Energy drinks, as the name clearly
states, are supposed to give you a “boost” of energy. Basically, the difference
between an energy drink and sport drinks, soft drinks or regular drinks are the
ingredients. What energy drinks have that most other drinks doesn’t have, is a
high dose or percentage of sugar and caffeine. Sure, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have
caffeine and sugar but a can of 480ml does not have 27g of sugar. 27 grams is
about 10 teaspoons of sugar! That’s about 5 sugar cubes per can mixed in with
caffeine and other “boost” like ingredients like inositol which is part of the
b vitamin group, yet not a vitamin. The effect that sugar gives you in such a
concentrated amount and the danger is that it accelerates the production of
adrenaline by a lot, just that it lasts for a moment and then it disappears. Inositol
is designed to trick the body to think it´s a vitamin process it quicker and
send it to important cells in the body. Inositol´s main function or design is
to help relay messages within cells in the body (accelerate movement
artificially. Within this chemical and others in the energy drinks like taurine
and sodium chloride ionic bonds are formed to create the energy drink.
These chemicals of course have an
impact on the body that is supposed to give you the boost of energy. If you
take a look at the ingredients in both Rockstar and Monster, you would get the
impression that an energy drink is a blend between a soft drink and a nutrition
drink; and people that have tried the drinks say the same to the taste. They
say that the taste in these drinks fall into medicinal or molten sweet tart
alike. Like the ingredients, manufacturers say that the energy drinks do give
you extra help on endurance and physical performance while most professional
doctors strongly disagree. They all say that the energy drink works on its high
amount of caffeine and that the other ingredients are not a boost for you, but
for the caffeine itself working on the body. Caffeine works by blocking the job
of adenosine. Adenosine is a chemical produced by the brain for sleep. When it
is blocked, the neutrons in your brain are fired, tricking the body to think it’s
an emergency and releasing large amounts of adrenaline, causing your eyes to dilate
and causing the liver to release a lot of sugar into your bloodstream for
energy. While it causes all this, it also affects a chemical in the brain´s
pleasure system, called dopamine, making the body think it has much more energy
than it really does. All this chemical energy is produced to create mechanical
energy in the body´s movements and capacities at the moment.
Since caffeine in these drinks is so pure
and has a large effect on the body, it is not recommended for children under 12
years old, pregnant women or people with heart disease. The effect on the heart
that the drinks may produce is dangerous for small children since their weak
and little heart may not be able to hold the power of the boost. Since babies inside
whoms receive what the mother consumes, it is dangerous for their hearts. They
do not have the capacity for even a small zip of these drinks. On the other
hand, children that are tall and about above 13 or 14 years old can handle
these but not excessively. One every once in a while is ok, as long as no kind
of addiction is produced and they are moderate with their servings and
portions.
Covering some of the dangers in these
drinks can´t is easy so it has to be very hard on the companies and their
marketing strategies. For Monster, I think their technique is truly amazing.
They basically don´t hide secrets of the drinks, they simply diverse the
attention from the bad things. By hosting motocross events and designing
accessories and motor bikes, they show the public what´s good about monster and
how it helps worldwide athletes and stunt drivers like Travis Pastrana who
landed the first double backflip! For Rockstar, I dislike their strategy. They
truly hide their ingredients and the bad things about the drink. Monster simply
doesn’t talk about it unless their asked, Rockstar acts as if they had no idea.
As well, they only sponsor athletes, but they don’t host or show major interest
in the sports that they are trying to sell their product through.
Overall, it has been decided. The winner of
our epic battle is Monster. Their market is diverse, drawing attention to sell
the drink indirectly. The drink also contains less amount and pure caffeine
along with artificial flavoring and food coloring. Monster is heading to the
top of energy drinks and is trying to make it less unhealthy, that gave it the
grand winning prize!
