If you feel like you need an energy boost, you might turn to energy drinks. However, this habit may wind up doing more harm than good as drinking energy drinks is damaging to your body, mind, and reputation. Here are 9 reasons why you should probably stop drinking these types of drinks.
1. There are several side effects of drinking energy drinks. These include, but are not restricted to: agitation, tremors, dizziness, insomnia, stomach upset, and seizures. Just because they’re the first thing you think of when you need an energy boost does not make them innocent. They can cause some serious harm to you.
2. Drinking energy drinks may also result in you suffering from stress and anxiety as they increase your stress levels. Studies have shown some energy drinks to contain more caffeine, which is written on the labels and is greatly misleading. Too much caffeine causes tremors, and chronic stress, which is not pleasant.
3. Energy drinks, along with providing your body with artificial energy, also contain a lot of sugar. Some have up to 15 tablespoons of sugar in them! An excess amount of sugar can dehydrate you, suppress your immune system, increase inflammation, result in tooth decay and weight gain, and also lead to a sugar crash after you run out of energy.
4. Drinking energy drinks can also lead you experiencing sudden mood changes. It has been proven that those who drink this stimulant caffeine on a regular basis have lower than average serotonin levels which is the neurotransmitter that makes you feel good. A reduced amount of this hormone leads to low moods, anxiety, and depression.
5. Energy drinks also exhaust your organs. Your heart, liver, brain, digestive tract and kidneys all work extremely hard and expend energy on working as if in a fight of flight situation due to the nature and contents of these drinks. They cause the functions in your body to act and react as if you are in a dangerous situation. Due to this energy is wasted and drained from other work.
6. You may also get insomnia by drinking them. The sudden burst of energy you get may help you through a tough afternoon, but ruin your sleep when it’s time to turn off the lights. Energy drinks keep your brain active, and through this you lose out on deep and restful sleep at night. It becomes a vicious cycle as you are tired the next afternoon and turn to energy drinks to help you out.
7. A habit of drinking energy drinks is also costly in the long run. Nowadays, with inflation, a heavy cloud over all our heads, we’re pretty much strapped for cash. If you buy them on a regular basis, this may cost you big bucks which you could spend on much more beneficial things.
8. Energy drinks also have a ton of artificial colors. Most types of these drinks, sold in stores, don’t use real juice to flavor their drinks, but make use of artificial colorings and flavoring to make them taste and look better so they bring in a more clientele. However, what they don’t tell you about this is, that many of these artificial colors and flavors are full to the brim with toxic chemicals that are horrifyingly linked to reactions as mild as migraine and headaches, to as severe as temper tantrums, dizziness, aggressiveness, hyperactivity, uncontrollable screaming and crying, nervousness, kicking, inability to sit still or concentrate, in young adults.
9. Consuming these types of energy drinks also leads to adrenal fatigue. Signs of adrenal fatigue is when someone gets tired after drinking some caffeine. This is because your body system becomes overworked by regular intake of caffeine. The solution to this problem is not to drink more caffeine, but to slowly and gradually lessen the amount you drink and detox your body. This will get your adrenal glands back in ship shape. It’s difficult to choose a safe amount of caffeine to drink as it varies for different people according to individual tolerance level. However, drinking between 449 to 999 mg a day will lead to some great side effects.