Hello Health Champions.
Today I want to talk about energy drinks are they good or bad for us are they a good
source of extra energy how do they work and most importantly are they safe for us in the long
run, right up hey I'm Dr. Ekberg I'm a holistic doctor and a former Olympic decathlete and
if you want to truly Master Health by understanding how the body really works make sure you subscribe
on hit that notification Bell so you don't miss anything energy drinks have been on the
market for a few years now and some of the more popular brands or things like Red Bull
and Monster Rockstar Eastroc Hi-tiger and then there's also some energy shots like
5-hour Energy they pretty much have the Monopoly on that market but it's a huge industry the
energy drinks sell a total of 53 billion dollars a year around the world and the energy shots
alone account for about twenty one and a half sold almost 75 billion dollars of so-called
energy drinks and energy shots but do they work and how do they work is it really a difference
between a soft drink or so um vs an energy drink soda can be caffeinated and then they
have a sweetener and caffeine but in an energy drink they add more things so they do have
these things but in addition to that they have things like guarana taurine ginseng and
B vitamins caffeine is the most popular drug in the world that's been used for a long time
and it is regarded as generally safe the way it works is it does have some mechanisms to
increase energy metabolism in the brain but at the same time it causes vasoconstriction
so it reduces the blood flow to the brain so we're asking the brain to do more work
but we're giving it less energy with which to do so so in small doses I think it's totally
fine but the more do you use it or if you overuse it now you can start creating some
imbalances and some damage caffeine is also a stress stimulator it increases norepinephrine
or adrenaline which is a stress hormone it increases arousal and attention and that's
of course why we use it in the first place it's a stimulant we want to feel awake we
want to feel energized while it does that it also increases anxiety and it interferes
with sleep so these are things that most people are aware of and they drink their coffee anyway
and the majority of the world's population are getting some caffeine everyday but how
much caffeine are in these various drinks a regular can of Coca-Cola has 36 milligrams
of caffeine in a can of Mountain Dew has 55 a small can of Redbull which is an 8 oz can
has a team of just a little more than the soft drink but keep in mind that's a small
can a larger can of Monster a 16 oz can has 160 mg of caffeine so it's got twice as much
as the Red Bull but it's twice the size a 5-hour Energy Shot is only two ounces but
it's packed with caffeine at 200 mg and then the 7-Eleven Energy Shot is pretty much the
same thing but it's a 230 ml mg and energy drink called Rockstar xdurance has 300 mg
of caffeine and that's a larger can as well but a regular coffee from Starbucks a large
coffee mind you 16 oz actually has 330 mg if it was just about the caffeine then we
might just go for the coffee like we said though a lot of these energy drinks contain
other things in addition to caffeine let's take a look at those who are Rania is a natural
plant that contains caffeine the Gwar on your seed has between two and four and a half percent
caffeine compared to Coffee seed of coffee bean it's not actually a bean a seed which
has one to 2% caffeine soda guarana is just another plant source of natural caffeine which
is about twice as high so if they had caffeine and guarana then they're just really adding
two different sources of caffeine and if they don't declare the caffeine from the guarana
the thing that's added to a lot of them is taurine and taurine is an amino acid it is
prevalent is high concentration in our central nervous system but it's an amino acid that
we can manufacture it's a natural component of body tissue and 1/10 of 1% of your body
weight are about 75 G to 3 oz is actually taurine so we have it already taurine is believed
to be a stimulant but there is no proof to that fax or they're just sort of adding it
just in case and ginseng root is a plant it's a considered an herb that has been used for
hundreds or thousands of years and it does definitely have some health benefits not necessarily
as a stimulant but more as an adaptogen it helps the body balance certain things the
thing though is high-quality ginseng is very very expensive so I'm sort of questioning
the quality that they added to these mostly synthetic products that are they really using
a good quality ginseng and all these drinks of course have sweeteners and they're either
going to use sugar to a small can would start out at 25 grams they're typically much much
sweeter than soft drinks or soda a large can would have as much as 70 grams of sugar per
can and if they're low carb or if they're sugar-free now they just replace that sugar
with a synthetic chemical with an artificial sweetener like aspartame or sucralose saccharin
or Acesulfame potassium and as I talked about in other videos these are neurotoxins they're
based on pesticides and there is a tremendous range of physiological health problems and
neurological problems with these who course it all depends on quantity when it comes to
these things but in my book sugar is one of the worst things in the world and if possible
than these newer toxins are a little bit worse one more thing that they often add is B vitamins
but the thing with vitamins is they will only do anything at all that only do something
if you are already deficient if you have the B vitamins you need then they don't act as
an additional energy source or as an additional stimulant is kind of like if you going to
paint a wall and all you need is one can of paint than having a thousand cans of paint
isn't going to make that wall any better and besides that all the vitamins that they're
adding are synthetic they're made from cornstarch and sugar and coal tar so they're not the
nutrient that the body is really looking for so how did these additional ingredients on
top of caffeine how do they work do they do anything well there isn't a lot of research
they've done a lot of research on caffeine but not so much on these additional things
in energy drinks but they did a double blind study at the Centre College in Kentucky and
they compared a 5-hour energy shots to one group that got caffeine water and one group
that got only water and it was double line because neither the subjects nor the research
leaders the study leaders knew who had gotten what they have them perform a visual reaction
test and then they measured brain waves to see how they reacted and what they found was
that they had better performance they have more brain activity with the caffeine than
the people who just got the water but other than that there was no difference okay there's
no difference between the 5-Hour drink and the caffeine water they performed and measured
the same what else are you getting for your hard-earned money well you're getting some
chemicals multiple dextrin to getting preservatives to getting artificial sweetener sucralose
Acesulfame potassium you getting natural and artificial flavors and you're getting red
number 40 and blue number one that's what you're paying for so these are all called
energy drinks but do they provide any actual energy do they provide anything that you need
well actual energy in the body is called ATP adenosine triphosphate it's the energy currency
in the body and it's made in in the mitochondria manufactures a teepee out of substrate out
of fuel that have calories called fat glucose and protein but in order to pull the energy
out of these Foods you need vitamins and minerals they act as catalysts they're participate
in the reactions they make enzymes and so forth and finally you need oxygen oxygen is
what we use to burn the fuel to oxidize the fuel in the food so actual energy in the body
is made but you can't do this at the same rate 24 hours a day because you will burn
out your organs they need a little bit of recovery so you need to have some proper sleep
you need to have some rest.
Or you will burn out another good source of actual energy is inspiration being excited
about something feeling good about something now you're still going to need some recovery
but in a state of feeling good you will always have more energy available then if you feeling
bad about something you should board about something according to a website called caffeine
Informer.
Com the there's an official definition of what energy drinks are so there's three requirements
one is that they have the intent to increase energy and there's a reason I put these in
quotation marks number to there has to be more than one ingredient known to increase
energy so that's why the caffeine sodas don't count because they only have that one ingredient
to increase energy and then we want to Define what energy is what are they looking to increase
will energy is a perceived in meaning not necessarily a real but something that you
perceive increase in mental stamina mental efficiency and mental alertness and here's
the kicker I love this one D purely physical energy boost do not qualify it has to be proceeded
if it actually gave you more energy then it wouldn't be an energy drink so what that means
is basically that energy drinks do not by any means provide energy but they bring you
a perception of increased attention by that definition that means that energy drinks are
stimulants and a stimulant is also known as a drug is something that changes the mental
state that changes the physiology of the body that overrides something so if you have an
energy drink with sugar now you're getting the Sugar Plus the stimulant and you're going
to have swings both from the stimulant but especially from the blood sugar cuz now you're
feeling like you're getting some actual energy from the sugar because it is a fuel but it
short term because you spike your blood sugar and then it's going to crash if you get an
energy drink without sugar now you got those neurotoxins from the artificial sweeteners
and then you're getting a stimulant on top of that so what is a stimulant what does it
do well I think of it as a cattle prod K it gets your attention it raises your alertness
temporarily it could be a slap in the face so this year could be your future tool instead
of an energy drink whenever you're starting to doze off then just bring out your palm
you could think of it as whipping the horse the horses plowing the field of horses pulling
the cart and it's getting really really tired and it doesn't want to go any further now
you can pull out the Whip and you can make it go a little further but I'm sure you would
agree that it doesn't increase the chances of that horse doing better work in the future
that doesn't improve the health you can get a temporary a little boost out of that horse
but it's not going to do much better in the long run but my favorite metaphor for energy
drinks or stimulants is a credit card because credit card gives you the illusion of having
money just like an energy drink gives you the illusion of having energy it's not actually
adding any more energy at the time ask yourself can you use a credit card to create Financial
Health can you get better finances so the more you use the credit card the harder
it is going to be to repay and if it's not giving you anything then you're borrowing
if it's not giving you money then you're borrowing money if it's not giving you energy or health
then you're borrowing energy and health so keep that in mind with energy drinks that's
whatever you're borrowing must be paid back and the more you use it the more you fall
behind the harder it is going to be to repay that energy that are thinking you're thinking
well I never noticed anything I've used those drinks for years well that's because we don't
understand what health is we don't understand prevention heart disease diabetes adrenal
fatigue autoimmune disease dementia Alzheimer's disease take decades they don't happen tonight
it's not like you have one drink and you get dementia then it would be easy then we would
figure this out in a heartbeat but the more you abused your body the more you use energy
drinks and you borrow energy the more you're burning your candle at both ends and we have
to start understanding once and for all that a lack of symptoms is not Health a lack of
symptoms is just no symptoms yet so in a nutshell energy drinks are basically really overpriced
soda soft drinks a soft drink a soda is about a quarter $0.25 give or take depending on
the brand vs22 $4 for one of these glorified energy drinks it is really really clever marketing
and a lot of hype that's what it is they give you a little bit more caffeine and they give
you some questionable chemicals / nutrients none of which actually gives you energy so
my suggestion is to keep your stimulants as low as possible for the times that you want
a little bit of stimulation go have a cup of coffee have one or two don't have 8 or
12 and as far as energy drinks go I've never actually had even one aren't you supposed
to always try everything at least once no if you enjoy this video I'm sure that you're
going to love that one thank you so much for watching I'll see you in the next video