Baraka_Guru

Premium coffee has more caffeine, but it's not necessarily more dangerous. I'd rather drink Starbucks at twice the caffeine than drink a Rip It or Pit Bull or Red Bull, etc., and I'll tell you why.

Energy drinks have caffeine and a bunch of sugar. No surprise. They also tend to put B vitamins in them, which are keys to energy conversion. Again, no surprise. But they also put taurine in them, some having as much as 1,000 to 2,000 mg per can. Taurine is an amino acid that has an effect on muscle performance in terms of energy and metabolism, which is why energy drinks contain it. Most people consume anywhere from 50 to 400 mg (or more) of the stuff every day, depending on how much meat they eat. However, few will consume over 1,000 mg from food.

They've done studies on this amount being consumed and have found "no adverse effects." But I suppose what that means depends on what the studies are looking for. It also depends on what you're looking for, or what you want to avoid.

I've tried energy drinks. They make me feel weird, and I think it's the added chemistry. It's not just caffeine and sugar: these drinks are designed to boost your metabolic rate to use the sugar in them, hence the "energy" part of the drink. It gives you a source of energy and it gears you up to use it.

It's basically a cocktail to crank you up metabolically.

Not for me.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot