The Herald on Sunday

The youth-dominated hi-energy drinks market should not be for kids

- Vicky Allan

LIKE many people I like to start my day with an energy drink. Preferably one, occasional­ly two, depending on my morning oomph levels. These, though, are not cans of Monster or Red Bull, picked up from the corner shop as I speed-walk my way to my kids’ school drop-off, but generous cups of coffee, occasional­ly with a great big dollop of frothy milk.

There’s nothing new, in other words, about energy drinks. Coffee, with a teaspoon of sugar, or no spoons at all, is almost a staple for most of us. So, on one level, when people start fussing about the marketing and consumptio­n of energy drinks as if they were some dangerous new drug, or when there is a report published, as there was last week by the academic think-tank the Food Research Collaborat­ion, suggesting that sales of energy drinks should be banned to under-16s, we’re in familiar territory. We’re looking at a problem which has a long history. This is just its newest version – and all the more worth paying attention to because of that.

Often when people in the soft drinks industry try to dismiss fears over energy drinks they note they’re no worse than that coffee you’re drinking. And they are half right. But it’s not coffee that children are drinking. It’s many spoonfuls of sugar. It is those drinks which can contain as much caffeine as two or three espressos, and sometimes it is three or four of these drinks in a day. There has been a growing concern among parents over the issue (and I must confess I’m one of them). The Scotland-based Responsibl­e Retailing Of Energy Drinks also wants retailers not to sell high-energy drinks to children under 16.

The World Health Organisati­on estimates that 68 per cent of adolescent­s and 18 per cent of children under 10 regularly consume energy drinks. Britain has one of the highest consumptio­n rates in Europe, with one in 10 British teenagers drinking four to five energy drinks a week.

With plans announced in the last Budget for a sugary drinks tax, what kids drink is one of the most fraught and campaigned-over issues surroundin­g diet today. Partly this is because these drinks are nutritiona­lly unnecessar­y. No-one needs a sweet drink. The soft drinks industry is therefore a constant target. We don’t think they should be selling us our sugar. We don’t think they should be selling us their sweeteners. We don’t think they should be selling us their caffeine. We don’t even really think they should be selling us their water – not since we can get perfectly good tap water for free, and without littering the planet with plastic.

Meanwhile, it’s not just that many kids have an energy drink problem, it’s that we all as a culture share a caffeine problem. In 2013, Dr Jack James, editor of the Journal Of Caffeine Research, said that caffeine should be regulated just like cigarettes and alcohol, since “awareness is increasing that its consumptio­n is associated with substantia­l harm.”

Around 3mg of caffeine per kg of body weight is the daily recommenda­tion, making one small energy drink the safe limit for an average nine-yearold. According to a paper published in the American journal Pediatrics in 2011, these drinks “have been reported in associatio­n with serious adverse effects, especially in children, adolescent­s, and young adults with seizures, diabetes, cardiac abnormalit­ies, or mood and behavioura­l disorders”.

For several years, my brother, a secondary school teacher, has been gritting his teeth every time energy drinks are mentioned. It is his belief that they are a major contributo­r to bad behaviour and lack of concentrat­ion in the classroom. He’s not alone in thinking this. In an online survey of teachers carried out by the National Associatio­n of Schoolmast­ers Union of Women Teachers, nearly one in seven (13 per cent) of teachers cited use of caffeine and energy drinks among pupils as a cause of poor behaviour. Melvyn Lynch, headteache­r of Forfar Academy, clearly also believes this – he sent a letter to all parents telling them that highly caffeinate­d drinks would be confiscate­d on school property.

But it’s not just secondary school pupils. I’ve seen primary school kids in Leith pushing a supermarke­t trolley around the paths while downing lurid bottles of energy drink. I’ve witnessed similarly aged children with cans in hands on the way to school.

With kids and diet there is so much to worry about. We worry over sugar. We worry over fat. But energy drinks are one of those problems that seemed to sneak in through the back door. Suddenly, there they were lining the shelves in newsagents and supermarke­ts. There they were shouting out their presence in bold logos and snazzy colours, often declaring with warning labels they were not for children. And they were there, somehow at the lips and in the hands of children. This report is a reminder that it’s time now to stop turning a blind eye. Time to pay attention to what’s on the label – to acknowledg­e that this youth-dominated drink market is not for kids.

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