Welcome to healthy cooking Guide
Healthy Heart Italian Cooking Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Alcoholic energy drinks vs healthy energy drinks side effects
from: adminEnergy drinks are becoming increasingly popular. Walk into any convenience or grocery store, and you'll see various brands of energy drinks like Red Bull, Adrenaline Rush, Full Throttle and Monster Energy packed in small and bright cans. Rather than providing food energy (as measured in calories), these drinks are designed to increase a user's mental alertness and physical performance by the addition of caffeine, vitamins (Vitamin B in particular), amino acids (example taurine) and herbal supplements, which may interact to provide a stimulant effect over and above that obtained from caffeine alone.
Everyone knows that these drinks can boost energy levels, increase stamina and improve task performance. Students use them to pull all-night study sessions, athletes use them to stay at the top of their game and millions around the world consume them to receive that extra energy needed to survive the day. But not everyone is aware that there are side effects to these drinks, both positive and negative.
For example
Aastha Bhatia*, a 22-year-old dance choreographer, says that energy drinks become an addiction, and actually had a negative effect on her health and happiness.
"Two years ago, when I was studying for my BCom degree, I used to attend university every morning and then dance practice at night. It got to the point where I was waking up at 6:30 am to study, and having an energy drink before my lectures just to stay awake," explains Aastha. "Then, in the evening, before dance class started, I'd have another can. After a few months, I noticed that I needed two cans in the morning and two cans in the evening for the same effect. Sometimes I even had three during dance practice, if I was really tired. But then my sleep pattern was getting really disrupted, and I wasn't eating much at all, because I always felt nauseous; I guess from all the caffeine."
So Aastha decided to quit drinking cold turkey, but had tremendous trouble. "If I didn't have at least one energy drink in the morning, I was really lethargic and had a bad headache all day. My dad, who used to be a big coffee drinker, told me I had developed a caffeine habit. I felt so pathetic. Who gets addicted to energy drinks? I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke cigarettes. But I seriously can't kick this?"
Finally, after scoring poorly on her exams, which she attributes to her energy drink consumption and lack of sleep, Aastha managed to stop completely.
"Now I do yoga and eat fresh fruit in the morning, and have more fruit and a cup of tea before dance practice. I feel much, much better these days," she says.
Alcoholic energy drinks vs healthy energy drinks side effects
Energy drinks are often used as mixers with alcohol like vodka. Alcohol is a great depressant and energy drinks are stimulants. Energy drinks can lessen the subjective effects of alcohol intoxication like dizziness and headache without affecting the blood alcohol concentration. As a result, people may consume larger amounts of alcohol.
Thirty one-year-old Siddharth Krishnani*, who manages a pub in Mumbai says the most popular drink with the young generation is Red Bull and Vodka.
"It's the double multiplier effect," he explains. "You have a stimulant in the caffeine and a depressant in the alcohol. So instead of getting jittery like you would with too much caffeine by itself, or sleepy and drunk with just alcohol, you get a mixture. And it helps you to drink all night. I've seen people who normally have two Vodka Sprites having four Vodka Red Bulls, because the caffeine keeps them alert. According to me, it's really easy to drink too much of that stuff, and it's really easy to get dehydrated. I don't touch it at all."
A recent study investigating the effects of energy drink consumption in combination with alcohol reported that although subjective alcohol related symptoms like headache and weekness were significantly reduced, the participants performed just as poorly on objective measures of motor coordination and reaction time as they did after consumption of alcohol by itself. Furthermore, both the caffeine in energy drinks and alcohol act as diuretics and so could lead to excessive dehydration. For these reasons, it is not recommended to consume energy drinks in combination with alcohol.
Healthy Heart Italian Cooking News