Doctors from Australia says that the health and rehydration benefits from energy and sports drinks still remains unproven. Furthermore, as backed by researchers who say the same, the use of sports icons and celebrities to promote such beverages misleads the public and so such commercials should be banned.
Several reports have been published in research journals that debunk the claims made by energy drink manufacturers regarding the rehydration benefit of sports and energy drinks. In fact, researchers have said that water, in itself, is already an excellent rehydration beverage even for the high activity athletes.
In a statement released by Simon Outram and Bob Stewart of the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Active Living, in Melbourne, Australia, they said that the public view the viability of energy drinks and sports beverages as integral for overall performance as they promise endurance and strength along with promises of rehydration and ion replenishment not for the actual health benefit they offer but because of successful and well-plotted promotion schemes.
Aside from hyped-up advertisements that mislead the public. Sports drinks are also found by different health research organizations to cause obesity in young kids. This is after several research has found a link between the growing consumption of such beverage with the increasing counts of obesity in school-aged kids.
As for children, however, the most remarkable buzz revolves around Toddlers and Tiaras' contestant Alana Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo Child who jugs down her Go-go Juice which is a blend of Red Bull and Mountain Dew to give her the energy she needs to tend to her child pageant queen activities. Alana's Go-go Juice, has been found to have a caffeine content found in 2 cups of coffee.
According to KidsHealth.org, too much intake of caffeine in kids (and even in adults) result to jitteriness and nervousness, upset stomach, headaches, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure.
