Despite the popularity of energy drinks, many medical experts are concerned about the quantities and combinations of some ingredients in them. Energy drinks provide their kick mostly with sugar and caffeine, along with additional ingredients (amino acids, herbals, stimulants, B vitamins) whose effects remain untested.

When buying energy drinks, here's what the experts say to be aware of:

  • Know how much caffeine you're consuming. It probably won't be on the label, so try to look it up on the manufacturer's website or one of the blog sites we've listed for this report. The Energy Fiend website has a database of caffeine content for many different beverages. The generally accepted upper limit of caffeine consumption per day for an adult is 300 mg. Determine the total amount of caffeine that would be consumed per can or bottle, not per 8-ounce serving as listed on the container. An 8-ounce serving size is useful for comparing energy drinks sold in various sizes, but not as useful in the real world, where you drink the entire container.
  • Watch calories and sugar. A little label reading will show you that most cans actually contain more than one serving, so you might be drinking more sugar and calories than you expect.
  • Be aware of your limits. How many cups of brewed coffee can you drink in a given time frame before you get jittery? Figure out how much caffeine that would be and then stay below those limits with energy drinks.
  • Don't be sucked into buying a drink because of the fancy-sounding herbal or other natural ingredients on the label. Experts consider them marketing hype. Little to no research and testing may have been conducted on their effectiveness, plus the amounts included are usually so small that they may have no effect at all.
  • Do some self-administered testing. In a safe environment, drink a can of an unmixed, undiluted energy drink and gauge over the next few hours how you're affected. You will soon realize which drinks agree with you and which don't, and which ones provide you with a real boost and which won't.
  • A trend is to mix energy drinks with alcohol. Red Bull cocktails are increasingly popular in metropolitan bars. Many medical experts feel that because alcohol is a depressant and caffeine is a stimulant, the burst of energy from the caffeine will make you feel less intoxicated than you really are, and possibly lead you to drink more alcohol than you intended. Also, both alcohol and caffeine are diuretics and may lead to dehydration.
  • Drinking an energy drink before exercising may not be a good idea. Caffeine speeds up the heart, reduces its blood supply and over-stimulates the nervous system. Other ingredients may produce unwanted effects on the body.
  • Children should not use energy drinks, and teenagers and young adults should use with caution. Experts say that children shouldn't consume more than about 100 mg of caffeine per day, and most energy drinks contain more than that per can. Energy drinks have been linked to nausea, sweating, and heart palpitations that sometimes lead to emergency room visits by teenagers and young adults. Parents should consider it a red flag if their teens are regular energy drink consumers. Studies have shown that these individuals are more likely to partake in risky behavior such as aggressiveness and substance abuse.
  • People with hypertension and heart disease should check with their doctors before using energy drinks. Health researchers have found that caffeine and taurine can raise blood pressure and affect cardiac function. 

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