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Energy Drink Ingredients Continue Down Unhealthy Path

Good health hard to find in new rash of energy drinks

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 31, 2009

• Energy Drink Ingredients Continue Down Unhealthy Path • Energy Drinks Work, But Not The Way You Think • Caffeine Experts Want Warning Labels for Energy Drinks • Energy Drinks Can Lead To Caffeine "Overdose" • Anheuser-Busch Ends Alcoholic Energy Drink Sales • Feds Pressed To Probe Alcohol 'Energy' Drinks • Anheuser-Busch Spikes Spykes • Anheuser_Busch Defends Spykes • States Blast Bud Extra, Spykes, TILT • Experts Offer Tips on Teenage Binge Drinking • Alcohol Ads Linked to Teen Drinking • MADD: Teen Access to Alcohol Widespread --- • News for Parents

Despite the constant publicity about the potential danger of energy drink ingredients, the latest energy drink launches aren't getting any healthier, according to a report by Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD).

Nevertheless, the popular beverage market continues to grow with sales increasing over 240 percent from 2004 to 2009. In the same time frame, there has been a flood of new energy drinks to the market with new product launches up by over 110 percent.

Analyzing the ingredients in energy drinks launched between 2004 and 2008, Mintel GNPD found caffeine in nearly all energy drinks produced. Meanwhile, taurine, the other popular, yet controversial energy-boosting ingredient, was found in more than one in four energy drinks in 2004, but has slightly reduced to one in five in 2008.

"There is a significant market right now for drinks offering a boost of energy," notes Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel global new products expert. "Although consumers say they try to eat and drink better, it appears that energy drinks is not a category in which that happens, as they continue to choose options that contain sugar, caffeine and taurine, all of which can have negative effects if consumed in excess."

Mintel found that suppliers are producing some new energy drinks that boast more health-focused claims, but they are in the minority. Energy drinks showing a 'low, no or reduced' calorie claim have increased from 6 percent to 11 percent between 2004 and 2008.

Within the same time frame, energy drinks featuring a 'low, no or reduced' sugar claim have held steady at one in seven new launches. In addition, better-for-you energizers like vitamin B6 and guarana have remained flat appearing in approximately 22 percent and 12 percent of new product launches, respectively.

Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc., director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), tells ConsumerAffairs.com, "Like all sugary soft drinks, energy drinks contribute to obesity. What makes them worse than most soft drinks is that they're marketed as being healthful."

According to Wootan, "It's really important for soft drinks that that the calories be listed per container as opposed to per serving because often times you get a drink that says '100 calories,' but there's 2 1/2 servings per bottle."

In 2008, Ocean Spray introduced a line of Cranergy Energy Drinks billed as "naturally energizing." This line of drinks contains real fruit juice blended with natural energizers including five B Vitamins, Vitamin C and green tea extract. These new non-carbonated drinks are clinically shown to improve alertness and make people feel less tired.

Bazza High-Energy Tea is another new energy-inducing beverage made from green tea and EGCG antioxidants and calls itself the "smarter high-energy alternative."

According to Dornblaser, "these new, natural energy-enhancing products could threaten to steal share from their less healthy counterparts. Often they are not sold in the energy drinks aisle, but in the juice or alternative beverage aisle, which may protect them from the unhealthy stigma some consumers associate with energy drinks."

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