Red Bull Study

[TXBK]

Just man up and drink the original water with caffeine: COFFEE

Ugh, gross. I have yet to acquire a desire to drink that stuff, or anything flavored that way. I prefer my caffeine cold.

[WillBrink]

Just man up and drink the original water with caffeine: COFFEE

Not quit correct. I love coffee (there's a dedicated thread to coffee I started here if you wanna talk coffee...) but coffee and caffeine have different effects. See link in post #9 for details on that.

[Abraham]

A friend told me his girlfriend had to be taken to emergency room for an overdose of so-called energy drinks.

The ER folks said they get similar cases quite often.

I guess some folks can't metabolize mega doses of those concoctions.

Give me coffee.

A quart in the morning and I'm good for the day.

[brickboy240]

The caffeine in coffee is naturally occurring. The stimulants in those energy drinks is synthetic or highly processed. the energy drinks that are "zero calorie" have chemical sweeteners like aspartame.

Sorry..I just don't think these things are a good idea at all.

The most that they will do is ramp you up for an hour or so then comes a huge crash. Some don't do a damn thing. I tried one of those "5 Hour Energy" bottles once and I swear it did not do a thing to me. I could chug one and hit the bed and not notice a thing. LOL

No thanks...I will skip them all...including Gatorade.

[JBecker 72]

I really love the taste of Red Bull. It's not something I drink for caffeine though. It's also delicious with vodka.

[WillBrink]

The caffeine in coffee is naturally occurring. The stimulants in those energy drinks is synthetic or highly processed. the energy drinks that are "zero calorie" have chemical sweeteners like aspartame.

Sorry..I just don't think these things are a good idea at all.

The most that they will do is ramp you up for an hour or so then comes a huge crash. Some don't do a damn thing. I tried one of those "5 Hour Energy" bottles once and I swear it did not do a thing to me. I could chug one and hit the bed and not notice a thing. LOL

No thanks...I will skip them all...including Gatorade.

That's not what makes the difference. Article covers the difference. The various studies showing benefits in cognition, performance, etc used synthetic caffeine. There's nothing inherently negative about synthetic caffeine.

[Double3]

I snagged some 200mg caffeine pills that work well.

[TXBK]

That's not what makes the difference. Article covers the difference. The various studies showing benefits in cognition, performance, etc used synthetic caffeine. There's nothing inherently negative about synthetic caffeine.

This is what brought about my insane consumption of energy drinks. The original drinks that contained gross amounts of sugar and quite a few calories brought on jitters, made it hard to concentrate, and was followed by a crash. Not to mention, urine that looked radioactive. Once I started drinking the ones with little to no calories and zero sugar, all of the "felt" adverse effects went away. I was able to sustain mental and physical performance for extended periods of time. I don't know what the difference is between Red Bulls and Rockstar, other than the size.

I'm not sure about the extent of damage that I did to my body, but it helped me to advance in my profession. I believe that the only thing that would have helped with my mental clarity would have been sleep, and the only thing that would have kept me stay awake longer would have been amphetamines. Instead, I drank Rockstars by the cases, and never "felt" any adverse health effects. I could carry on for 4-5 days with 1-2 hours of sleep per day, before I had to have a good 12 hours of sleep. Energy drinks with synthetic caffeine do have their place.

[WillBrink]

This is what brought about my insane consumption of energy drinks.

Meh. Those studies had been around many decades before the energy drink category ever existed. Two, good old moderation strikes again: studies show what dose improves performance and such minus jitters, etc are also well known and the mil has done a ton of studies on that also. Hence to repeat: There's nothing inherently negative about synthetic caffeine, but per usual, the dose makes the "poison"

The original drinks that contained gross amounts of sugar and quite a few calories brought on jitters, made it hard to concentrate, and was followed by a crash. Not to mention, urine that looked radioactive.

Lots of stuff contains "gross" amounts of sugar, see above comments on dose, and caffeine does not color urine. Per usual, people need to read labels and use some common sense. I have never drank a single energy drink personally already knowing they are simply sugar water + caffeine or synthetic sweetener water + caffeine and label decoration of other stuff either in minute doses or worthless at any dose.

Once I started drinking the ones with little to no calories and zero sugar, all of the "felt" adverse effects went away. I was able to sustain mental and physical performance for extended periods of time. I don't know what the difference is between Red Bulls and Rockstar, other than the size.

I'm not sure about the extent of damage that I did to my body, but it helped me to advance in my profession. I believe that the only thing that would have helped with my mental clarity would have been sleep, and the only thing that would have kept me stay awake longer would have been amphetamines. Instead, I drank Rockstars by the cases, and never "felt" any adverse health effects. I could carry on for 4-5 days with 1-2 hours of sleep per day, before I had to have a good 12 hours of sleep. Energy drinks with synthetic caffeine do have their place.

Per above OP, the only benefits you felt were due to the caffeine it appears, and caffeine is very cheap. If one does not take a few seconds to read labels and see what the products contain, one may ingest more sugar, cals, and caffeine than they intended.

[TXBK]

I was simply stating that I needed something legal to keep me awake and able to concentrate for extended periods of time. There were probably better prescription options, but no other option was more tasty.