If you look around any classroom on DePaul’s Lincoln Park or Loop campus, chances are you will see at least one student with an energy drink sitting on their desk. Fruit flavored and stimulating, these caffeinated drinks are convenient and affordable. But that easy access can lead to a road of dangerous side effects.
I am no stranger to them. After multivitamins, energy drinks are the most consumed dietary supplement for young people. I am partial to a peach mango green tea Celsius when I do partake, but usually I stick with a mocha or black tea for my daily dose of caffeine.
Mickey Norton, a third-year interdisciplinary physics major, thinks the convenience of energy drinks contributes to their popularity with young people.
“Energy drinks are a lot more convenient than coffee or tea, especially based on a caffeine-per-volume ratio,” Norton said. “Most energy drinks are explicitly marketed towards young adults. Cans literally say ‘for busy college students.’”
Beyond convenience, there is one big reason young people are relying on energy drinks and caffeinated beverages. Society expects far too much from them. Most DePaul students I know are expected to be full-time students, have part-time jobs or internships (or both) and somehow still have enough time to have social lives and take care of themselves.
It’s not realistic or reasonable. We are working at inhuman levels. And for some people there have been disastrous consequences.
Larissa Nicole Rodriguez, a 17-year-old from Texas, passed away from cardiomyopathy after consuming energy drinks on a daily basis. Her family filed a lawsuit against the distributor of Alani Nu drinks, alleging that her heart condition came from drinking one a day for a year.
Norton thinks that the pressure on young people forces them to choose between sleep and all their obligations.
“I would not be able to keep up with a lot of my responsibilities without caffeine, especially now that I am already addicted to it,” Norton said. “You have to sacrifice something, and that something is usually sleep.”
We should stop putting so much pressure on young people that they sacrifice things required for basic human survival. Even as young people, we have the power to prioritize our health and be realistic about our capabilities.
I’m not saying we should ban energy drinks. That’s silly. But we should focus on making it easier for students to recover, instead of giving them more things to recover from.
One of my friends was hospitalized this year for dehydration after he drank too many energy drinks and not enough water. Since then, I have been more wary of caffeine, despite energy drink companies doing giveaways outside the Student Center almost weekly.
Eiron Cudaback is a neuroscience professor at DePaul. He says that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to examining the direct side effects of caffeine intake. But for some people, the negatives may outweigh any benefits.
“When you have coffee or an energy drink, it’s not just that it makes you not tired,” Cudaback said. “You’re also all these other things.”
According to Cudaback, caffeine can disrupt your circadian rhythm and cardiovascular and nervous systems while increasing dependency.
The average amount of caffeine in an energy drink is a lot: 150 to 200 mg per drink. For reference, an 8 ounce cup of black coffee has a little less than 100 mg of caffeine. The safe limit of caffeine for adults is around 400 mg per day, but The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommends 100 mg or less caffeine per day for teenagers.
Cudaback says too much caffeine can have an impact on the body’s sleep cycle. Normally, a compound called adenosine builds up in the brain through the day, causing sleepiness. Caffeine prevents the brain’s reception of adenosine and stops drowsiness.
Despite these risks, I’m not immune to energy drinks. I have spent my fair share of late night study sessions consuming large amounts of Celsius. And I’ve definitely felt the side effects after.
A lot of us still gravitate towards these drinks. But just because they’re an easy fix to an overwhelming problem doesn’t mean that we should rely on them instead of actual recovery.
We give ourselves plenty of caffeine. Maybe we should start giving ourselves more sleep, rest and self-care.
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