage each other. And exercising as a family has multiple benefits, from being able to spend quality time with those you love and committing to an active lifestyle, to reducing stress and increasing energy levels. But you don't have to call it exercise. Here are six activities that let families play together, and promote fit and healthy lifestyles.

1. Play in the park. Grab an assortment of balls and equipment from the garage (soccer ball, football, basketball, and baseball and gloves), along with a Frisbee® and the family dog. Pack a cooler with some water and snacks, and head to your local park with the family for an afternoon of fresh air and playtime. You'll all have so much fun that you won't even realize you're getting a workout.
   
   
2. Go swimming. Swimming is a great way to stay in shape. It's an excellent workout for people of all ages. Depending on the time of year and where you live, you can head to your local indoor or outdoor pool for fun and affordable family playtime. Swimming helps improve balance, endurance, and posture, and it's one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise.
   
   Swimming regularly can also increase self-esteem in kids as they become more comfortable in the water and learn to master their strokes. Get some rings and diving sticks, and take turns diving for them. If your kids are young, sign them up for swimming lessons—they can get their lessons while you work out in the lap lanes. Be sure young kids are never left unattended, and remember the sunscreen if you're outside!
   
   
3. Take a hike. A family hike involves a little more planning than other activities, but the benefits are well worth it. Plan the trail level and hike length around the group's abilities and experience. If it's your first family hike, start with a mostly flat trail that's no more than 1 mile round-trip (you don't want to start carrying your kids halfway through the hike). Gradually increase the length and trail difficulty with each hike.
   
   Bring a few lightweight backpacks with healthy snacks and water bottles. Keep the kids interested by letting them carry the trail map, and having them look for specific items, like interesting wildflowers or rock formations. Most metropolitan towns have family friendly trails offering easy to moderately difficult hiking trails. To find a trail near you, visit LocalHikes.com.
   
   
4. Go for a bike ride. A family bike ride is a great way to get out of the house and get a workout at the same time. Cycling is also one of the best ways to tone and strengthen the upper leg and calf muscles. Turn a family bike ride into an outing by biking to a specific destination (maybe the corner ice cream shop for frozen yogurt?). Make sure everyone wears a helmet and the appropriate gear. And follow the rules of the road!
   
   
5. Jump rope. Rope jumping dates back to 1,600 AD, when the Egyptians used vines for jumping. Nowadays, it's a great way to burn off energy, reduce stress, improve coordination and endurance, and sing your favorite rhyming songs. Jumping rope at a moderate pace can burn up to 800 calories an hour. For variety, try double Dutch, which is when a person jumps through two jump ropes at the same time. Or invite the neighbors over and have a jump-roping contest, and follow up with an assortment of healthy snacks. You just might start a new tradition.
   
   

Sidebar: More Tips for Staying Fit as a Family

• Get a pedometer for every member of the family. The American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps a day to stay heart-healthy. Have a family contest and see who can log the most steps in a day.
• Invest in a family membership at your local YMCA or recreation center. That way, everyone can work out in any kind of weather; you can choose from various activities that will appeal to individual talents and interests.
• Let the kids take turns choosing a family activity that promotes fitness, and make sure everyone participates!

Nutrition 911: Jumbo Juices and Crappuccinos

By Steve Edwards

Today, our oh-so-basic nutrition class hits the mall, or at least the strip mall, for a look at popular beverage chains. These range from places we know may not be healthy, like coffeehouses, to juice bars that market themselves as the pinnacle of nutrition. Certainly, beverages named after a cornucopia of healthy fruits must be good for you, right? Let's take a deeper look at that Mangorangoberry Pizzazz you were considering for lunch today.

Most of the drinks we're discussing fall under the smoothie category. We've been conditioned to consider this word synonymous with healthy, but many of these drinks are quite the opposite. Smoothie's not a word you need to strike from your vocabulary, but like most things you put into your body, you should pay attention to the ingredients. Some of these beverages are great, while others are little more than ice cream in a cup. Here's a quick rundown on the types of smoothies you're likely to encounter and when, or if, you should drink them.

Bottled "smoothies"

A smoothie used to be a blend of various whole fruits with, perhaps, a bit of protein powder and/or other ingredients that were healthy, didn't taste great, and were best hidden in a mixture of yummy fruit. Nowadays, it can be almost anything. In stores, however, most of 'em still follow that traditional blend. They also have the nutrition information listed on the side, so it's easy to see what you're drinking. I guess this is why you'll almost never see a Peanut Butter Blast™ at your local market, but you'll often see spirulina.

Analysis: Most of these drinks are pretty darn healthy, and it's obvious when they're not. Just make sure to read the nutrition information on the label.

Jamba Juice®, et al.

I'm using the Jamba Juice model because it's the biggest smoothie chain, but there are plenty of others. Most follow a similar format of offering varying drink options. Coffeehouses get in on this too, which we'll get to later. Jamba Juice touts its usage of real fruit and fruit juices to make its beverages sound healthy. When analyzing the final product, we see an abundance of sugar and not much fiber, meaning that fruit juice is being used, which is completely different nutritionally than using whole fruit.

• Traditional smoothies. Jamba Juice calls these "classics," because it's all that was offered before consumers caught on to the hype and demanded healthier options. These are mainly made of fruit, with some amount of dairy dessert like sherbet added for a smooth texture. At an average of around 500 calories (for an "original" size, or a medium) and 100 grams of sugar, this is not exactly the "light lunch" many people thought they were getting.

Analysis: The only time this would be an appropriate snack (or meal, really) is if you were doing an excessive amount of exercise. Adding protein powder as an option helps balance it a little bit, but basically there's no way around the fact that this is a high-sugar meal, which is only okay if you happen to be burning a lot of blood sugar.

• Functional smoothies. These use industry buzzwords in drinks like Açai Supercharger™, Matcha Green Tea Mist™, Protein Berry Pizzazz™, Coldbuster®!, and a host of other ultra-healthy-sounding items. Some of them have a slightly higher amount of protein, but checking the bottom line, an "original" also has around 500 calories, 400 or so of which come from sugar.

Analysis: Shakespeare once asked, "What's in a name?" Maybe he was referring to a business he knew would pop up in a few centuries. Don't believe this marketing hype; the only purpose of these beverages would be to fuel you after a long bout of very intense exercise.

• Enlightened smoothies. How did they do it? They look the same. They're the same size. Yet these average around 300 calories, about 250 of which are sugar. To reduce the calorie count, these beverages are made with nonfat milk, whey protein, and Splenda®. This does boost their protein content a bit, an improvement over the classics, but you have to deal with Splenda.

Analysis: Do two pluses offset a minus? You get fewer calories and more protein, but what's with the Splenda? This somewhat disgusting artificial sweetener (basically chlorinated sugar) has a lot of negative press surrounding it. It's probably fine in small doses, but it raises this question: why? Surely there are healthier options. If Jamba Juice is so into health trends like açai and maca, couldn't they have sweetened these "enlightened" smoothies with yacon?

• All-fruit smoothies. These beverages don't use dairy products and stick to fruit juice and fruit. But they're sweetened fruit juice, so their 300 plus calories are nearly all sugar, with about a third as much fiber as a comparable amount of whole fruit.

Analysis: Another sugary sports drink. Sure, there are vitamins and antioxidants in this stuff—it's made of fruit, after all. But you're far better off with a piece or two, or three, of whole fruit, which is healthier, more filling, and doesn't cause a sugar rush.

• Good Moo'ds. These are the chocolate "anythings" that invariably show up on the menu. They're advertised as being "made with nonfat milk," or some other hollow promise. But a medium "Peanut Butter Moo'd" contains 21 grams of fat (or 190 calories of fat), 122 grams of sugar, 480 milligrams of sodium, and 840 calories.

Analysis: You might as well go for the ice cream. If that's what you want, there's not much trade-off here. These have no place in a healthy diet, except as some kind of reward. They are decadence, pure and simple.

Starbucks®, et al.

Coffee chains have gotten in on the game too. Sometimes called smoothies, coffeehouse options are also referred to by various other names. Coffee and tea don't have any calories and give you a rush. But people seem to want their rush with other assorted items, like sugar and fat. So now when you order a black coffee at one of these places, you often get a strange look, or you're asked, "Are you sure?" I guess that's not what the cool kids are ordering. So let's have a look, shall we? Because the kids won't stay cool if they keep eating like this.

• Frappuccinos. An average 24-ounce Starbucks Frappuccino® (the large or Venti® size) has around 700 calories, 25 grams of fat, 100 grams of sugar, 400 milligrams of sodium, and 70 milligrams of cholesterol. You can save a few hundred calories by ordering "light," which substitutes artificial sweeteners for sugar.

Analysis: These are dessert items. There is no other way to categorize them.

• Lattes 'n' such. These are slightly less caloric and vary quite a bit. A Grande Nonfat Cappuccino might only have 100 or so calories, but a Venti White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream has over 600 calories.

Analysis: There's a lot of variance here, and I believe most of you know the good from the bad. Here's a quick rundown:

• Coffee or tea: Zero calories; the best option is to drink them unsweetened and without milk or cream.

• Milks and cream: Nonfat is best. Low fat is the second best option, and last is whole, which is highly caloric and loaded with fat. Half-and-half or cream is even worse. Soy milk is a good option for the lactose intolerant, but it has fat and calorie contents similar to regular milk. Most nondairy creamers are filled with sugar and hydrogenated junk. You're better off with the real stuff.

• Chocolate, caramel, vanilla, etc.: All of these flavorings are sugar—a lot of sugar.

• Whipped cream: 100 percent fat and condensed sugar and almost zero nutritional value.

• Chai and other holistic-sounding stuff: These follow the exact same pattern as the Frappuccinos. The only difference is that they use tea instead of coffee as their base. Often touted as "a taste of Asia," or some such nonsense, these have long ago lost any trace of their "exotic spices" and are flavored by the same junk that's in all the unhealthy stuff.

Today we learned that we may not need to steer clear of these establishments, but we definitely need to be careful about what we order. We touched on the "natural" fruit claim but could probably stand to go into the issue more thoroughly. So next time, let's look at the difference between whole fruit and fruit juice.