With schools starting early and homework coming in the piles, it’s no secret that students are exhausted. To keep up with the uproar of work, students look towards a caffeine condensed solution, energy drinks.
While energy drinks can be helpful in the moment, when one needs the extra push to step towards their goals, too much of something is never beneficial. When consumed in large amounts, the downsides start to kick in.
According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers, the over consumption of energy drinks can lead to poor mental health, substance abuse, diabetes, tooth decay, high blood pressure, and kidney damage.
Due to the high caffeine contents, energy drinks can change the acidity within the stomach and attack the stomach lining.
Senior Faith Riddler drank only 1-2 energy drinks per day. The potency of the drinks attacked her stomach lining and Riddler had to go to the hospital to get her esophagus numbed. Since then she has become clear of the effect it can have.
“Try to regulate how much you’re drinking because even now when I drink it I get super anxious. Just don’t over consume or you’ll be dependent on it and end up being in my case” said Riddler.
Even disregarding the long term negative effects, energy drinks are also outright unhealthy containing very high sugar contents and high amounts of caffeine that is regularly unneeded, standing between 200-400 mg per drink.
The girl’s health Ms. Wampler gives her insight on why we drink them so often and some alternatives to energy drinks that are much more healthy and give less harmful amounts of caffeine and sugar.
“I think students feel tired because they don’t sleep enough, which I get because we start really early here, but if we drink water and eat healthy food we usually get the energy that we need. Or they could choose a little lighter caffeine option like tea or coffee” said Alexander Wampfler, the girls’ health teacher.
As for the students, they do look to energy drinks as an option to balance the stress and tiredness that they experience to get through the day. With too much caffeine, people can develop a dependency on them to where when they don’t drink them, they are off the entire day.
Sydney Borso, a senior, who regularly drinks energy drinks gives her take on why she drinks energy drinks.
“Definitely need them to feel awake in class with school starting so early, not a dependency, just more irritable without them” said Borso.
It’s never good to consume so many energy drinks so often because of the numerous health risks and mood shifts they can create. Switching to coffee or tea can dramatically increase the health benefits and still get the caffeine from it.