I don’t think the government should regulate energy drinks. Some people need them if they’re working late or what not, and anyway, it’s not any of the government’s business.

However, these things do mess you up something nutty if you use them with regularity. It really gets to the point where it’s not much different than just taking Adderall, the way it messes with your sleep.

There’s really no reason why kids should be drinking these things, and they are largely marketed to kids.

New York Post:

Energy drinks could pose a risk to young brains, according to new research.

Those who consumed energy drinks — which are intended to boost energy through the use of caffeine or other stimulants — were shown to have a higher risk of mental health issues, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

…

“We have found an even greater list of mental and physical health outcomes associated with children and young people consuming energy drinks,” lead author Amelia Lake, professor of public health nutrition at Teesside University, told Fox News Digital.

“We repeated [the review] only to find an ever-growing evident space that suggests the consumption of these drinks is associated with negative health outcomes.”

The caffeine content of energy drinks ranges from 50 mg to 505 mg per serving, compared to 90 mg in 8.45 ounces of coffee, 50 mg in 8.45 ounces of tea and 34 mg in 16.9 ounces of soda, the researchers noted.

…

Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, was not involved in the new research but said its findings did not surprise her.

“Energy drinks are not a safe choice for children and no safe guidelines have been established for caffeine consumption in those under the age of 18,” she told Fox News Digital.

Caffeine has a half-life of six to eight hours, she noted — which means it takes that long for it to leave the system.

“Even small amounts of caffeine can impact quality and quantity of sleep, and poor sleep is directly correlated with a decline in both mental and physical health — in adults as well as children,” Palinski-Wade noted.

The Post is wrong about a half-life of six hours meaning “it takes that long to leave the system.” 505 mg of caffeine in a kid is insane; it would be healthier to just give them cocaine at that point, and it’s no wonder they’re experiencing ADHD and anxiety when consuming those amounts.

Most energy drinks do not even have as much caffeine as coffee.

The problem is not the caffeine, it’s the sugar – which is the same as in any other soda, and actually often lower.

You should have to be 18 to buy sugary drinks. In fact, sugary drinks should have a label on them saying they lead to death. They’re a lot more dangerous than cigarettes, I can tell you that. It’s well established.

Caffeine is not even a problem. This is dumb.

Reuters:

Pediatricians and parents are calling for the U.S. to treat new high-caffeine energy drinks like alcohol and cigarettes and ban their sale to minors as a single serving can contain as much caffeine as six Coca-Colas.

Prime Energy, which launched this year, has 200 mg of caffeine within its 350 ml can — exceeding permissible caffeine levels in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Rival products like Anheuser Busch InBev-backed (ABI.BR) Ghost energy drinks and Kim Kardashian’s “Kimade” energy drink also have 200 mg of caffeine. Competitor Monster Energy (MNST.O) contains 150 mg of caffeine.

Here’s a useful chart:

But this chart is maybe more useful, as it has the mls:

I’ve never heard of Prime, but Monster and Bang as ones that have an extra amount of caffeine, and it’s still only slightly more than normal coffee. Actually, I don’t know about Bang. I drank one of those at like, 1 PM, and couldn’t sleep literally the entire night. But I think that has some kind of other shit in it.

As caffeine content in energy drinks has climbed over the years, some countries and retailers have banned the products while a few require proof of age for purchase. In the U.S. and UK, no national regulations ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks.

Without legal age mandates like those on alcohol and cigarettes, retailers are unlikely to restrict access, said Dr. Holly Benjamin, a professor of pediatrics and orthopedic surgery at the University of Chicago. There is no proven safe dose of caffeine for children, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

That seems unlikely.

These are the same people who tell you there are “proven safe doses” of plastic, PFAS, and lead.

But hey – who knows? No one knows anything anymore. I don’t know.

I guess maybe kids never drank coffee because they don’t like the taste, and now these energy drinks taste good, so they’re drinking more of it.

But remember: these same people give amphetamine to kids. If you get generic adderol, the bottle literally just says “amphetamine.” It’s the only ingredient.

So… it’s hard to take anything they say seriously.

I also don’t know what age “kids” we’re talking about. If we’re talking about 5-year-olds (which they give amphetamine to, btw), then I’d probably agree they shouldn’t be consuming large amounts of caffeine. However, if it’s high schoolers – who are, I assume, the main under-18s drinking these, and definitely the ones that would be in a store buying things without their parents there – then this is just totally nuts.

“Retailers could choose to place sports drinks and energy drinks in different locations and label the sections differently; but, I think that is unlikely to happen without regulation which starts with better product labeling and widespread education,” Dr. Benjamin said.

She added: “Any energy drink with a high dose caffeine in it, such as Prime Energy, is unsafe for children.”

Side effects for kids consuming caffeine could include rapid or irregular heartbeats, headaches, seizures, shaking, stomach upset and adverse emotional effects on mental health, she said.

Caffeine is safe and effective. Like nicotine, it makes you smarter and makes you work harder.

It’s actually not as good as nicotine, as it does not boost your testosterone like nicotine does.

Actually, recent studies have claimed that it might reduce your testosterone.

I don’t know that I believe that, but even if it’s true – how are we going to live without caffeine? How will we work? How will we have the energy to talk to people?

We would obviously have to start doing hard drugs – and all hard drugs we know for a fact lower your testosterone.

Anyway – we can talk about caffeine after the government has banned high sugar poison drinks, over-processed food, soy, artificial flavoring, putting plastic in food, and starts setting regulations on PFAS, requiring constant testing.

Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz

For the record, I do not recommend that anyone drink soft drinks for any reason.

I function better with caffeine, and I get that from five daily cups of coffee, which is the effective dose for an adult. If I drank enough Red Bull to get my caffeine intake, I would be spending rent money on that, and also getting diabetes.

However, if one is to drink soft drinks, I fully endorse Red Bull.

It is not as disgustingly sweet and fizzy as mainline soda, and tastes less acidic, though that may just be the perception of no fizz. It comes in metal cans instead of in sex-changing plastics, and it delivers caffeine directly to your bloodstream like no other soda.

Also, it purges negro terrorist sympathizers from its ranks.

Wall Street Journal:

The maker of Red Bull energy drinks has replaced its top U.S. executives amid internal tensions over the closely held company’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Red Bull GmbH, the Austrian company that makes the drink, said Stefan Kozak, its North America chief executive, and Amy Taylor, its North America president and chief marketing officer, have left the company. It named other executives to temporarily fill the roles.

Red Bull didn’t give a reason for the changes, which were announced in an internal memo Monday.

Ms. Taylor had been working on diversity and inclusion efforts within the company with Mr. Kozak’s support for several years but was met with opposition when she began advocating for Red Bull to be more overt in its support of racial justice in the last month, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some U.S. employees had recently raised concerns about what they considered the company’s inaction on the Black Lives Matter movement and about a racist slide that was in a presentation given at a company event in February. An image of the slide was obtained by Business Insider, which earlier reported on the news.

…

Red Bull has also decided to discontinue much of its culture marketing programs, and the head of global culture marketing, Florian Klaass, will leave the company, a spokeswoman said. Mr. Klaass, whose team presented the offensive slide at the February meeting, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Red Bull has a history of hosting events and publishing content about Black music and culture. U.S.-based executives believed the company had an obligation to publicly support racial justice because it has benefited from its close association with Black culture, the people familiar with the matter said.

Red Bull will focus its culture marketing programs on where they make the most impact, the spokeswoman said. It will continue the Red Bull BC One, a breakdancing competition, Red Bull Dance Your Style street dancing events, and Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos, a rap competition for Spanish speakers.

Red Bull was introduced in 1987 by Dietrich Mateschitz, who remains its CEO. The Austrian billionaire built a global beverage business with more than 12,000 employees and nearly $7 billion in 2019 sales. He has also assembled a sports and media empire. The company owns professional soccer teams in the U.S. and Europe and sponsors Nascar and Formula 1 teams.

Soccer, eh?

Maybe they should be selling Red Bull to the sort of people who would become lifetime amphetamine users – writers, programmers, engineers, traders and so on?

Those sorts of people watch more E-Sports than sportsball, and Monster seems to be dominating those ads.

The true addict demographic is extremely loyal, and will drink five cans a day, every day, for the next 40 years.

If there was a sugar-free version, I would consider doing that. If it was a kind of briny, peppery mix of onion, tomato and lemon juice, with the same hit of caffeine, I would sell a kidney for a lifetime supply. God, that would be so, so good.

Until then, I’ll stick to coffee. Nonetheless, it raises my spirits to know that these noble stimulant merchants refuse to bow to the hurt feelings of the Burn, Loot, Murder mob.

Dietrich Mateschitz is a good man and an Austrian patriot.

The worst thing Pepsi ever did was make Pepsi.

Though I do enjoy the name. Just rolls right off the tippity top of the tongue.

And it always makes me think of Pepsi the frog.

NPR:

Beverage giant PepsiCo, Inc. has agreed to purchase energy drink maker Rockstar Energy Beverages for $3.85 billion dollars, the company announced Wednesday. It’s a move PepsiCo said will help it become “more consumer-centric and capitalize on rising demand.”

Energy drinks have been a relatively weak area for PepsiCo and its rival Coca-Cola, but both companies have trying to bolster their presence in the fast-expanding beverage category.

The move also reflects the shifting tastes as consumers have steadily weaned themselves from soda to other offerings that also include coffee and tea-flavored beverages and low-calorie drinks.

Though sometimes confused with or lumped into the beverage category that includes sports beverages, energy drinks are considered a different product.

“They are marketed to increase alertness and energy levels, containing significant amounts of caffeine and as much or more sugar as in soda. Many energy drinks pack about 200 mg of caffeine, the amount in two cups of brewed coffee,” according to Harvard’s The Nutrition Source website.

Are energy drinks an ethics violation?

Did you know that Pepsi own Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC?

Combined, they are bigger than McDonald’s.

It’s an empire built on something that was never popular or successful in any way.

It’s like if a group of costumed neo-Nazis built the biggest welding company on earth and were getting hired to do security at Trump rallies.

We need to study how a shitty rip-off cola that everyone hates came to dominate fast food globally.

I’m serious.

However this was done, it was amazing.

Under the helm of Pepsi, Rockstar will probably now overtake Monster as the preferred drink of the 30-year-old boomer.

Everything Pepsi touches turns to gold.

The Great Prophet of WHITE SHARIA Sam Hyde has created in all of his wisdom a new caffeine supplement for his followers.

They will give you the energy required to carry out a crusade in his name, praise be unto Sam Hyde.