JITTER JUICE OR WORKOUT WINNER?

Before you add energy drinks to your daily diet or workout, you should read the label

Marketed at a wide audience — from professional athletes training for the Olympics to high school students studying for an exam — energy drinks have become increasingly popular over the last decade or so.

Filled to the brim with a long list of impossible–to–pronounce ingredients and packaged in aesthetically pleasing colours, energy drinks are hard to miss when scanning the servo’s fridge for something to drink.

Most energy drinks contain taurine (an amino acid which helps to regulate your heartbeat and muscle contractions) and vitamin B (to help convert your food into energy).

Joining these, you’ll often find ginkgo biloba for increased concentration and blood circulation, and ginseng for its stress relief and fatigue–fighting abilities.

Another common ingredient is L–carnitine, an amino acid that helps regulate metabolism and energy levels.

On the other hand, you will also find copious amounts of caffiene and sugar in energy drinks.

All these ingredients work together to temporarily boost your energy levels and alertness, but this is followed by a sudden drop in your blood sugar levels, leaving you feeling worse than before you chugged a can of your favourite flavour.

Other negative effects energy drinks can have on your health, can include weight gain and belly fat accumulation (counter–productive if you drink it to boost your performance in the gym), sleep deprivation, heart arrythmia, and type 2 diabetes (among other issues).

While they may be tasty and seemingly have the ability to cure a hangover, energy drinks should not be consumed regularly and offer little–to–no benefits to your workout.