Hi gang! (small Shell-vent incoming) Energy / sport drinks. We've all heard of those before I think? And what do you know: they're actually really cheap too! And I'm pretty sure some of us might have been here before: you're in the middle of a rather tasking endeavor. Let's say taking a walk for approx. 8km / 4 miles. You can really feel your feet somewhere in between and maybe a little refreshment would work. What I usually do in those cases is get a soft drink; there's quite a bit of sugar in there which will revert into calories which means: energy. But nah: that's old fashioned. What we really need is an energy drink. Costs half of your soft drink (at least here in Holland) and.. I have to admit: it works! ... or does it?! Today I took the motor for its annual maintenance (very important!) and unfortunately the best mechanic that I know off is in the city "next door". You guessed it: approx. 8km/4 miles, etc. Because I didn't feel like wasting money over public transportation (read: I refuse to buy myself a "big brother card", it's a long story...) I did what I more often do: I took a walk. And yes, I can feel my feet So while passing a super market I figured... "Things go better with <bleep, spam detected!> ". (sorry, I'm goofing! ). But then my eyes fell onto an energy or sport drink and I figured.. "why not?". I checked the label, even used my dumb smartphone to verify some of the ingredients and honestly: it looked somewhat legit. So... Once outside I opened the can, took a few slurps and what do you know? That aching feel in my feet quickly disappeared and things felt really good to be honest. Yeah... But that was also the point where all my internal alarm bells started ringing. Because one way or the other: I did not "just" nullify my efforts. That's impossible. My leg muscles performed quite an effort (especially because I don't take walks of these lengths casually) and the best remedy for that is rest. So what gives? I decided to stay on the safe side and cut my pace in half (I usually walk pretty fast) despite the good feeling and head home. Once here I asked the mighty oracle known as Google and did some digging. Now, I already knew that this stuff isn't exactly healthy and that it should not be casually consumed. That's not a problem. But what I didn't realize at first... See: I read that a large part of this drink consisted of caffeine (link to Wikipedia article). Yups: the same stuff you find in coffee (I could use one of those ). And in this larger amount that will have its effects on you. So far, so good. It is known to improve your bodies performance and it can extend your endurance. As such it also found its way into my energy drink. But here's the disturbing part: a well known side-effect of caffeine, especially in these quantities, is that it can nullify some slight muscle aches. Read closely: nullify, not heal or ease or provide "muscle support" (if you get my drift). In its direct form, in the way I consumed it, all it basically did was ease my muscle ache, but that was roughly also all there was to it. According to not one, not two but several separate individual articles I read about caffeine (not necessarily energy drinks!). And once I discovered that... You don't get "more energy", you only got a huge dose of "muscle ache reliever"! I know there are already tons of warnings out there about this stuff, and well... I realize I'm late to the party (up until now I never had an energy drink, also because I never had a use for 'm). But now that I have... See: that's the kind of nut I am... I discovered that it 'worked', and once I did I wanted to know how it worked. Maybe some of the vitamins and glycorines (lol) really had their effect? But as it turns out... Sure, you get your fix of energy. And some of the ingredients are honestly quicker processed by your stomach and they'll find their way into your bloodstream faster as well. Somewhat (but vaguely!) comparable to medicine. But those working ingredients are not the ones that suddenly make you feel better. That's pretty much only the caffeine. And that's more of a stimulant. My take on this? If you're a bit worn out and think you could need a quick fix then buy yourself a cola. Coke, Pepsi, Brand X. Heck, you could even go for Sinas. Wait, that's Dutch (sorta anyway ). Hmm... Sina? Orange soft drink? I think it's sina. aaanyway. The point is: soft drink contains a ton of sugar, and sugar by itself is also relatively easy picked up by your body. It might not directly take any muscle aches away, but it WILL help you last a bit longer and it can definitely help to prevent those muscle aches from getting worse. But that energy drink? While you may think that it actually worked fact of the matter is that it only camouflaged. And that's why I wrote this. Please be careful!
Nice post Shell, I always found energy drinks to be a waste of money because they're basically sugar water. I guess that explains why most sugar-related drinks have an almost direct relationship with obesity in America... I'll just have my regular water, thank you. (I'm not a fan of any flavored drinks, unless it's wine or lemon juice {Lemon Extract + water, not the store-bought sugar water drink...})
Interesting post Shell! You do know that most soft drinks such as Coca-Cola contain caffeine as well, though in a smaller quantity.
It's been widely accepted, at least here, that energy drinks don't give energy. It tastes nice though and satisfies caffeine addictions - for example, I once hadn't drank tea in about... mhh, sixteen hours? I would have been fine had the coffee/tea machine at college's cafe been working that day; instead, I had a headache that easily rivalled one of my normal migraines, a really low mood, an inability to concentrate while in college, and a desperate need to drink something that water wasn't satisfying. Got a Monster Energy and everything's gone within a few minutes - Cola wouldn't have worked since that has around 40mg, whereas my tea has 50mg; energy drinks were my only option, clocking in at around 80mg. actually nvm i had a problem dont do that
No one tell Aikar. Without 5 Hour Energy, we'll never see the secret update. Energy drinks might be bad for you, but Pre-workout makes the weights lighter and the runs shorter. #Science
It is not for nothing that I stay away from all forms of caffeine, as it's quite easy to get addicted to/to need it to function properly, and, apart from some sweets a day, I'd like to stay away from all food related addictions/whatever it's called. In "hard" situations (e.g. tired), I just brute force through it. Works quite well for me. Something that is important, though: on really hot days, when being active a lot, make sure to drink enough water and eat enough salt, otherwise your body dry up and not have enough salt. It's interesting how nice some crisps are on a hot day after/during being active. And, from experience, do not wait too long with drinking water. Also, make sure you have enough. Being too dehydrated is not fun (it's rare for me to mess up in that regard, but one notable time, we were cycling and ran out of water as it was warmer than expected, but decided to try to keep going to the end, as we thought it was quite close. It turned out to be a bit further than expected, and a bit further again, but, we were "almost" there, so we kept going. It was really hot, but meh. At the end, both me and my dad started feeling worse and worse, and when we finally found water (wasn't even right at the endpoint, still had to go further...) we both drank more than 1 litre in one go. And then some more. So yeah, no, that ain't good. Drink enough, and have enough water with you, always.).
