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Energy Boost

How Do You Get Your Energy Boost?

Article written by Austin Goodwin.

In a society where people have an unlimited capacity to do work in the palm of their hands, college students face ever-increasing pressure to fill their cups to the brim with courses and involvement. With the mindset of “go, go, go,” it is easy to lose track of what makes you go. College campuses are saturated with energy sources between convenience stores loaded with energy drinks and coffee shops on every corner. While these energy drinks and coffees will give students an energy boost, it is important to understand exactly how these beverages affect a person’s overall health.

Energy Drinks

Brand strategists prioritize marketing energy drinks to college students, the most energy-deprived demographic. Students view these energy beverages, donned in sleek metallic cans and rich with modern design, as the one-size-fits-all solution to their lack of energy without considering the synthetic makeup.

Caffeine, i.e. survival juice. Most energy drinks offer the same amount or more caffeine than a coffee of the same size. Energy drinks have additional stimulants in their mix, like taurine, guarana, L-carnitine, and B vitamins. While these stimulants are legal, the doses of the stimulants in energy drinks are several times higher than what is consumed in a normal diet. It is unsafe for college students to subject themselves to such highs and lows long-term, and should opt for a balanced alternative.

The plague of energy drinks is sugar, most averaging over 50 grams of sugar (12 teaspoons for reference). The sugar content varies between energy drinks, but the crash coming from a sugar-induced insulin spike and subsequent crash from the stimulants wearing off leaves students feeling worse than they did before drinking one. Choosing “All Natural” mixes that energize water and other beverages provide an energy boost without the crash experienced with energy drinks.

College students may find themselves chasing energy drink crashes with another drink. The cycle of ups and downs for the body is dangerous both mentally and physically. Add in the jitters that come from an unbalanced energy boost and it becomes difficult to concentrate. Students may consider a sugar-free variety, but the hidden effects of artificial sweeteners are unknown to most.

Artificial sweeteners

While artificial sweeteners like sucralose are calorie-free and sugar-free, they can still spike blood glucose and insulin levels, leading to energy crashes. Additionally, sucralose itself as a primary sweetener can alter digestive bacteria in the stomach, leading to long-lasting complications with nutrition and medicine absorption. Making drinks “sugar-free” by pumping them with synthetic ingredients doesn’t mitigate the negative effects, despite how “sugar-free” is marketed as a safer alternative.

Coffee

College students looking for their energy boost and caffeine fix but not wanting the negative effects of energy drinks choose America’s favorite morning beverage to get them through study sessions and classes. The warmth of coffee on a cold winter day or a long, lonely night adds an emotional effect not found with energy drinks.

The caffeine content in coffee for a home brew is around 100 mg, so college students can drink larger amounts of coffee than energy drinks and stay within the caffeine limit. However, coffee is an appetite suppressant and a diuretic; lack of hydration and balanced dieting can lead to jitters and headaches from the caffeine spike. Finding ways to energize and hydrate is a more ideal way to energize without the negative after-effects.

The bitterness and lack of flavor from a recommended plain black coffee is a detractor, which is where specialty coffee beverages at coffee shops gain their luster. A coffee loaded with caramel, chocolate, whipped cream, and sweetener tastes delicious, but adds more sugar and a crash akin to energy drinks. Additionally, the added calories from a sweetened store-bought coffee or home-brewed coffee can lead to unhealthy weight gain.

Students should consider the negative effects of the beverages they consume for an energy boost. Coffee is less synthetic and safer in large amounts, but can be inconvenient. Energy drinks are more artificial and concentrated, but pose greater health risks. College students need an energy source that is clean, doesn’t make them jittery or irritable, and is free of a sugar crash. Coffee and energy drinks hold their value as energy sources and students should consume with their individual pros and cons in mind.

pureLYFT

A viable alternative to coffee and energy drinks is pureLYFT, which is Clean Caffeine extracted from unroasted green coffee beans offering the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. pureLYFT is all-natural like coffee, more convenient than an energy drink, packed with vitamins A and B complex, and lightly sweetened with Stevia Leaf. Whether students are using it at home, going out, in the gym, or in class, they can get the energy boost they need without the fillers they don’t.

 

Starbucks Coffee

Does Starbucks Coffee Give You Cancer?

A California judge has ruled companies selling coffee need to warn consumers that the drink—including Starbucks coffee—is carcinogenic, since it contains the chemical acrylamide.

In a new filing, coffee companies, including Starbucks, are fighting back against the ruling.

Elihu Berle, a Los Angeles superior court judge, accused coffee companies of failing to demonstrate the carcinogen posed no significant health risk.

“Defendants failed to satisfy their burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health,” Berle wrote.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics—the group behind the lawsuit—wanted to penalize businesses for not warning their customers that coffee contains a carcinogenic substance.

Companies may even have to pay fines if they don’t warn customers about the cancer risk posed by acrylamide.

But the coffee industry has claimed the chemical, which is produced in the roasting process, is present at harmless levels and should be exempt from the law because it occurs naturally in the process required to make the beans flavorful.

In a new filing, the coffee companies wrote: “Coffee consumption does not increase the risk of any chronic disease and is independently associated with a decreased risk of several major chronic diseases,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a statement, the National Coffee Association said: “Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage. This lawsuit has confused customers, and does nothing to improve public health.”

What is Acrylamide?

Acrylamide in large quantities could be dangerous, but it’s in many foods we consume and cannot be removed from coffee.

It naturally forms when plants and grains are cooked at high temperatures.

It’s created in the process where heat transforms sugars and amino acids in ways that change flavor and tend to brown food.

Officials at the European Food Safety Authority told Business Insider: “It is likely [acrylamide] has been present in food since cooking began.”

All baking, frying and roasting produces the chemical, but only in foods derived from plants, including grains, not necessarily in meat or fish.

There is evidence to suggest it poses a risk to humans, as industrial accidents when people have inhaled large quantities of it have shown.

But the quantity found in a cup of coffee is almost negligible in comparison.

Health Benefits of Coffee

Existing research shows regular coffee drinkers have a lower risk of cancer.

A least one major review of studies found the more coffee people drink, the lower their risk for liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Another review of more than 200 studies found people who drank three or four cups of coffee a day were 19 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.

Other research shows those who drink more coffee are less likely to suffer from dementia.

However, most of these studies have been observational, meaning it is difficult to establish cause and effect. Therefore, coffee may not be responsible for the reductions in disease risk.

Further reading: “Avocado Hand” Injuries Are on the Rise