~~~~Energy Drinks~~~~

Since the 1990s, energy drinks have gone from being the latest craze and fad to a permanent fixture in our culture.

Given the various seemingly exotic ingredients, here’s a general introduction to the various energy drink dangers and advantages.

I won’t go into great biological detail since you could probably write a book about the energy drink craze.

Instead I’ll provide you with some information that should let you be a more informed consumer when it comes to energy drinks.

What are Energy Drinks ?

An energy drink is a beverage that contains some form of legal stimulant and/or vitamins which are meant to give consumers a short term boost in energy.

The “Magical“ Ingredients

In general, these drinks have one thing in common:

They all contain a lot of sugar and/or caffeine.

These could be considered the “active ingredients.”

So before you go bragging about how powerful a certain drink was and how its natural ingredients helped you wake up in the morning or dance all night, consider that you probably got more of a sugar rush than anything else.

Energy Drinks & Marketing

The “thing” about energy drinks is that they are marketed as being all-natural energy boosters loaded with exotic ingredients that popular culture believes to be healthy.

Energy drinks are generally marketed towards younger crowds, especially those who go to raves.

People are buying energy drinks in record numbers, even at an incredible $2-3 for a can smaller than an average soft drink can.

Just FYI, the energy drink industry is worth over a billion dollars in sales annually.

Note that Red Bull energy drink leads the way.

While Red Bull may have lame TV commercials, energy drinks tend to have cool logo colors and fonts, modern can or bottle shapes, and a “high energy” feel surrounding them.

It’s a marketing company’s dream come true!

Dangers of Energy Drinks: Side Effects & Long-term Effects

I’m just scratching the surface with what I have written here so let me give you some food for thought.

When you are considering consuming energy drinks:

• Make a mental note that while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing companies to sell and market their energy drink products, there is still very little research that has been done on them.

I suspect the FDA allows them to be added simply because they do not pose any immediate danger to energy drink consumers.

• The long-term effects of energy drink ingredients, if any, are still not known meaning that drinking a lot of these drinks on a consistent basis may or may not harm you in ways that have yet to be researched.

• Energy drink labels are frequently misleading or at least they are so ambiguous that when you buy them you simply believe what you want to believe.

Remember that in most cases, the claims being made have not been proven.

• It remains unknown as to whether any medical conditions and related prescription medication will interact with energy drinks.

If you try an energy drink and react poorly to it, consult a physician.

Body Chemistry

Energy drinks all try to stimulate something in your body that leads to your awakening and feeling as though you have more energy.

One big mistake that most people make is that energy drinks will have the same effect on them, regardless of the choice of drink, and ignoring an individual’s unique body chemical make-up.

Think about it this way:

We know that alcohol has a unique effect on everyone who consumes it (some people get drunk faster, have different allergic reactions to alcohol, etc), so there is no reason to believe that these drinks will have a different result among various consumers.

Sugar

Many raves don’t sell alcohol but in fact focus on water and energy drink sales.

While gaining energy from sugar in and of itself is not such a bad thing, be warned that drinking lots of sugar can make you feel full.

Carbonation, which can come from soft drinks as well, also makes you feel full.

Ravers who become ill frequently keep dancing or remain active, and fail to re-hydrate as they should, in part because they think they’re full.

What ends up happening is that their body shuts down due to the lack of fluids, and they collapse.

Are Energy Drinks Addictive?

oops did I leave this out from my energy drinks anonymous meeting!  LOL

Since consumption of energy drinks is so prevalent among youth and frequently associated with raves and the nightclub scene, many wonder about their addictive properties.

In fact, the only truly addictive part of energy drink ingredients appears to be caffeine.

So if you drink enough cans, you may become addicted to caffeine and ultimately suffer from the effects of the addiction.

Energy Drinks, Alcohol & Death

Bars around the world mix vodka with energy drinks, especially Red Bull.

This is mixing a depressant (alcohol) with a stimulant (the energy drink).

This can have an effect on your heart and claims have been made that this combination has lead to death.

As such, some countries in Europe have banned Red Bull and other energy drinks.

Creatine

SoBe is a popular drink.

It contains creatine in such minute amounts that it probably doesn’t have any effect.

Same with Ginko.

Taurine

The peculiar thing about taurine is that nobody really knows what it does!

There is apparently no evidence that it has any major influence but it is possible that it does indeed have some effect on the body which leads to the feeling of having more energy.

Taurine & Caffeine are Key

One must also account for the mixed effects of the different energy drink ingredients.

Consider that drinking different types of alcohol during a night of partying can leave you with an awful hangover.

(Of course, you could try the anti-hangover pill).

In an energy drink such as Guru for example, it is possible that the taurine enhances the effects of caffeine, giving you a slightly larger boost than if you had drank only one of the ingredients.

This is just a theory however since it has yet to be scientifically tested.

Vitamins

Some energy drinks offer a variety of vitamins.

It’s important to note that your body will take what it needs and pee off the extra vitamins.

So this isn’t a major health booster.

Popular Terms

The most popular energy drinks include Red Bull, Monster, XS (get it – excess), Boost, Crunk, Rockstar, Crunk Juice, Full Throttle, Spark, Amp , Rush, SoBe, Pimp Juice, Shark, Piranha, Red Line, Bookoo, Socko, Fuze, Hype, Guru, and Atomic X.

My favorite energy drink is by far natural green tea

If you haven’t visited our website and would like to….click here.

Looking forward to bringing you more interesting info soon!

If there is a subject you are curious about let us know!

We are having a Blast doing these Blogs for you!!

Upland Personal Training

If you want to kill belly fat once and for all then I suggest trying our 6 Week Body Transformation

Call ahead to get an awesome stress relief  massage from Adrian!!

Dr. Saman Bakhtiar is a Riverside Personal Trainer and Boot Camp Instructor.

If you know anyone looking for personal training in the Inland Empire, send them to Fitness Concepts.

We will take good care of them. He is ‘thee’ Fitness Expert and Body Transformation Specialist this side of Los Angeles and Inland Empire.

Here at our amazing Health Club we are the gym of all gyms….or also referred to as the Gem of all Gyms.

We offer Boot Camps, Fitness Training, Nutritional Consultations and a friendly awesome staff ready to take on all weight loss and fat loss challenges.

Best Quotes/One liners of 2009:

The point being in your battle against weight loss, you need to start where it matters the most…in how and what you eat. From there you compliment your efforts with “effective” exercise…and not “excessive” exercise. Too many people are being excessive in what they do, expecting faster results somehow.
- Aerobics (Cardio) is Not Your Priority in Lasting Weight Loss

With the caveat that sugar intake should be VERY minimal, I’d rather go ahead and give my body the substance that it can process rather than some unknown chemical. … Again, better is a relative term. It’s better to smoke one pack of cigarettes than to smoke two packs. Cocaine is probably less harmful than crack. That doesn’t make it healthy. It’s even better to do neither.
- Real Sugar Vs. Artificial Sweeteners: Which Is Better?

I eat clean 90% of the time so that the other 10% of the time, I can relax and do whatever. I can eat sushi without being concerned about the rice. I can dig into the chips and guacamole at a Mexican place before my plate-load of carnitas. I can have a drink or two while watching football with friends.
- Cheat Meals, Flexible Eating, and Dietary OCD

“Stimulate and don’t annihilate”
- Get Bigger Muscles by…Walking?

In the end, we all just need to go back to the basics. Eat Real Food! Do that and you can forget worrying about the cardiovascular protection of omega-3s or how many egg yolks you should eat to lower your blood pressure.
- How A Paleo/Primal Eating Plan Improves Your Health; And Why None Of It Matters

Along with trans fats, sugar is the worst thing you can put in your body.
- Marketing Lies: There Is No Such Thing As “Healthy Sugar”

Perfection is an illusion, it means there is some final destination to be achieved (and disappointment to be had if you don’t get there). Strive for living daily instead, not trying to achieve a goal that your happiness is depending on. Your happiness is now.
- Deep Thoughts……More on Weight Loss, Health, and Living

So many people accept illness as a regular part of being alive. But is it really? Is illness the normal human life, an inevitable part of drawing breath? I don’t think it is.
- How Do You Repair Your Immune System?

Many people are overweight despite eating hardly any food…so while calorie deficit is needed to lose weight, it’s only in relation to how optimal the overall metabolism is running in the first place. Have a hampered liver and it will also negatively affect your fat burning metabolism.
- Speed Up Your Metabolism – Fatty Liver Disease

You probably noticed I left one off. Here’s a statement to ruffle some feathers: Do not drink soy milk. If you want to know why, go back to the anti-nutrient section. Add to that very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids in soy fat. It’s really not good for you.
- Nutrition In Milk And Milk Substitutes

We have seen healthy societies with various %s (high and low) of carb intake but they all have one big thing in common…they all eat natural “real foods”. They also have another thing in common, once people from their culture move into a more “modernized” food environment, then the health benefits seen previously decrease dramatically.
- Are Low Carb Diets Over-rated for Health and Longevity?

The reality is that humans started cooking food because it makes food more easily digestible, rather than making it more difficult to digest. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, this is true. And the only measure of how nutritious a food is, is how well the body can digest it.
- Are Raw Vegetables Healthier Than Cooked Vegetables?

If you don’t like something….change it or quit whining about it. Anyone can change their job, anyone can move to a different state, anyone can stop doing so much inorder to spend more time with family, anyone can make time for simple exercise, anyone can find ways to eat healthier. Dump the excuses and just take action to make a change now.

- Urgent Changes to Make in Your Vocabulary Today (for Health and Happiness)

Proteins and fat lowered a bit % wise, but carb% increased dramatically (primarily thanks to the whole “low fat” movement that could turn out the be the worst advice ever given). We are not saying carbs are the enemy, but we know that quality matters…..so let’s see where we are getting our carbs from. While fruits and vegetables have marginally increased, cereal grains and sugars have skyrocketed.
- Obesity, Diabetes, and Other Diseases vs Food Trends in Pictures

So knowing that pastured eggs are markedly more nutritious than conventional eggs, along with being more flavorful and safer, you have another reason to support your local farmers. Pastured eggs are more expensive, but they are also more nutritious. Check out your local farmer’s markets and buying clubs.
- The Truth About Free Range, Organic, Cage Free Eggs Nutrition

“If you told me you were going to jail and only had a barbell and didn’t want to get raped in the showers and could only do one exercise to put mass and strength on, then I’d tell you to do the snatch deadlift on a platform.”
- The Best Muscle Building Exercise…If You Had to Pick One

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you already know that I’m no fan of grains, whether processed or whole. Unfortunately, those of us that think such blasphemous things against those “wholesome” grains are an anomaly. So for those that still think whole grains are an important, healthy, wholesome, and necessary part of the diet, let’s look at just a few of the issues.
- The Real Truth About Those “Healthy Whole Grains”

It all boils down to the simple equation that if you put your feet in a stiff shoe, you are not going to use all the muscles in your feet. What happens when you don’t use muscles? They get weak. Add an addition unnatural stride (heel striking) with weak feet and you create instability at the base of your body (your feet hitting the ground). That translates up your knees, legs, back and creates compensatory movements (such as overpronation) and injuries.
- Cure all Running Injuries (and Pain) with One Simple Fix….Barefoot Running

Instability of the scapula is a major cause of shoulder issues, so my goal is to teach the muscles to work together to make sure my scapula is moving within the joint as it should be. And there are a load of muscles that connect to this bone: deltoid, traps, biceps, pectoralis minor, rhomboids, serratus, and rotator cuff to name a majority.
- How To Improve Scapular Stability For Healthy Shoulders

IF is not about starvation, it’s not about crash dieting, and it’s not about quick weight loss (even if results may happen quickly for some). To me it’s all about a lifestyle and lasting approach to improving your health, redefining your relationship with food, to reduce unnatural cravings, get back in tune with the natural survival design of our bodies, optimizing your glucose energy metabolism and just an easy and simple approach to lasting results.
- Intermittent Fasting has a New Name….Intermittent Feeding

As you can see, I don’t think that you need to 100% give up coffee or alcohol to be healthy. I enjoy both and am unlikely to go completely clean from either. If you stick with the a low intake of both and pay attention to how you feel after having them, there’s no reason that you have to be completely ascetic.
- Caffeine, Alcohol, And Health – How Much Is Too Much?

The bottom line is that humans have been eating eggs, meat, and butter for a really long time without heart disease and cancer. Yet somehow, now heart disease and cancer run rampant and the food industry is always there to protect us from eating these wholesome foods.
- Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs

Wrapping up the year, we mainly want to thank YOU the readers for making this a great 2009 at Fitness Spotlight (with all your contributions/comments).

We look forward to more great things to come in 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

PS. If you have any great quotes or one liners you heard this past year, please feel free to share them in the comments below as well.

I always have a blast bringing you my latest thoughts and inspirations!!

Thank you and if you enjoyed this Blog please click the facebook icon below and share with your friends.

If you haven’t visited our website and would like to….click here.

Looking forward to bringing you more and more info all the time!!

If there a subject you would would like us to focus in on just post a comment.

We are having a Blast doing these Blogs for you!!

Thanks for tuning in!

Check out Rancho Cucamonga Personal Trainers!!