The pace of modern life has us sleeping little, working hard, and playing harder before tumbling into bed each night to repeat the whole process again the next day. Without a doubt we could all use a little help pepping up our energy levels once in a while to help cope with it. Alright... maybe every day. Ok, ok, ok, maybe a couple times a day. Maybe right now.
There's no question that energy drinks deliver on the promise of a jolt of energy. But unless you're still running on an unstoppable high school metabolism, you're familiar with the literal and physical costs of cashing in on this promise.
1. High Sugar Content
With the research we now have on sugar's effects on the body, it's reason number one to quit punishing yourself with energy drinks. Sugar ruins your metabolism, wreaks havoc on your gut flora, and eats away at your pearly whites. Not content to stop there, it bloats your waistline and makes you crash.
2. Anxiety and Stress
Caffeine in the doses present in energy drinks can make you anxious and stressed, due to the overload of energy. When you have any amount of caffeine greater than half of a tiny Red Bull, you actually begin losing the benefits to your focus making you jittery and aggravated.
3. Organ Overload
If you take a look at the ingredients list of your favorite energy drink, there's a significant chance you have no idea what the majority of them are. Your body wasn't built to act as a chemistry lab, and as a result your heart, liver and kidneys are all working at levels way above normal. When your organs are dealing with all this, they can't readily absorb the good nutrients you ingest.
4. Insomnia
A Five Hour Energy contains five times the ideal dose of caffeine. Five times. It's right there in the title. With a half life in the body of 6-12 hours, you're expecting your mind to be able to rest while it may still be racing from the effect, despite the immediate benefits of the caffeine having worn off hours previous.
5. Dollar Bills Y'all
Ok, so you don't care about your health. You've made it this far down the list with your mind unchanged. Let's talk money. If you have one reasonably priced energy drink a day on average, you're spending nearly a thousand dollars a year on a product that is giving you only a short amount of energy induced euphoria before taking it all away, and then some. You could've bought your winter wardrobe with that.
Give your heart, liver and nerves a break and kick the bad habit. Put the savings into something you love instead.
