Two types of beverages are increasingly popular among young adults — and both may cause health problems. Consumed separately or combined, these drinks can have negative short- and long-term consequences.
You guessed it, we are talking about alcoholic beverages and those seemingly innocuous “energy drinks.”
QUESTION: What are the potential health risks of alcohol beyond the obvious?
ANSWER: The risks associated with excess alcohol consumption are well known. Binge drinking by those under 30 years of age has been found to affect brain nerve development, leading to long-term effects on brain function that are substantially greater than a morning-after hangover. Alcohol is clearly known for impairing judgment in all types of activities and is now considered to be one of the major date-rape drugs used on college campuses.
Moderation in alcohol consumption is important for all ages, but especially in the teen years because neural connections are still being established that are necessary for reasoning and decision-making. Relatively recent research found that alcohol abuse in the teen years can adversely affect brain function throughout adult life.
Q: What are energy drinks and some of the potential risks of consuming them?
A: Over the past decade the term “energy” has been applied to many types of products, including supplements containing herbal ingredients that are no longer legal. Over the past decade, energy drinks have exploded on the market, offering the consumer about 600 different product choices. Some of these drinks are just highly caffeinated, while others contain multiple ingredients such as vitamins and herbal extracts that may or may not interact with other ingredients in the beverage to provide the perception of boosted energy.
On average, energy drinks contain four to five active ingredients but might contain as many as 17 ingredients that have the potential to cause negative effects in at least some people. Some of these ingredients are not found on the “generally recognized as safe” list of allowable food additives or in the “everything added to food in the United States” database. By law, this makes some of these products potentially illegal.
Caffeine content might be hidden by using ingredients such as guarana and yerba mate extract that provide caffeine and might not be obvious to the average consumer. Ideally, products should indicate caffeine content on their label, but this is not currently required.
The supposed “energy” these drinks purport to provide is almost always linked to a dose of caffeine in one form or another. Consequently, the drinks don’t really provide energy. Rather, they provide a drug-enhanced perception of energy. Some products do provide true energy (calories) in the form of high sugar content, but the trend is moving more toward artificially sweetened products.
Q: How does alcohol mixed with energy drinks affect people?
A: Alcohol and caffeine have opposite effects, with one being a depressant and the other a stimulant. A recent study found that those who used energy drinks as a mixer were six times more likely to experience heart palpitations than those consuming the usual alcohol fare.
———
Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., and Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., are nutritionists in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii-Manoa. Dobbs also works with University Health Services.
