Addiction to Energy Drinks?

[Saraiva]

Hey guys,

Lately I have been lacking energy during my day. I feel unmotivated in general. Its been having an effect on my art and work so I have been trying to change it. I took one of those energy shots after a friend recommended it to me and surprisingly it worked great. It helps me work for hours and hours nonstop without even noticing. The problem is that I have been relying on it for energy and it must be terrible for my health.

Anyone else have experienced a similiar problem with dependence on energy drinks? :/

[Mossi]

exercise dude, preferably outside.. whatever floats your boat, also check your eating habits

[eclectic rhapsody]

Been there, done that, and I agree with what the Chihuahua said. Eat healthier, maybe run a few laps, and you will have more energy. If that doesn't work, maybe you should consider getting your bloodwork done or whatever to make sure everything's clicking internally.

Also try and make sure your emotional life is in order. If you're too stressed out or depressed, your brain will attempt to KO you as a coping mechanism.

Energy drinks can be pretty risky. There's a saying where I live that says that every Five Hour Energy you drink shaves five years off your total life-span. Get ye to a long-term solution, bro.

[OldJake666]

Yeah, eat less. Avoid those energy drinks, they're awful for you. What I would recommend to do, instead, is to wake up (early-ish) and drink one cup of green or white tea each hour until about noon or 1. This will give you a sustainable and healthy amount of caffeine, while being very good for you. Any later and you may have trouble sleeping. Go to sleep earlier, and wake up earlier. And yes, exercise.

[OmenSpirits]

*high pitched voice* "I don't see nothing wrong with a little pick-me-up. Nuh-uh, I drimk me some REDBALLS!" AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!




*poop, poop*
lol

[BlightedArt]

I'm terrible with energy drinks too. Really really terrible. I'll try the green tea idea... and I guess exercise too hah ta.

[Falchion]

Energy drinks don't work on me. Never have. They just taste interesting.

[Chipsterology]

1-2 hours @ the gym to start your day off before work, 15-30min power nap, protein and Vitamin C food @ lunch time, you'll be good. Energy drinks f#ck with your heart valves if you're not burning it off with cardio activity (sweating at the track or gym), and can cause cardiovascular damage gradually over time for those that drink and stay prone or doing low activity. I'll do a sugar free Red Bull to finish out a late night client or if I have 1-2 hours left on an illustration, but I don't sleep on the residual effects after I finish working. I'll curl and military press dumbbells, do crunches and hoof it or bike it for a few blocks, and drink 2 glasses of water before I lay it down. If you're not feeling physical activity, don't take energy supplements of any sort. Nothing replaces proper rest, diet, and exercise.

[JDSart]

Energy drinks are a reaaaaally bad idea for an habit, is just a ton of sugar and a ton of caffeine, and mixed in stuff like Taurine which doesn`t seem to cause much consensus as to why the hell is actually there for.

I have it pretty bad with coffee myself, wathever push you feel is temporary, once you let it become an habit it will be very counter-productive, makes it all worse.

Look for options, maybe ask a nutricionist, sometimes little tweaks on behaviour will do.

[Demo]

^^^ listen to what all above have said, also try limiting if not completely removing carbonated drinks from your diet. (you wont believe how sluggish they make you feel)

make sure to eat a little for breakfast, limit greasy fast food and etc, try eating better quality foods ..you know don't put shit in your body and expect to be feeling like rainbows and sunshine

[TinyBird]

Agreed with blackARK about vitamins. If you don't eat enough vitamins, it will make you much more tired. Back when I was in school and during the later half of the year, I used take vitamin tabs everyday and after couple weeks I seriously felt much more energized. So even if it's something as small as that, it can help.

[stragan]

i heard fruits help


i mean it helped me... with my lack of fiber...

[Zephyrion]

I just recently kicked my habit.
For a bit I had no energy and was bleh after giving them up. Yoga and stretching helps, and if you feel up to it as others have said, getting exercise. Being outside in nature seems to help to. Even if it's the little park or your backyard, just sitting helps c:

[megaten]

I used to drink a lot of energy drinks and now my stomachs tries to kill itself after I take even a strong cup of coffee. So yeah, I'd try to quit them as soon as you can.

[t i m]

eat more carbs.

[LORD M]

WAKE UP EARLY, if you're waking up lae in the day you will feel tired all day. Eat VEGETABLES, lots of em and less meat - especially red since it takes so much energy transforming it into poop and thereby it makes you more tired then what yo could have been. Drink WATER, loads of it. GO OUT JOGGING every 2nd day, it helps a lot.

[sanya]

You know, the FDA will pretty much approve anything that doesn't outright poison you so-- well-- just be wary of any drink that has a dosage suggestion on the back, eh?

[Psychotime]

I'm still surprised people drink those things and like them.

[ikken]

Anyone else have experienced a similiar problem with dependence on energy drinks? :/

read the top answer here, esp. 2nd part -
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...7092320AAaRxqX

and check sugar concentration in your energy drink of choice.

also, as far as I know, American manufacturers are not supposed to include the full list of ingredients on the packaging, so there might be some another "energy boosting" crap, that's adding to the overall stress reaction from your body.

energy drinks, especially alcoholic ones, are a major factor towards pancreatitis development, btw

Energy drinks are a reaaaaally bad idea for an habit, is just a ton of sugar and a ton of caffeine, and mixed in stuff like Taurine which doesn`t seem to cause much consensus as to why the hell is actually there for.

My eye support pills have quite a high taurine values (500 mg daily average), and yes, it may induce sedative effects in some people.
screaming about DANGERS of taurine is quite retarded though -
" The daily dose of Taurine should be between 100-500mg, and one can of a popular energy drink, for example, has 1000 milligrams of synthetically produced Taurine. Some people are drinking up to eight cans a day (8000mg of Taurine), an amount that can have drug-like effects on the body and cause damage."
I have no idea how much danger taurine alone actually adds to 1,5 L of concentrated sugar-caffeine soup tbh.

[Kjesta]

You know, the FDA will pretty much approve anything that doesn't outright poison you so-- well-- just be wary of any drink that has a dosage suggestion on the back, eh?

The FDA allows Chicken McNuggets to exist, which are made from this:



Does anything else need to be said? Also, pink slime. Just because you can buy something and it's supposedly good for you, doesn't mean it is.

Seconding the get up early, do sports, eat your veggies.

[Psychotime]

Chicken McNuggets are made of strawberry softserve? AWESOME!

[OldJake666]

Not to mention that the FDA approved tobacco.

[eclectic rhapsody]

The FDA allows Chicken McNuggets to exist, which are made from this:

Urgh. I feel like a light just went out in my soul.

[BlightedArt]

Sorry for the dead thread rez...

I've just made the switch to green tea today after a daily habit of 3 or so cans of big V per day (ack...)...

I've got a couple of friends who have made similar switches in the past and saying how rough it was... There's some great advice here already but... I'm just making another call out for tips and advice to help me out through the transitional period...

I was thinking of buying a large flask and filling it up with green tea, then following advice here of having some of it hourly til 1pm and seeing how that goes.

Wish me luck!

[OldJake666]

Drink no more than 8oz (a standard mug size) per hour, though.

[Elwell]

Not to mention that the FDA approved tobacco.

Not exactly. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulat...dministration:

Prior to 1996, the FDA played no role in the regulation of tobacco products, and was controlled through a combination of state and congressional regulation. Most state laws dealt with the sale of tobacco products, including the issue of selling to minors and licensing of distributors. By 1950, all states had laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors, which at the time, the purchase age differed in each state.

In 1964, Surgeon General Luther Terry issued a report on smoking and health saying that tobacco causes lung cancer and is a main contributor to bronchitis. Subsequently, in 1965, the US Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA), which required a health warning on all cigarette packs. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned cigarettes ads on the radio or television. It also required an updated warning on the cigarette packages which read: "Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health."

In 1996, the FDA issued the "FDA Rule," which asserted its authority over tobacco products and issued a rule intending to prevent and reduce tobacco use by children. The intended regulations included prohibiting non-face-to-face sales of tobacco products, prohibiting outdoor advertising of tobacco products near schools or playgrounds, imposing more stringent advertising regulations, and prohibiting brand name sponsorships, among other things.

After the regulations were issued in 1996, tobacco companies sued. In the 2000 Supreme Court case FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the court ruled that Congress had not given the FDA authority over tobacco and tobacco marketing.

As a result, Congress was forced to provide explicit FDA authority to regulate tobacco and this was finally accomplished via the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009.

[Featheredface]

The FDA allows Chicken McNuggets to exist, which are made from this:



Does anything else need to be said? Also, pink slime. Just because you can buy something and it's supposedly good for you, doesn't mean it is.

Seconding the get up early, do sports, eat your veggies.

...........ehn.

[Konstruktion]

- I, Nazarene, Recognize my Impurity -

[Voodoo_Mama]

....I liked nuggets.. *sadface*

[Dusty]

Energy drinks are shit and so is most of the food most people eat. I'm totally a convert.

3 weeks ago I bought a Breville juicer and I detoxed my system. 3 days of nothing but an assortment of juices. It was awful, but I could feel all of the toxins in my system finally being released.

After that I switched to a "Fish and Foul + veggie" diet (i.e no red meat or pork) where my meals are pretty much split in half with a protein and a ton of vegetables. This is all including still a juice or two a day packed full of nutrients from kale, carrots, oranges, ginger, spinach, and beets. As for carbs, I pretty much only have a small amount of rice (i.e. sushi etc) and unsliced fresh bread from local bakeries. If I have anything sweetened EVER...it's with honey.

I haven't had an energy drink or a cup of coffee in 3 weeks because I haven't needed it. I have plenty of energy and even with sitting at the computer all day, I don't start to drag. I've also lost 12 lbs.

I'm not going vegan or even entirely organic (though I'd say about 60% of my diet is organic at this point. If it isn't organic, I at least know all the ingredients in whatever I am eating). I'm telling you this because it's not freaking hard at all.

A month ago, I ate at McDonalds.
I drank soda. My meals consisted of a protein (usually beef or pork, and if it was chicken it was fried) and potato product (fries, usually).

So I am quite accustomed to eating like complete dogshit and I felt like dogshit because of it. Give your body 3 days (you don't even have to totally detox like I did) and just stop drinking and eating this stuff. Eventually you WILL stop craving it. Your body craves what you eat most often. So if you eat good, you'll start to crave fruit.

Right now, I am desperately DESPERATELY craving fresh cherries, which has been my nightly snack for a few weeks now. A month ago, eating a cherry did not enter my mind.
It's simple to eat healthy, you just gotta kick the shit and make an effort to not eat that "pink tube snake" above.