News Flash: Kids Don’t Need Energy Drinks

Posted on May 30, 2011

Flickr/theimpulsivebuy

This isn’t a drink that was created with youngsters in mind.

Energy drinks might have more serious side effects for children and teenagers than just getting them good and hyper, according to a group of doctors who released a cautionary report in the journal Pediatrics, warning that the amped-up beverages might trigger seizures and other highly undesirable reactions in rare cases. As it happens, they should also lay off the Gatorade.  —KA

Reuters via Yahoo News:

Children never need energy drinks,” said Dr. Holly Benjamin, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who worked on the new report. “They contain caffeine and other stimulant substances that aren’t nutritional, so you don’t need them.”

And kids might be more vulnerable to the contents of energy drinks than grownups.

“If you drink them on a regular basis, it stresses the body,” Benjamin told Reuters Health. “You don’t really want to stress the body of a person that’s growing.”

For the new recommendations, published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers went through earlier studies and reports on both energy drinks and sports drinks, which don’t contain any stimulants.

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