Last Updated on April 23, 2023 by admin
Most adults begin their day with a steaming mug of coffee, but not you. You prefer an energy drink. Then when that mid-afternoon slump hits, you get your motor running with another energy drink. You might even consume one in the evening so you’re awake enough to enjoy your personal time. How many energy drinks is too much and are you at the limit?
It’s not necessarily how many energy drinks is too many, but how much caffeine is too much. Once you surpass 400 milligrams of caffeine daily, you could have symptoms such as muscle tremors, mood changes, headache, and insomnia.
If you gulp down so many energy drinks a day that you can barely keep track anymore, then you’re not going to want to miss this article. Ahead, we’ll discuss more of the gnarly symptoms you could experience from overdoing it on the caffeine as well as why the sugar in energy drinks is just as bad. Keep reading!
How Much Caffeine and Sugar in Energy Drinks Is Too Much?
Two dangerous ingredients in an energy drink should cause you to curtail how much you consume. The first ingredient is caffeine and the second is sugar.
The daily recommended limit of caffeine varies, but it’s in the range of 400 milligrams. If you’re someone with a sensitivity to caffeine, then you’ll want to ingest even less of the stimulant. The same is true if you’re pregnant, in which experts recommend no more than 200 milligrams a day.
According to guidelines from the American Heart Foundation, your intake of sugar shouldn’t exceed 36 grams as an adult man (nine teaspoons) and 24 grams as an adult woman (six teaspoons). In other words, once you surpass 100 calories of sugar consumed, you’re overdoing it.
What Happens When You Drink Too Much Caffeine? What about Sugar?
Both caffeine and sugar are addictive substances. You might start by having one energy drink a day but soon increase your intake to two or three, even four or five cans. If you try to go without, you tend to get nasty withdrawal symptoms.
Indeed, that’s not just your imagination. Caffeine withdrawal can lead to symptoms such as mood changes, exhaustion, headache, and even depression. The same symptoms are true of sugar, but you may have strong cravings on top of everything else.
Do not miss our article: Are Energy Drinks Vegan?
Yet giving in to the caffeine and the sugar is an even worse idea. By ingesting more than 400 milligrams of caffeine, you could experience a whole host of uncomfortable symptoms. These include:
- Muscle tremors
- Elevated heart rate
- Moodiness
- Nervousness
- Insomnia
- Headache
You might also notice that you’re having a hard time controlling your urination and that you have to go much more often than usual.
Consuming more than the recommended daily sugar limit could cause you to gain weight. If you continue padding your diet with energy drinks, that bit of weight gain can turn into obesity. Being obese carries with it many health risks. Here’s a list:
- Inability to do everyday tasks due to pain
- Breathing issues
- Sleep apnea
- Osteoarthritis
- Gallbladder disease
- Stroke
- Coronary heart disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Hypertension
How Much Caffeine and Sugar Is in Your Favorite Energy Drinks?
In case you don’t check the nutrition label on your energy drink, here is how much caffeine and sugar your favorite beverages have per serving.
Red Bull
The Original variety of Red Bull contains 111 milligrams of caffeine per 12 fluid ounces or 369 grams. That same serving also has 37 grams of sugar, which is 1 gram over what an adult male should consume in a day.
Monster
Monster Energy has 86 milligrams of caffeine and 27 grams of sugar per 240-gram serving, which is a single can.
Rockstar
Depending on which energy drink in the Rockstar family you most prefer, the caffeine content is different. Rockstar Punched is available in 16-ounce cans and has 240 milligrams of caffeine, almost half your daily limit. Rockstar Original has only 160 milligrams in the same serving.
The same Original flavor boasts 29.4 grams of sugar, which is an astronomically high amount of the sweet stuff per can. The Punched variety is even worse with 31 grams of sugar in one can.
Eastroc Super Drink
If you prefer Eastroc Super Drink over other brands, this is one of the smarter options. One can has 50 milligrams of caffeine.
How to Cut Back on Caffeine and Sugar
Take any of those above numbers and multiply them by however many energy drinks you consume in a day to get the full picture of the damage you’re doing to your health. You could be ingesting hundreds of milligrams of caffeine and mountains of sugar. Although cutting back isn’t easy, it needs to be done. Here’s how to quit your caffeine and sugar habits.
Start Slow
Like withdrawal from any addictive substance, you can’t go cold turkey. Instead of having a whole can of energy drink in the morning, maybe you drink half the can now and half in a little while. This will cut back on how many cans you consume over the whole day.
Avoid Other Sources of Caffeine or Sugar
This is a lot harder to do with sugar since it’s in so many foods, even those that don’t necessarily taste sweet. We’d suggest reading the ingredient labels of everything in your fridge, freezer, and pantry and then amending your diet accordingly.
Make More Meals at Home
When you cook at home, you control the ingredients. You’ll find it’s a lot easier to steer clear of sugar and caffeine when you’re in the driver’s seat of what you eat and drink.
Conclusion
You should not have more than 400 milligrams of caffeine or 36 grams of sugar each day. If you’re an energy drink lover, then you can reach your limits for both caffeine and sugar after only a can or two.
Overconsumption like this can be dangerous for your health, putting you at risk of obesity, mood changes, and even insomnia. Although sugar and caffeine are addictive, these substances are worth scaling back on or even quitting altogether. Best of luck!
You can contact us if you have any questions or Ideas.
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