Energy Drinks for your Teen

March 26, 12:00 PMCaffeine ExaminerBig Red Boots  

Previous Next

3 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Caffeine Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

It can be a daunting task being a father of three as well as a reviewer of energy drinks.  My twelve year old constantly sees a parade of interesting and exciting energy drinks being delivered like Christmas to my door.  Like every other twelve year old in the country, he feels the urge to try them all out with me.  Now with all my studies on caffeine, I have found not one good reason for someone so young to have so much caffeine.  But there will come a time when he will be buying them for himself, not to mention, there are times when getting a pre-teen awake and alert first thing in the morning is a pretty difficult task.

I get a number of emails from people asking me about Energy drinks and teenagers - mostly from scared parents who get worried when the morning news does a "shocking expose" on energy drinks and kids.  The news reports can't make up that much to be scared about, so they always use extreme cases, where people mix them with alcohol and pass out, or drink excessive amounts of strong weight loss drinks and send them to the hospital.  But the truth is this. 

Most normal healthy teens can easily handle your average energy drink.

Think of it this way.  Red Bull has 80mg of caffeine.  the other things in there do NOTHING at all to harm anyone more than a soda would.  They all have excess B vitamins, which your body flushes out of your system, and Taurine, which I wrote about here. Guarana is just another form of caffeine, no different than if they said Coffee or green tea.  Caffeine from any source is still just caffeine.  Your cup of breakfast blend coffee has around 100mg of caffeine.  Even a 20oz Diet Mountain Dew has more caffeine in it than a Red Bull, Monster or Rockstar.

Things to watch out for
Now are energy drinks healthy for teens?  Many actually can be.  While the popular brands are nothing more than extra caffeinated soda pop with a little vitamins, there are some brands out there I would recommend to any parent.The thing is, like most parenting advice, is to pay attention to what your kids are drinking.  Look out for these ingredients in your kids' favorite brands.

High Fructose Corn Syrup
while not a particularly evil ingredient, it can be a signal of a drink that is more concerned with taste  and less concerned with health.  Also, a heavy sugar content means a bigger chance for a crash later on in the day.  More energy in the morning is a good thing, but falling asleep in math is very very bad.

Excessive caffeine
Look for drinks that have under 100mg in the can.  This is a decent amount - about as much as a cup of coffee, without overloading them and making unable to concentrate and feel jittery.  Keep in mind that the bigger 16oz cans may have 2 serving in them.  It is also a safe bet that if your energy drink does not list the caffeine in it (Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar don't list the caffeine in them) is has 80mg in a serving.

Weight loss suppliments
Look for those ingredients that you get spammed about in there - like Yohimbine and Hoodia.  Most energy drinks don't have them in there, but the ones you can find in GNC and health food stores might carry them with the weight loss or muscle building products.

Healthy Energy Drinks
Firstly, I want to make clear that if you feel comfortable giving your teen a venti Mocha from Starbucks, or let them get a 24 ounch Big Gulp from a convenience store, these drinks below provide more nutrients, and probably less calories than most bloated coffee drinks or sugary sodas.  If you are uncomfortable with your children having caffeine or energy boosting ingredients, then all of these are still off limits.

Top 5 Healthy Energy Drinks for Teens

Verve
There is only 80mg of caffeine in these - so there is a moderate boost without overdoing it.  There is plenty of vitamins and minerals, from  Vitamin A, B, C, D and E, as well all your daily essential minerals. This also has a ton of non-essential minerals, like chromium, zirconium and floride. You have all your metals, from tin to copper, nickel, gold, titanium and silver in here too. They also stay clear of the heavy sugar, so there is no crash after it wears off.

Guru Lite - 8oz can
The light version of this drink is very different than the lite versions of most other energy drinks.  While the Lo-Carb Monsters and Rock stars use Sucralose or Ace K ( or even worse, aspartame) to make their popular drinks less calorie laden,  they use organic cane juice, and then add stevia, but also luo han guo, which are little seed filled grape-like berries grown in China and Thailand. These little wonders are over 300 times sweeter than sugar, and also give the drink it's unique grape seed berry flavor. Also, this drink also contains Echinacea, panax ginseng and ginkgo biloba - and is all natural to boot.  there are around 100mg of caffeine in the 8 ounce variety - which can still be found in Kroeger stores (Smiths, King Soopers, Kroeger, City Market) as well as Whole foods and other health food stores.

Syzmo Prickly Pear
This can looks and tastes fantastic - using agave nectar to sweeten things.  This one has the lowest Glycemic Index of any energy drink I have seen, so it is fine for diabetics and those watching sugars.  There are 130 calories per 12 oz. can, and get their organic caffeine from coffee, Guarana Extract, Green Tea Extract and Yerba Matte Extract, amounting to 120mg of caffeine, which can be pretty strong for most teens.  This also has  Vitamin B2, B3, B6, B12, Biotin, Folic Acid, Zinc, and Co-enzyme Q10, which can fight cancer and help with migranes, and is found to he of benefit to those fighting fatigue dealing with stress.

Function Alternative Energy
The good thing with Function Alternative energy is that there is four different kinds of caffeine, all of which a body processes at a different time.  That means that your kid wont be popping out of their chairs soon after downing one of them, and the energy will taper off long after the whole 60 calories of the drink has been burned off.  The catuaba, yerba mate, guarana, caffea, muira pauma, and epimedium (icarriin) are very different  energy inducing ingredients, which is not over the top - but do provide a good deal of alertness without the heavy sugars.  This also has the benefit of lots of vitamin C, along with the usual dose of B vitamins.

Sugar Free Crunk!!!
Your teens might enjoy this one the best, as it has the biggest cache attached.  This is the drink brought to us by Lil John, the Hip Hop sensation.  While not all his songs are appropriate, his drinks most definitely are.  While this drink does use sucralose as a sweetener, they also pack a bunch of good stuff in here too.  There is lots of vitamin B, C and E, it also contains some calcium, magnesium, and a bunch of herbs, from Ginko Biloba to Ashwaranda.  There is 100mg caffeine per serving, so a small one will give some nice boost along with a dose of vitamins and minerals. 

The most important thing is just to be aware of what your kids eat.  While we, as parents, can't control all they eat or drink, the hysteria over caffeine consumption in teenagers is a common "scary media threat."  Teaching kids to read labels and identify their foods is an important skill to have - rather than just accepting that something is good or bad for you just because the national media outlet declares it to be the shocker of the day.