Energy Drinks...Huh?

I saw another ad on TV for an energy drink.

I kept wondering about energy drinks. See, when I think of ingesting something to get energy, I think about calories. But the energy drink being advertised was only 5 calories "per shot".

So the energy they give isn't really food energy. Instead, they are more akin to "alert" energy; basically the drinks are just stimulants, made from a mix of caffeine and sugar.

I did a little research on it. Not much in-depth, but just to get an idea of what's in these things. From this link, you can see some approximate amounts of caffeine in common drinks in milligrams per fluid ounce:
Brewed Coffee: 7 to 16
Instant Coffee: 9 to 14
Dr. Pepper in the US: 4.62
Expresso: 20 to 50
Tea: 5 to 6.33

Compare that to some common energy drinks:
AMP: 8.93
5-hour Energy: 40
Diet Pepsi Max: 5.75
Jolt Cola: 5.96
Mountain Dew MDX: 5.875
NOS: 16.25
Red Bull: 9.64

There are plenty of others but this small sample shows that there really isn't anything all that special about these drinks. They're glorified soda. Some have some herbal additives, but most studies I've run across have shown that herbal remedies are hardly worth more than marketing hype. From these tables it looks like the caffeine content, the primary reason these energy drinks are "energy" drinks, is easily rivaled by a strong tea or coffee. Turn the tea into a sweet tea and you have an energy drink for far less money.

I originally thought the energy drinks were a ripoff because they advertised energy without calories. After a skimming of materials on the subject, I see that even with drugs added energy drinks are more of a triumph of marketing over science. Making headlines by being banned in some countries were simply adding to the marketing engine.

In the end the only reason to drink energy drinks is because you like the taste. Otherwise it's just an overdose of caffeine, which probably isn't good for you anyway. Then again, this is America...