Biochemical Information
Caffeine
The most common stimulant, found in coffee, Coke and Mountain Dew is also found in much higher quantities in energy drinks. Most energy drinks contain between 70 and 200 mg. An 8 oz cup of coffee contains 110-150mg for drip, 65-125mg for percolated, and 40-80 mg for instant. Dr. Pepper gives you 41mg, and a can of Coke provides 34mg. A full can of RockStar has 160mg. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system giving the body a sense of alertness, without providing the body with usable energy. It can raise heart rate and blood pressure while dehydrating the body. A lot of people experience side effects above 200mg, which include sleeplessness, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and most commonly the jitters.
Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid that your body naturally produces. It helps regulate heartbeat, muscle contractions, and energy levels. Usually your body makes enough that you don’t need to supplement. It’s thought, but not proven, that under “stress conditions” like illness, physical exertion, or injury, the body does not create enough and supplements can help. Taurine might be a “mild inhibitory neurotransmitter” (it can sometimes prevent transmission of certain brain signals), some studies show it helps with excitable brain states. While this isn’t exactly what we want, maybe it helps level us out so we function better with elevated levels of other stimulants.
Guarana or Guaranine
Guarana comes from plants in South America. Amazonians have used it for a long time to increase alertness and energy. It’s more dense in caffeine than coffee beans (3-4% vs 1-2%). It’s not just called “caffeine” because it contains a couple other things: theobromine and theophylline. They’re found in coffees and teas, and are known stimulants—they make your body feel awake, even if it’s not. Marketing will sometimes call this one guaranine, as if it’s something different. It’s not.
B Vitamins -- inositol, niacin, niacinamide, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin, and pyridoxine hydrochloride
These are essentially the things that help you convert food (like sugar, which is found in abundance in energy drinks) to energy. The jury’s still out on whether or not they increase energy levels via supplementation. Search the interweb for info on proper dosing of the different vitamins. Common names for B vitamins are inositol, niacin, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin, and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
Ginseng
Ginseng, an adaptogenic herb, has some anti-fatigue components, supposedly relieves stress, and increase memory. Right now it’s suspected that ginseng helps stimulate the hypothalamic and pituitary glands, which then secrete something called adrenal corticotropic hormone. Rare side effects such as diarrhea and headache have been reported.
Ginkgo Biloba
This ingredient is named after the rare tree it originates from. It is believed to help with memory retention, concentration, circulation, acts as an anti-depressant, and even shows signs of helping people with Alzheimer’s. The German government recognizes it as something that helps with memory loss, concentration, and depression. 60mg is a standard supplementation dose, and you can easily take 240mg. It is advised, however, that most energy drinks do not contain enough ginkgo to be of any benefit. People on anti-depressants shouldn’t take ginkgo and some of the other side effects include blood thinning, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, and restlessness.
L-Carnitine
An amino acid usually created by your liver and kidneys, this stuff helps up your metabolism. Because of the way it interacts with your body, it may act as a thermogenic and help increase weight loss and endurance during exercise. The jury’s still out on whether or not you need to supplement unless you have an unusual diet, but you can take 2-6 grams without worry. Make sure you get L-Carnitine, which is the type your body creates and can use. D-Carnitine is “inactive” and may actually hurt endurance levels. Rare side effects include include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
L-glutamine
An amino acid that aids in muscle building and maintenance.
Sugars, fructose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, ribose
Glucose is the body’s preferred fuel. That’s why you get hyper with a lot of sugar. Energy drinks contain a ton of sugar. Therefore, energy. It’s a carbohydrate, and a lot of exercise regiments suggest a good dose of carbs for workouts lasting more than an hour. However, to much sugar intake has been linked to diabetes.
Anti-oxidants-- Vitamins C and E, Vitamin A, and Selenium, retinal, beta-carotene, nicotinimide
Anti-oxidants are things that help your body gracefully recover from the damage of free radicals. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, so claiming that your energy drink has a lot of anti-oxidants is like saying you’re buying really expensive orange juice. But they’re good, they help fend off illness and prevent cellular damage. Vitamins C and E, Vitamin A (aka retinol, beta-carotene), and selenium are all anti-oxidants.
Glucuronolactone
Glucuronolactone (DGL) occurs naturally in the human body as glucose is broken down by the liver. All connective tissue contains this compound. DGL is believed to aid in detoxification, freeing hormones and other chemicals, and the biosynthesis of vitamin C. It is placed in energy drinks because it is believed to help with glycogen depletion by preventing other substances from depleting glycogen supplies in the muscles.
Yerba Mate
This substance is derived from leaves of a shrub in the Holly family. It is a natural source of caffeine, but some believe that the form of caffeine in Yerba Mate’ doesn’t produce the negative side affects like the caffeine in coffee and guarana.
Creatine
Creatine is naturally obtained by eating meat. Creatine helps with transporting energy to the muscles and is usually found in energy drinks and products that are marketed to body builders.
Acai Berry
This ingredient (pronounced ah-sah-ee) is finding its way into more and more energy drinks. Acai berry comes from the Acai Palm tree which is found in South America. The berries are rich in anti-oxidants, but not as much as a concord grape or blueberry. Most of the acai berry benefits have no scientific basis and are attributed to marketing hype.
Milk Thistle
This ingredient mainly found in Rockstar and a few other drinks is used as a liver detoxifying agent. It is placed in energy drinks not really for any energy enhancing properties but as a counter agent to mixing energy drinks with alcohol as milk thistle is supposed to help with hangovers and detoxing the liver from alcohol. However, studies show that the amount put in energy drinks would be of hardly any benefit to consumers
Sodium citrate, sodium chloride, potassium sorbate, ascorbic acid, citric acid
Tart flavoring used in food products to enhance taste. Citric acid is also a compound used in the process that converts sugar into usable energy for the body.
Sucralose
Sucralose is a zero-calorie sugar substitute artificial sweetener. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E955. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar),[2] twice as sweet as saccharin, and 3.3 times as sweet as aspartame. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions. Therefore, it can be used in baking or in products that require a longer shelf life.
Sorbic acid, benzoic acid, Calcium Disodium Salt of EDTA
These are preservatives used to keep your energy drink fresh for months on end.
Beta-Carotene
Used as a coloring for many foods.
Gum Arabic, ester gum, glycerol ester of wood rosin
Gum arabic, also known as gum acacia, chaar gund, char goond or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal. The gum is harvested commercially from wild trees throughout the Sahel from Senegal and Sudan to Somalia, although it has been historically cultivated in Arabia and West Asia. Gum arabic is a complex mixture of polysaccharides and glycoproteins that is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer. It is edible and has E number E414. Gum arabic is a key ingredient in traditional lithography and is used in printing, paint production, glue, cosmetics and various industrial applications, including viscosity control in inks and in textile industries, although cheaper materials compete with it for many of these roles
Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a creamy-whitehygroscopicspraydried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose, and might be either moderately sweet or almost flavorless
Monopotassium phosphate, salt, sodium chloride
Used as a pH buffer and a salt provider for the bloodstream.