Taurine in Energy Drinks should be Illegal
Seven billion cans of energy drinks are consumed every year. Most energy drinks contain highly questionable ingredients such as taurine, introduced by Redbull over 20 years ago. Red Bull added Taurine to its energy drink 20 years ago. No one ever asked why up til now.
The taurine found in energy drinks is synthetic and can cause medical problems, according to recent studies (see Heart Problems with Synthetic Taurine). The cocktail gets even worse when it is combined with caffeine, as it is often the case in smart drinks (see Taurine and Caffeine).
This might be why some countries such as France, Denmark and Sweden have banned Red Bull from their supermarket shelves. There are similar initiatives to regulate these products in other countries (Australia, Canada).
Energy drinks are great stay alert longer and to get a mental boost. I like to drink them in the morning before my coffee. They help me start my day on a good foot.
What I find offensive is that most of these drinks come with so many other toxic ingredients (Taurine, HFCS, aspartame) that the overall risk of consumption outweighs the potential benefits. The same could be said of several drugs currently in the clinical trial phase. This is why the FDA is involved in reviewing and ultimately rejecting those drugs where the negative side effects outweigh the postive atttributes. There is no such review of these potentially toxic cocktails.
So is there another choice? Coffee on its own is not a bad alternative as it doesn’t come with all the artificial ingredients found in the Red Bulls and other products. Then there are some natural energy drinks which basically contain a stimulant (coffee, guarana or tea) plus a minimum of other ingredients. I recommend Guyaki Yerba Matte, GURU Energy Drink, and Sambason Energy. In the case of GURU and Sambason, they also have gone the extra step of making them with entirely organic ingredients.
Its encouraging to see that more and more smart young peope are shying away from the chemical cocktails that have crowded out more natural alternatives. Music icon Kanye West recently annouced his collaboration on a sugarfree organic and natural energy drink with GURU Energy Drinks. He has tremendous influence with today’s youth culture. This should teach us that younger can sometimes mean much smarter.