Sports and Energy Drinks

High energy drinks, popularized by Pepsi and Coke, have become the beverage of choice for our generation. But as more and more studies come out about these high energy drinks (which means very high caffeine), we are discovering that too much of a good thing is bad for young athletes.

Beginning in 1965, Gatorade was created after an assistant football coach for the Florida Gators talked to doctors about their players suffering from heat and dehydration. They discovered that, as players would sweat and lose fluids, carbohydrates and electrolytes were not being replenished in the body. Gatorade was created to remedy this problem.

New Gatorade products and flavors have been developed for sports health professionals around the world, and are now the “official” sports drinks for the NBA, AVP, PGA, MLB, MLS, etc. Gatorade has now progressed into the high energy market with the Gatorade Performance Series—Gatorade Energy Drink, Gatorade Energy Bar, and the Gatorade Nutrition Shake.

Not to be outdone, Coke jumped into the market with Powerade in 1992. Now, you can imagine the marketing schemes of these two huge companies competing to impress young teens and adults. More specialty drinks have hit the market over the years, packing more caffeine than ever before.

With drinks like Hype, Energy, Reload, Guru, Wired, Red Bull, Kick, Blue Bolt, Monster, etc., our young athletes are being bombarded by drinks loaded with caffeine. The more caffeine and the bigger the bottle, the better! We have pre-game fuel (Gatorade Prime) and post-game fuel (Gatorade Recover), and according to Gatorade’s chief marketing officer, the “Athletes are just begging us to do more for them.”

Although Gatorade remains dominant, Powerade sales have nearly tripled over the last 8 or 9 years. Like anything, when taken in moderation, these beverages can have some “positive” effects. Taken in excess, these energy drinks can have very serious negative effects. Many times, energy drinks contain 17 times the caffeine than a cup of coffee and 14 times that of a can of soda.

Red Bull, which has an excessive amount of caffeine, was banned in France after the death of an 18 year old athlete, who drank 4 cans of the drink prior to playing a basketball game. In the United States, energy drinks have been linked to nausea, abnormal heart rhythms, tremors, dizziness, seizures, and emergency room visits.

Energy drink companies are targeting young people, who are easily susceptible to ad campaigns promising to make them stronger and more alert. Many young people just drink them because it’s cool. It’s the new “fad.” Young athletes, especially, are suffering because high caffeine intake coupled with increased physical activity causes the heart to work itself to death.