As we all are noticing that lots of different types of energy drinks have hit the market in the past few years, so a few questions do arise that whether these energy drinks are really good for us? Do these energy drinks really increase our energy? Will these energy drinks help us loose weight?

Mostly energy drinks are usually made up of carbonated water loaded with gut fattening high fructose syrup, caffeine, amino acid taurene and some B-vitamins. Energy drinks are usually non-alcoholic beverages containing vitamins and natural stimulants. The amount of caffeine used in different brands of energy drinks varies from 80-150mg per can of 250ml. Our body has the capacity of absorbing around 300mg of caffeine to the maximum in a day. Excessive amount of caffeine in our body can lead to problems such as increased blood pressure, anxiety attacks, insomnia and heartaches.

The main two ingredients used in energy drinks are caffeine and taurene. These two ingredients energize our brain and body. But according to the study of scientists across the world, the taurene amino acid, which is responsible for the immune system, is dangerous enough for the heart muscle if combined with around 90mg of caffeine. This leads to abrupt relaxation of the nervous system and lowers the blood pressure. Thus energy drinks are banned for children under 14, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. The other problem of caffeine is that it also causes addiction and we become tempted to consume energy drinks in large quantities.

After consuming the energy drink, for the first several hours we don’t feel tired at all, our mood improves and we feel a burst of energy, but afterwards we feel the decline of the same duration, and our body applies huge efforts to restore its normal state. This happens because Ginseng and guarana free up the energy from the untouchable reserves stored in liver, muscles and fat deposits for a rainy day. By drinking energy drinks we artificially increase the metabolism wasting what our body had been storing up for years and what we would have normally used in a stress situation.

These energy drinks also use artificial sweeteners which have harmful chemicals. Researchers do believe that consumption of artificial sweeteners leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run. If we go through the list of ingredients in energy drinks, we may see that it contains a cocktail of vitamins. Guarana extract, ginseng root, ginkgo biloba extract, mateine, folic acid are some of them which we come through. In reality each ingredient is a great stimulant if taken separately. Ginseng effectively overcomes fatigue, depression and stress; mateine found in South American tea-mate, helps overcome the feeling of hunger and helps lose weight; folic acid also known as vitamin B9 plays an important role in metabolism and synthesis of amino and nucleic acids, thus improving the brain function; guarana is famous for removing lactic acid from muscle tissues thus reducing the pain after intensive physical activities plus it contains lots of energizing caffeine in its leaves.