Energy Drink Ingredients
Its seems energy drink companies are cramming more and more ingredients into their products. “What do all these ingredients supposedly do to/for my body?”, has become a common question among consumers. So here is a list of the most common ingredients and their alleged effects on the body. Look here for energy drink side effects.
Caffeine
- The most common stimulant, found in coffee, Coke and Mountain Dew. Found in much higher quantities in energy drinks. Most energy drinks contain between 70 and 200 mg. An 8 oz cup of coffee contains 110-150mg for drip, 65-125mg for percolated, and 40-80 mg for instant. Dr. Pepper gives you 41mg, and a can of Coke provides 34mg. A full can of RockStar has 160mg. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system giving the body a sense of alertness. It can raise heart rate and blood pressure while dehydrating the body. A lot of people experience side effects above 200mg, which include sleeplessness, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and most commonly the jitters.
We’re tracking the caffeine levels of virtually all energy drinks. Go knock yourself out.
For other questions about caffeine visit Caffiene FAQ a great resource for caffeine information.
Taurine
- Taurine is an amino acid that your body naturally produces. It helps regulate heartbeat, muscle contractions, and energy levels. Usually your body makes enough that you don’t need to supplement. It’s thought, but not proven, that under “stress conditions” like illness, physical exertion, or injury, the body does not create enough and supplements can help. Taurine might be a “mild inhibitory neurotransmitter”, some studies show it helps with excitable brain states. While this isn’t exactly what we want, maybe it helps level us out so we function better with elevated levels of other stimulants.
Guarana
- Guarana comes from plants in South America. Amazonians have used it for a long time to increase alertness and energy. It’s more dense in caffeine than coffee beans (3-4% vs 1-2%). It’s not just called “caffeine” because it contains a couple other things: theobromine and theophylline. They’re found in coffees and teas, and are known stimulants. Marketing will sometimes call this one guaranine, as if it’s something different. It’s not.
B Vitamins
- These are essentially the things that help you convert food to energy, like sugar which is found in abundance in energy drinks. The jury’s still out on whether or not they increase energy levels via supplementation. Search the interweb for info on proper dosing of the different vitamins. Common names for B vitamins are insotol, niacin, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin, and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
Ginseng
- Ginseng, an adaptogenic herb, is known to increase energy, has some anti-fatigue components, supposedly relieves stress, and increase memory. Right now it’s suspected that ginseng helps stimulate the hypothalamic and pituitary glands, which then secrete something called adrenal corticotropic hormone. With a name like that, it can’t possibly be bad. Ginseng is nothing that’s naturally created by your body, so having this in your drink certainly won’t hurt. 200mg/day seems to be the standard dose, but you can safely take up to 2700mg. Rare side effects such as diarrhea and headache have been reported.
Ginkgo Biloba
- This ingredient is named after the rare tree it originates from. It is believed to help with memory retention, concentration, circulation, acts as an anti-depressant, and even shows signs of helping people with Alzheimer’s. The German government recognizes it as something that helps with memory loss, concentration, and depression. 60mg is a standard supplementation dose, and you can easily take 240mg. It is advised, however, that most energy drinks do not contain enough ginkgo to be of any benefit. People on anti-depressants shouldn’t take ginkgo and some of the other side effects include blood thinning, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, and restlessness.
L-Carnitine
- An amino acid usually created by your liver and kidneys, this stuff helps up your metabolism and energy levels. Because of the way it interacts with your body, it may act as a thermogenic and help increase weight loss and endurance during exercise. The jury’s still out on whether or not you need to supplement unless you have an unusual diet, but you can take 2-6 grams without worry. Make sure you get L-Carnitine, which is the type your body creates and can use. D-Carnitine is “inactive” and may actually hurt endurance levels. Rare side effects include include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
Sugars
- Glucose is the body’s preferred fuel. That’s why you get hyper with a lot of sugar. Energy drinks contain a ton of sugar. Therefore, energy. It’s a carbohydrate, and a lot of exercise regiments suggest a good dose of carbs for workouts lasting more than an hour. However, to much sugar intake has been linked to diabetes. See the sugar in energy drinks database for a sortable table of beverage sugar content.
Anti-oxidants
- Anti-oxidants are things that help your body gracefully recover from the damage of free radicals. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, so claiming that your energy drink has a lot of anti-oxidants is like saying you’re buying really expensive orange juice. But they’re good, they help fend off illness and prevent cellular damage. Vitamins C and E, Vitamin A (aka retinol, beta-carotene), and selenium are all anti-oxidants.
Glucuronolactone
Glucuronolactone (DGL) occurs naturally in the human body as glucose is broken down by the liver. All connective tissue contains this compound. DGL is believed to aid in detoxification, freeing hormones and other chemicals, and the biosynthesis of vitamin C. It is placed in energy drinks because it is believed to help with glycogen depletion by preventing other substances from depleting glycogen supplies in the muscles.
Yerba Mate
This substance is derived from leaves of a shrub in the Holly family. It is a natural source of caffeine, but some believe that the form of caffeine in Yerba Mate’ doesn’t produce the negative side affects like the caffeine in coffee and guarana.
Creatine
Creatine is naturally obtained by eating meat. Creatine helps with supplying energy to the muscles and is usually found in energy drinks and products that are marketed to body builders.
Acai Berry
This ingredient (pronounced ah-sah-ee) is finding its way into more and more energy drinks. Acai berry comes from the Acai Palm tree which is found in South America. The berries are rich in anti-oxidants, but not as much as a concord grape or blueberry. Most of the acai berry benefits have no scientific basis and are attributed to marketing hype.
Milk Thistle
This ingredient mainly found in Rockstar and a few other drinks is used as a liver detoxifying agent. It is placed in energy drinks not really for any energy enhancing properties but as a counter agent to mixing energy drinks with alcohol as milk thistle is supposed to help with hangovers and detoxing the liver from alcohol. However, studies show that the amount put in energy drinks would be of hardly any benefit to consumers.
Sources: Kavita M. Babu, MD, Richard James Church, MD, William Lewander, MD. “Energy Drinks: The New Eye-Opener For Adolescents”. Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine. 2008
How do energy drinks help with exercise?
98 Comments
I am doing a project on Energy drinks. They are not good for you at! If you drink to many they will give you heart problems and a lot of other thing i know this because i ve talked to doctors and done my research. I have had friends that drank them everyday and before they started they were healthy now there not healthy at all. So please be carefull!
Energy drinks are actually not that bad, but come on I mean why would you drink something that is totally not healthy to you?
you guys are losers
LOSAAAA NOT U ALEXX!!!!!!!
Energy drinks are very bad. so its ur choice to hurt ur body
Hi, I, too, am doing a project on energy drinks. While, yes, they do come with various risks when consumed in undue amounts they also present multiple benefits. For example: they help you stay awake and do work on projects such as this one right here! They are no worse than a cup of coffee, a caffeine pill, or whatever method you suggest we use to replace them. This is “wye” we choose to drink them. More importantly, the real issue here lies with the consumer, not the drink itself. At least one of you has had the good grace to admit that people have heart attacks from drinking- pay attention here, this is important- *too many!* There are wonderful inventions called “warnings” on the “labels” which are required by “law”. These may be unfamiliar terms to some of the less intelligent among you so I would suggest going to http://www.dictionary.com if you find yourself struggling with any of them. Thank you for your time.
Also, wonderful post. I’ve been producing my own drinks for some time now, and they work wonderfully. And I’ve had no heart attacks. Any recommendations from anybody on where to get some of these ingredients? A list of some sort would be nice. In advance, much obliged. 
i love them i think it is bull
First off, they are bad for us but they are good to drink if you need some energy in the morning…But i don’t suggest drinking them all the time everyday for the rest of your life. I drink one once a week. But when i don’t drink them i get mayjor head aches cause i need more. They are addicting sometimes. But they are still great…I would rather die drinking them then natural causes. But seriously Monsters are great, I would just say drink them till you die but thats your choice. Thanks for reading.
energy drinks are good but not good for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUHHHHH!!!!!!!
I have a school assignment requesting me to research the ingredients of energy drinks, yes some of them have ingredients that are good for you, however not enough of those ingredients in them to matter. The caffeine in these drinks and the sugar are not equal to a cup of coffee or candy and soda. They have alot more than these. It is also said that a cup of coffee a day is good for you without all the sugar. If you want to get more energy I would suggest eating a better diet, exercise and get enough sleep, you will tell the difference.
I am doing an assignment on Energy Drinks and I have heard for years that they are really bad for us. I mean look at the ingredients, they speak for themselves. All that sugar and other horrible ingredients are really bad for us. Just because they give us energy doesn`t mean that they are good for us. To get more energy do it the right way by eating the right foods such as fruits, veggies and other good stuff. Also get some exercise and get enough sleep. Trust me you will see and feel the difference. You dont need all that sugar.
yeah i dont agree with any of you guys energy drinks are GREAT!!!
yall are pathetic everyone dies so why not let them start young! ENERGY DRINKS ARE THE WAY TO GO! i mean after all its better then pot and ciggerattes and ITS HAS THERE FILL OF ALCOHOL!!! Hahaha I PROMOTE ENERGY DRINKS!! ESPECIALLY JOOSE!!! HAHAHA
Energy drinks can be bad but teenagers love tem so they can not stop drinking them. I don;t care what the other losers say about energy drinks i love them and they are the bomb!!!! Well the best one out there is monsters.
I know energy drinks are bad but i like them, and iv had alot in one day, but i didnt feel and different, but i still dont drink alot in on day, im afraid of stomach ulcers…… But i love them i think there great, and yea i agre with Kaiden its not drugs or alcohol so yea
energy drinks i like them! the only energy drinks i like are (rockstars and monsters!one of these day i might even die like maybe tommowor or the next day!dont know when but soon!I might even kill my self!
energy drinks are not very good for you right now i am doing reasearch on wye energy drinks should be banned from canada because first of all people that drink it are slowly killing themselves second of all wye do you bother drinking this drink it doesnt taste good you just start getting sick and before you know it one day you go to sleep and not wake up the next morning (STOP DRINKING ENERGY DRINKS!)