Energy Drinks Have Gotten a Glow Up. Are They Healthier?

In a world with ever-increasing demands on your time and attention, who isn’t looking for a boost of energy? Around 85% of adults in the U.S. consume caffeine every day, and increasingly, they’re getting it from energy drinks.  

While energy drinks used to be marketed in neon colors and packed with sugar, a new generation of beverages is now on the shelves of grocery stores and gas stations purporting to be “natural” and “healthy” — not something you need to be guilty or embarrassed to knock back.  

“Energy drinks have gotten a glow up,” says Cory Zenner, RD, a dietitian at UW Medical Center – Montlake. “This new generation of energy drinks is trying to change its image and appeal to health-conscious people.”

But have energy drinks actually gotten healthier? Or are there risks from getting your caffeine fix from one of these cans?

Is too much caffeine bad for you?

The main reason you reach for an energy drink is, of course, caffeine. These drinks have very high amounts of the stimulant — and the more recent additions to the market, like Celsius and Alani Nu, are no different.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, most healthy adults can safely consume about 400 mg of caffeine a day without significant side effects. That’s about two medium coffees from a coffee chain or three to four cups brewed at home (which typically results in lower caffeine content).

How much caffeine is in an energy drink? Some small cans have 80 to 100 mg, and other bigger ones have 200 to 300 mg or even up to 500 mg. So, especially if you have multiple cans a day, you can see how quickly you’d reach that 400 mg threshold.  

What happens when you have too much caffeine? Caffeine is a stimulant, so in large doses you can experience jitters, restlessness, heart palpitations and irritability. If you have it too close to bedtime, it can prevent you from falling or staying asleep.

Finally, while caffeine in moderation (under that 400 mg threshold) has not been found to cause heart problems, in large amounts, it can cause abnormal heart rhythms, which can be dangerous for people with pre-existing heart conditions.

“I think anything in moderation is probably fine,” says Gena Lenti, MD, a clinical assistant professor in general internal medicine at UW School of Medicine who sees patients at UW Medical Center – Roosevelt. “If you're taking caffeine in big doses, that is when we start to worry about it potentially worsening or causing arrythmias like atrial fibrillation, which is an abnormal heart rhythm that can make your heart go really fast.” 

There have been several reports of people with heart conditions having heart attacks or strokes shortly after consuming an energy drink. So, if you have an arrhythmia or heart disease, be sure to talk to your doctor about what a safe amount of caffeine is to consume.  

What else is in energy drinks?  

While caffeine is the main character in an energy drink, it’s not acting alone. Many of these beverages have “natural" additives that increase the drink’s stimulant effect and can also have health risks.

“The term ‘natural’ is really misleading in food and beverage marketing,” says Zenner. “People want to think if something is natural that means it's healthy, but natural doesn’t mean it’s healthy or even safe.”  

Herbal supplements

If you look at the label of an energy drink, you’ll likely see a list of herbal supplements like guarana, ginseng, green tea extract and yerba mate. These additives are also often stimulants, boosting the spike you get from a sip of an energy drink.  

Companies are not required to list how much of an herbal additive is contained in a can, so it can be hard to know exactly what you’re getting. Guarana, for example, is a South American plant with seeds that contain up to twice as much caffeine as coffee beans. But while industry guidelines encourage companies to list the total amount of caffeine in the drink, including from an additive like guarana, it’s not required.  

“Some companies might only be reporting the caffeine that they add and not really quantifying what's present from other products,” says Zenner. “It can be difficult to get an accurate amount because of all the variability with natural products.”

It’s also important to remember that if you’re on medications, herbal supplements can interact with them, so do your research on whether a drink contains an ingredient you should avoid.  

Sweeteners 

A mainstay of many of the original energy drinks is sugar — those beverages often contain far more than the recommended daily amount of 50 grams of added sugar. They add it for a reason.  

“Sugar can give you a small burst of energy, but what we often see with that is that there's a high from the sugar and then a quick crash after that,” says Lenti. “As the sugar is metabolized, people often will actually feel more tired.”

Of course, consuming large amounts of added sugar can lead to all sorts of other health problems, from diabetes to heart disease.

Many newer energy drinks have cut down on sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but just because an energy drink is “sugar free” doesn’t make it better for you (unless you have diabetes). Research has found that artificial sweeteners come with their own set of health risks.

“Overall, my goal would not be for people to choose sugar-free over sugar-sweetened — we want less of sweet beverages generally,” says Zenner.

Vitamins and amino acids

Finally, one other thing you’ll notice on the labels of energy drinks is vitamins and amino acids like taurine, B vitamins and L-Carnitine. Many beverage companies claim these ingredients help boost energy, mood and mental clarity. But there is very little research to support that.  

Plus, while these vitamins and amino acids might technically play a role in your body making energy, most people in the developed world get enough from their diets. Take B vitamins, for example:  

“A lot of our food supply is already fortified with B vitamins: Any commercially enriched flour usually has B vitamins in it, and if you eat whole grains or meat, you're getting some good B vitamins,” says Zenner. “If you take them to excess, they're not dangerous, but they are unnecessary and you’re just going to excrete them in your urine.”

Zenner sees even less of a need for amino acids like taurine, which is almost impossible to be deficient in because your body can make it itself if you’re not getting enough from your diet.  

How to cut down on energy drinks

OK, so you want to cut down on the amount of energy drinks you drink. One piece of advice? Go slow.

“I would tell people to cut down gradually to avoid side effects,” says Lenti. “If you're drinking two cans, go to one can for a week and then go from one to maybe a half a serving.”

Caffeine withdrawal isn’t dangerous like it is for truly addictive substances, but you can have symptoms like a headache or malaise if you go cold turkey.

And don’t forget all the other ways to boost your energy, like sleeping well, hydrating, avoiding alcohol and eating lots of fiber.

The truly natural way to get caffeine

So have energy drinks gotten healthier?  

“I do think they're a little better than maybe they used to be, but they do still have some red flags and they're still a processed beverage that may not be appropriate for all people,” says Zenner

He still recommends the most natural form of caffeine of all: brewing coffee beans and tea leaves yourself, which will also give you other nutrients and antioxidants, like flavonoids and polyphenols.

“It gets back to a whole foods approach and drinking beverages in their whole form rather than gravitating to more commercially made processed things,” says Zenner.