I have had a love/hate relationship with Red Bull from my days in pharmacy school.  Before pharmacy school, I didn’t even drink coffee -my only caffeine was an occasional diet coke.  And now…I heart Red Bull -even though I secretly think is full of chemicals and super bad for me.  Hmph…

There is some recent interest in the safety of alcholic energy drink, which brings up the question –are any energy drinks (even non-alcoholic ones) safe?

Catie wrote a couple of articles about caffeine (one lists specific drinks with caffeine content).

First, lets talk about caffeine safety in general.  Most adults can tolerate up to 400mg caffeine/day.  This is the amount in 3- 8oz cups of coffee (FYI a Tall Starbucks coffee is 12oz!)  What about energy drinks?  Red Bull (the small can) has ~80mg of caffeine; 5-hour Energy has ~100mg; Rockstar has ~300mg!  Typically energy drink lovers drink more then one drink a day…that adds up!

Taurine-is added to “improve performance”.   Most likely the amount of taurine in energy drinks doesn’t do harm nor provide benefit.  So, that is a toss up ingredient.

Guarana- this is found in a quite a few energy drinks.  It is touted as an energy booster.  It is actually just another source of caffeine (which is most likely not added in the actual caffeine content reported).

B-Vitamins– this is for energy.  I am all about B-vits.  However, they are difficult to absorb in the belly -so it is quite unlikely that much B-vits are actually absorbed from drinking the energy drink.

So, it all comes down to caffeine!  I always think Red Bull “works” faster because I drink it much faster then a cup of coffee.  If you are going to drink energy drinks -be careful with the amount of caffeine you are taking in.  Be aware that caffeine (in any source) can be dehydrating and energy drinks are really just a buncha chemicals.

What do you think about all this?  I would love to hear from you!