The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only regulated soft drinks with 65mg of caffeine per 12 ounces. Energy drinks that are not regulated by the FDA contain about 500mg grams of caffeine setting an alarm for public schools and adolescents. According to Pennington et al. (2010), specific effects have been reported by adolescents that include jitteriness, nervousness, dizziness, the inability to focus, difficulty concentrating, gastrointestinal upset, and insomnia, due to the consumption of energy drinks.
Researchers gathered several quantitative and qualitative research articles to find out if their were any patterns to put a stop to these energy drink consumption in adolescents. One article by Malinauskas et al. (2007) reported that out of 496 students at a state university in the Central Atlantic region of the United States, 51% of them consumed energy drinks on a daily basis. There reasons to consume were due to insufficient sleep, to increase energy while studying, driving long periods, drinking alcohol, and to treat a hangover.
Researchers concluded that there is a need for educational intervention in the consumption of energy drinks. There is significant evidence that teens need a reinforcement to know the dangers of energy consumption. School nurses, as the article recommends, are great candidates to set forth this project to get teens off energy drinks. My question now is: Do you think that teens will follow through an education intervention? What does this mean for college students who rely on energy drinks?
References:
Pennington et al. (2007) Energy Drinks: A New Health Hazard for Adolescents. The Journal of School Nursing OnlineFirst. doi:10.1177/1059840510374188
Thanks for the share, Amalia! That’s interesting that energy drinks contain so much caffeine, yet it is only sodas that are regulated for their caffeine input. An education intervention would help to some extent because it is the first part of the battle, but considering students are using it to perform better on tasks like studying or driving, it probably will not eliminate it all.
ReplyDeleteAfter your post, I looked into plausible ways of preventing energy drink consumption for younger people. While it was an opinion article, I found Crawford and Gosliner’s (2017) suggestions to be interesting and potentially more effective: better nutrition labels, decreasing marketing to adolescents, and the FDA should regulate the amount of caffeine added to energy drinks just like they do sodas. Although the latter option would impact an individual’s autonomy, the ability to freely choose what drinks they consume, the American Academy of Pediatrics states no children or adolescents should ever consume energy drinks due to the health risks from the stimulants (Crawford & Gosliner, 2017).
Unfortunately, sometimes some freedoms must be sacrificed to keep people safe and follow the ethical principle of nonmalfeasance.
References:
Crawford, P., & Gosliner, W. (2017, May 25). Energy drinks are killing young people. It's time to stop that . Energy . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/energy-drinks-are-killing-young-people-its-time-to-stop-that/2017/05/25/6343be9c-3ff8-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html