As energy drinks become more popular, consumers and experts weigh their costs and benefits
By Katie Reilly
“Healthy energy” is how Tatiana Birgisson describes what she’s created with Mati energy drinks — though she confesses to thinking it sounds like an oxymoron.
While research has shown that energy drinks can improve attention and performance on difficult activities, other studies have found them to cause seizures, difficulty sleeping and cardiac arrhythmia — leading many health experts to withhold their approval in the face of the product’s growing popularity.
Birgisson founded Mati when she was a student at Duke University, struggling with depression.
“I needed something to help me stay awake and be productive — more like get productive. So I started brewing teas, and it went from one cup of tea a day to four cups of tea a day to a pasta-pot full,” she said. “Then friends started asking if they could buy this concoction that I always had in my refrigerator.”
Birgisson said she thinks Mati, unlike other energy drinks, is something people can feel good about drinking because of its small number of ingredients — including fruit juice; carbonated water; citric acid; and brewed guayusa leaves, which are the source of caffeine.
In 2012, while investigating adverse reports related to energy drinks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned consumers against substituting the caffeinated drinks for sleep but took no further regulatory steps.
According to a study by the Canadian Public Health Association, visits to U.S. emergency departments that involved energy drinks doubled to 20,783 between 2007 and 2011, the year that sales of energy drinks reached about $9 billion in the U.S.
And in 2010, consumption of energy drinks rose to 6 billion, up from just 2.3 billion in 2005.
Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at UNC, said the drinks have gone global quickly and found a market in students.
According to the American College of Medical Toxicology, 31 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds consume energy drinks.
“Well, the quick energy boost is very important for students. They’re cramming, they haven’t slept enough, they party too much — a whole array of reasons why both adolescents and young adults consume too much energy drinks and then you go to young adults working in very stressful situations,” Popkin said. “They’re drinking it every morning just to get through the day.”
Since July 2014, UNC Student Stores has sold more than 13,600 units of Monster, Amp, 5-hour Energy and Red Bull combined, said Student Stores Director John Gorsuch. The tally for previous years was not available.
David Agudelo, a senior business major at UNC, said he starting drinking energy drinks in high school but switched over to coffee in college because it was less expensive and he could make it himself.
“I guess I just started to regret how much sugar I was having and kind of some of the jitters and then often times you would just kinda crash off that, and coffee — I didn’t feel so bad, you know, drinking two to three a day,” he said. “Whereas, with an energy drink, I would realize that’s a little excessive for my health.”
But it also depends on the drink. A 16 fl. oz. can of Monster Energy Drink contains about 160 mg of caffeine, while a 16 fl. oz. Starbucks coffee contains 330 mg of caffeine. A 16 fl. oz. cup of instant coffee contains about 114 mg of caffeine.
Popkin said the problem is that energy drinks contain several high-caffeine ingredients, and many people drink multiple cans without realizing how highly caffeinated they are, which is what can cause serious health problems.
For healthy adults, the safe daily caffeine limit is 400 mg.
Popkin said another of his biggest concerns is the popularity of combining energy drinks with alcohol — and he’d like to see more regulation on that front.
“In our country, we haven’t touched it yet and that is a second problem because a number of bars serve the two drinks together,” he said.
But the need for more energy and productivity seems unlikely to simmer, which is why Birgisson hopes Mati — which proudly advertises its higher caffeine levels but healthy ingredients — will be an alternative, though it won’t alleviate all of Popkin’s concerns.
“The way that it energizes — the amount that it energizes you, the health aspect, the ingredient aspect — a lot of people like the flavor more, and, just on every count, it’s a better energy drink,” Birgisson said. “So it makes it an easy sell for people after they’ve had one can.”
