Nutrition Guide

Although not marketed as such, the Scottish drink Irn-Bru may be considered the first energy drink, produced as “Iron Brew” in 1901. In Japan, the energy drink dates at least as far back as the early 1960s, with the release of the Lipovitan. Most such products in Japan bear little resemblance to soft drinks, and are sold instead in small brown glass medicine bottles or cans styled to resemble such containers. These “genki drinks”, which are also produced in South Korea, marketed primarily to the salaryman set.

In UK, Lucozade Energy was originally introduced in 1929 as a hospital drink for “aiding the recovery;” in the early 1980s, it was promoted as an energy drink for “replenishing lost energy.”

In 1985, Jolt was introduced in the United States. Its marketing strategy centered on the drink’s caffeine content, billing it as a means to promote wakefulness. The initial slogan was, “All the sugar and twice the caffeine.”

In 1995, PepsiCo launched Josta, the first energy drink introduced by a major US beverage company.

In Europe, energy drinks were pioneered by the S. Spitz Company and a product named Power Horse, before the business savvy of Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur, ensured his Red Bull product became far better known, and a worldwide best seller. Mateschitz developed Red Bull based on the Thai drink Krating Daeng, itself based on Lipovitan. Red Bull was introduced to the US in 1997 and is the dominant brand there, with a market share of approximately 47%.[17]

By the year 2001, the US energy drink market had grown to nearly 8 million per year in retail sales. Over the next 5 years, it grew an average of over 50% per year, totaling over $3 billion in 2005.[18] Diet energy drinks are growing at nearly twice that rate within the category, as are 16-ounce sized energy drinks. The energy drink market became a $5.4 billion dollar market in 2007, and both Goldman Sachs and Mintel predict that it will hit $10 billion by 2010. Major companies’ such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Molson, and Labatt have tried to match smaller companies’ innovative and different approach, with marginal success.

Energy drinks are typically attractive to young people. Approximately 65% percent of its drinkers are between the ages of 13 and 35 years old, with males being approximately 65% of the market.[18] A 2008 statewide Patient Poll conducted by the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Institute for Good Medicine found that: 20 percent of respondents ages 21-30 had used energy drinks in high school or college to stay awake longer to study or write a paper; 70 percent of respondents knew someone who had used an energy drink to stay awake longer to study or work.[19] Energy drinks are also popular as drink mixers.

“Smart energy drinks” combine energy drinks with smart drinks.

In 1912, Harvard University researchers Otto Folin and Willey Glover Denis found proof that ingesting creatine can dramatically boost the creatine content of the muscle[1]. In the late 1920s, after finding that the intramuscular stores of creatine can be increased by ingesting creatine in larger than normal amounts, scientists discovered creatine phosphate, and determined that creatine is a key player in the metabolism of skeletal muscle. The substance creatine is naturally formed in vertebrates.

While creatine’s influence on physical performance has been well documented since the early twentieth century, it only recently came into public view following the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. An August 7, 1992 article in The Times reported that Linford Christie, the gold medal winner at 100 meters, had utilized creatine prior to the Olympics, and an article in Bodybuilding Monthly named Sally Gunnell, gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, as another creatine user. Several medal-winning British rowers also used creatine during their preparations for the Barcelona games.

At the time, low-potency creatine supplements were available in Britain, but creatine supplements designed for strength enhancement were not commercially available until 1993 when a company called Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS) introduced the compound to the sports nutrition market under the name Phosphagen.[2] Research conducted afterward showed that the consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates in conjunction with creatine increases creatine muscle stores and performance. [3] In 1998, MuscleTech Research and Development launched Cell-Tech, the first creatine-carbohydrate-alpha lipoic acid supplement. Alpha lipoic acid has been demonstrated to enhance muscle phosphocreatine levels and total muscle creatine concentrations. This approach to creatine supplementation was validated in a study performed in 2003.[4]

Another important event in creatine supplementation occurred in 2004 when the first creatine ethyl ester supplements were launched. Creatine ethyl ester (CEE) is becoming a widely used form of creatine, with many companies now carrying both creatine monohydrate-based supplements and CEE supplements, or combinations of both.

Creatine supplements are athletic aids used to increase high-intensity athletic performance. Though researchers have known of the use of creatine as an energy source by skeletal muscles since the beginning of the 20th century, they were popularized as a performance-enhancing supplement in 1992.

Creatine Gluconate is a molecule of creatine bonded to a molecule of glucose. This synthetic alteration allegedly allows for greater intake of creatine in the gut because it is bonded to fast-digesting glucose. As glucose triggers an insulin response it also helps the uptake of creatine in the muscles themselves.[1]

Creatine ethyl ester, also known as creatine ester, cre-ester and CEE, is a substance sold as an aid for athletic performance and for muscle development in bodybuilding. It is an ethyl ester derivative of creatine, from which it is made. In the body, CEE is converted back into creatine. The ethyl ester is said to have a much better absorption rate and a longer half-life in the body than regular creatine monohydrate, because it is slightly more lipophilic. However, these claims have not yet been conclusively proven by independent research, and in fact a study presented at the 4th International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) annual meeting demonstrated that that the addition of the ethyl group to creatine actually reduces acid stability and accelerates its breakdown to creatinine.[1]

As a supplement, the compound was developed, patented and licensed through UNeMed, the technology transfer entity of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and is sold under numerous brand names.

Caution is warranted even for healthy adults who choose to consume energy beverages. Consumption of a single energy beverage will not lead to excessive caffeine intake; however, consumption of two or more beverages in a single day can.[10][11] Other stimulants such as ginseng are often added to energy beverages and may enhance the effects of caffeine,[citation needed] and ingredients such as guarana themselves contain caffeine. Adverse effects associated with caffeine consumption in amounts greater than 400 mg include nervousness, irritability, sleeplessness, increased urination, abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia), decreased bone levels, and stomach upset.[10][11] The concentration of sugar in a sports drink is recommended to be 6-7% carbohydrate to allow maximum absorption and minimize spikes and crashes in blood sugar. Higher concentrations such as those seen in energy drinks will slow fluid absorption into the blood and energy system, increasing the possibility of dehydration. When a high level of sugar is in the blood stream the body cannot get the water into the cells that it needs because the water is busy trying to dilute concentration of sugar in the blood stream[12].

In the United States, energy drinks have been linked with reports of nausea, abnormal heart rhythms and emergency room visits.[13] The drinks may cause seizures due to the “crash” following the energy high that occurs after consumption.[14] Caffeine dosage is not required to be on the product label for food in the United States, unlike drugs, but some advocates are urging the FDA to change this practice.[15]

Until 2008, France banned the popular energy drink Red Bull after the death of eighteen-year-old Irish athlete Ross Cooney, who died as a result of playing a basketball game after consuming four cans of the drink.[16] The French Scientific Committee (J.D. Birkel) concluded that Red Bull has excessive amounts of caffeine.[16] Denmark also banned Red Bull. Britain investigated the drink, but only issued a warning against its use by pregnant women

A placebo-controlled experiment found that vegetarians that took 5 grams of creatine per day for six weeks showed a significant improvement on two separate tests of fluid intelligence, Raven’s Progressive Matrices and the backward digit span test from the WAIS. The treatment group was able to repeat back longer sequences of numbers from memory and had higher overall IQ scores than the control group. The researchers concluded that “supplementation with creatine significantly increased intelligence compared with placebo.”[16] A subsequent study found that creatine supplements improved cognitive ability in the elderly.[17]

Creatine supplementation has been, and continues to be, investigated as a possible therapeutic approach for the treatment of muscular, neuromuscular, neurological and neurodegenerative diseases (arthritis, congestive heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, disuse atrophy, gyrate atrophy, McArdle’s disease, Huntington’s disease, miscellaneous neuromuscular diseases, mitochondrial diseases, muscular dystrophy, neuroprotection, etc.).

Two studies have indicated that creatine may be beneficial for neuromuscular disorders. First, a study demonstrated that creatine is twice as effective as the prescription drug riluzole in extending the lives of mice with the degenerative neural disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease)[14]. The neuroprotective effects of creatine in the mouse model of ALS may be due either to an increased availability of energy to injured nerve cells or to a blocking of the chemical pathway that leads to cell death.

Second, creatine has been demonstrated to cause modest increases in strength in people with a variety of neuromuscular disorders[15].

Third, creatine has been shown to be beneficial as an adjuvant treatment for several neuro-muscular and neuro-degenerative diseases (11,12) and its potential is just beginning to be explored in several multi-center clinical studies in the USA and elsewhere.

A variety of physiological and psychological effects attributed to energy drinks and/or their ingredients have been investigated. Two studies reported significant improvements in mental and cognitive performances as well as increased subjective alertness.[3] During repeated cycling tests in young healthy adults an energy drink significantly increased upper body muscle endurance. [4] It was also suggested that reversal of caffeine withdrawal is a major component of the effects of caffeine on mood and performance.[5] Restorative properties were shown by a combination of caffeine and CHO in an energy drink,[6] and some degree of synergy between the cognition-modulating effects of glucose and caffeine was also suggested.[7]

In one experiment, a glucose-based energy drink (containing caffeine, taurine and glucuronolactone) was given to eleven tired participants being tested in a driving simulator. Lane drifting and reaction times were measured for two hours post-treatment and showed significant improvement.[8]

Two articles concluded that the improved information processing and other effects could not be explained in terms of the restoration of plasma caffeine levels to normal following caffeine withdrawal.[9]

Creatine, by way of conversion to and from phosphocreatine, functions in all vertebrates and some invertebrates, in conjunction with the enzyme creatine kinase. A similar system based on arginine/phosphoarginine operates in many invertebrates via the action of Arginine Kinase. The presence of this energy buffer system keeps the ATP/ADP ratio high at subcellular places where ATP is needed, which ensures that the free energy of ATP remains high and minimizes the loss of adenosine nucleotides, which would cause cellular dysfunction. Such high-energy phosphate buffers in the form of phosphocreatine or phosphoarginine are known as phosphagens. In addition, due to the presence of subcompartmentalized Creatine Kinase Isoforms at specific sites of the cell, the phosphocreatine/creatine kinase system also acts as an intracellular energy transport system from those places where ATP is generated (mitochondria and glycolysis) to those places where energy is needed and used, e.g., at the myofibrils for muscle contraction, at the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) for calcium pumping, and at the sites of many more biological processes that depend on ATP.[1][2][3][4][5]