Are Energy Drinks Really Good For You?

What is all this crave about Gatorade, Powerade, Red Bull and the American drink, Coke? Are these high-energy drinks good for your teeth? Coke is not really a high-energy drink, but it is part of America and it is a very successful drink. What about fruit juices. Should we be drinking fruit juices or giving our kids fruit juices?

Gatorade has come out with a new line of products and colors which looks much more appealing than water and probably encourages you to drink it over water. It must provide some type of benefit, like adding electrolytes.

An electrolyte is a salt that can carry and electrical charge, so basically it's sodium and potassium that your body looses by sweating. For most athletes and individuals engaged in physical activity, the use of sports drinks does not provide a benefit over water.  If you are a doing heavy-duty exercising, for more than an hour, then a high-energy drink would benefit you. But even mineral water has a very high pH and it would not erode your teeth as much as high-energy drinks.

Energy Drinks Can Erode Your Teeth

Acidic beverages have a low pH and are thought to increase the potential for dental erosion, you know the irreversible effect of the loss of dental hard tissue. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, NCBI, popular beverages in the United States, can produce dental erosion. "Enamel lesion depths after beverage exposures were greatest for Gatorade, followed by those for Red Bull and Coke that were greater than those for Diet Coke and 100% apple juice." It doesn't matter if these drinks are carbonated or non-carbonated, because it has also been found that both carbonated and non-carbonated beverages displayed a significant erosive effect on dental enamel.

As far as fruit drinks, wouldn't it make sense to dilute them with water.  That would seem like a good idea to reduce the acidity in the fruit juice. Well the NCBI thinks differently and has not found that to be true. The NCBI found that increasing the dilution factor of dilutable fruit drinks within a range likely to be acceptable to the consumer may not effectively reduce their erosive potential.

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The AAP News, the official news magazine of the Academy of Pediatrics, has information on how to educate patients for caries and how to educate families on oral health issues. One of their recommendations is to have children avoid sugar-sweetened beverages their first year of life.  They have found that when children drink sugar-sweetened beverages during their first year of life, this doubles the odds that they will drink sugar-sweetened beverages at 6 years of age.

Supply Children with Fruit Juices When the Saliva Flows

 

Children should also avoid carbonated beverages and to consume 100% fruit juices only at meals, rather than sipping numerous times a day.  This would reduce the amount of time the liquid is on your teeth. Salivary production may very well be a contributing factor. Almost no saliva flows during sleep, so it is important not put a child to bed with a bottle of anything but water.

High Energy Drinks with Caffeine Can Increase Risk

 

The Mayo Clinic puts a different slant on the whole high-energy drink craze. Since high-energy drinks contain caffeine and caffeine stimulates the heart and increase your blood pressure, high-energy drinks, which contain caffeine, can put you at risk of heart problems.  Mixing energy drinks with alcohol may be even more problematic. Energy drinks can blunt the feeling of intoxication, which may lead to heavier drinking and alcohol-related injuries. The best way to prevent dehydration during exercise or anytime is to drink non-caffeinated and low sugar liquids. Water is still the best alternative.

 
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