Energy Drinks Killing Teens? Not really.

It's something that we here about from time to time. A teenager/young adult dies from cardiac arrest and the family or doctors want to blame energy drinks. Let's face it, energy drinks are the easy way out. But how much caffeine is really in these energy drinks that are supposedly killing our youth?

You would actually be surprised to find out that most of these energy drinks have less caffeine that a cup of coffee, but does coffee get blamed? Of course not, because why would we blame something as wholesome as Folders or Starbucks. Sure, we can blame Starbucks for making us fat, but not cardiac arrest.

The main energy drink that is called into question today is Red Bull. Why is it being called into question you ask? Well by now, you may have heard about a 16 year old girl that recently passed away in Mexico while away with friends. Well they have ruled her death due to cardiac arrest and the culprit is those darn energy drinks. But Red Bull only has 80 mg's of caffeine per serving. Coffee on the other hand has 85 mg's of caffeine per cup. Now, lets look at this. Let's say she had several cans through out the day, could this still contribute? Well, if she had 20 cans, then sure. But let's look at some facts, caffeine is a natural vitamin. Yes, it occurs in nature. Caffeine is also a diuretic, which means that it can dehydrate you.

So lets go back to this girl. It's close to summer, she's on the beach, she's in Mexico. Now it is probably also very warm, she has probably, even though she is only 16, had some alcohol, and hasn't really been hydrating with water. Now we are leading to an actual cause. But of course the media wants to blame energy drinks, there have been claims that I have seen that she only had four Red Bulls, some state more. Now I want you to think about this. Most athletes/fitness minded people drink Pre-workout supplements. These supplements on average contain 250 mg's of caffeine. Most people take 2 scoops of these supplements, but we keep ourselves hydrated, and in all honesty, if we drop dead because we took the supplement which is way more caffeinated than a Red Bull, we would know it was our fault. You know what you are putting in your body. If you aren't handling it responsible, that's on you.

Oh, and if you have read the posts from people that sell Verve from Vemma, Verve also has 80 mg's of caffeine, it's no different than Red Bull, they are just using this as an opportunity to push their product.

It doesn't get easier

I know, that isn't really a reassuring title for a post that should be motivating. But this isn't really a motivating post. This is about the cold hard facts of being on your journey to being healthy. This is about the obstacles that are out there when coming from the side of food addiction. If you are trying to lose weight, then you likely have a relationship with food other than just to live.

Just think about other addictions out there be it alcohol or nicotine. When you decide to quit, you can actually separate yourself from those temptations. Sure, you are still going to crave those things for a while, but you don't actually have to be around them. Well that is unless you like to torture yourself. But when it comes to food addiction, you can't not be around food. You have to have food to survive. Over the years you have probably used food for many purposes. I completely understand that too. Food can be used for comfort, celebration or just pure enjoyment. Somewhere in our history, we linked other things to food besides survival.

Sure, we still eat to survive, we don't have a choice there. But do we really need chocolate cake or cookies? What about pizza or gourmet hamburgers? Now I am not saying that you have to leave all those things behind. Heck, I like to enjoy some oreos, ice cream, pizza and burgers every single week. But those cheats make it very easy to fall off the wagon and re-link food to enjoyment and not survival. The link will never go away. We can't separate ourselves from it, and it's a constant struggle.

I really wish I could tell you that it gets easier as you go, but it doesn't. All I can recommend is for you not to completely deprive yourself of these foods, but limit them to just one time a week or every other week. Like stated above, even one cheat meal can throw you back into a downward spiral. Remember to eat to fuel your body. Plus, eating to fuel your body doesn't have to be gross bland food, you can make it taste good, and something that you might enjoy. You don't have to have chicken and rice everyday, change it up, use spices and seasoning. Don't be afraid of salt either. Often times when you remove all salt, your body starts to crave things, and then you will binge on different unhealthy items just to try and satisfy that craving. Keep you diet balanced and keep positive.