The Truth About Energy Drinks

The energy drink business is now a billion dollar industry. Currently, there are at least 200 energy drinks on the market and they are all acidic to the blood and tissues.

"There was a time when we would get our caffeine intake from coffee and cola, but now there are a number of caffeine containing beverages and we need to be careful because over a period of 24 hours that caffeine intake is cumulative," says Dee Rollins, R.D., PhD, dietitian with Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine.

In fact, energy drink consumers should keep careful track of the amount of caffeine they get in a day.

"If you know that 400 milligrams a day is the upper limit you can check the back of the labels and make sure that you don't get more than that," explains Dr. Rollins.

It may sound like a lot, but 400 milligrams is roughly the equivalent of just one energy drink and two cups of coffee. Getting more than that can lead to jitteriness, nausea, heart palpations -- and in extreme cases more severe acidic symptoms.

"It can be so bad that if you take too much caffeine you can end up in the hospital thinking you have flu-like symptoms and really it's caffeine overdose."

"So remember as you're sipping -- you are literally drinking an acid drink not an energy drink that is stealing the life right out of you. ALL of these so called energy drinks have a pH of around 2.5 to 3.5 with a proton saturation that runs in the positive 350mV to 450mV. This means with every sip you are causing the body to use its stored energy to ionize the acidic energy drink which results in an energy loss not an energy gain,"
states Dr. Robert O. Young, of the pH Miracle Living Research Center.

For most people are getting more than around 400 milligrams of caffeine a day making these energy drinks unsafe for human ingestion.

The following are some important things to remember if you decide to drink an acidic energy drink:

1) Don't drink any acidic energy beverages while exercising. It can lead to severe fatigue, lethargy and dehydration.

2) Don't ever mix these acidic energy drinks with alcohol -- it's popular -- but doing so can not only mask on how intoxicated you really are, it again can be extremely fatiguing and dehydrating.

3) Don't drink acidic energy drinks for energy because they only stimulate the body to buffer the acidic ingredients giving you the illusion of more energy when in reality you are losing energy. This can lead to extreme fatigue, lethargy and dehydration.

4) If the energy drink does not contain the acid caffeine it will surely contain some form of acidic sugar. Sugar in any form is a strong acid that robs the body of energy and should never be ingested. This would include all sugars that end in "ose" such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, or dextrose or that end in "ol" such as sorbitol or xylitol.
Sugar in all forms is an acidic contributor to all sickness, dis-ease and disease.

5) There are currently no energy drinks on the market that will give you any sustainable energy. What they give you is a quick release of electrical energy designed for releasing alkaline buffers to neutralize the poisonous acids in the so-called energy drink. When you drink a so-called energy drink, all you prove is you can ingest a certain amount of poison and still manage to get through the day functioning.

In addition to caffeine and sugar, most of these energy drinks contain high amounts of carbonic acid which can be dangerous for diabetics or those with high blood pressure.

"The best advise is to drink alkaline water with a pH/ORP of 9.5/-250mV and to avoid all acidic sport and energy drinks," states Dr. Young.