Energy drinks have been a astonishing favorite trend for years. Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster and Amp, are constant caffeine and sugar charged companions to every grocery and convenience store check-out line.
The exploding popularity of vigor drinks is not something the alcoholic beverage producers could ignore for long. Some years ago, vigor drinks with alcohol added began to show up in stores, most with packaging that made them hard to distinguish from the 'regular' vigor drinks.
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Combining the stimulant effects of caffeine and guarana, with the depressant effects of large amounts of alcohol creates problems in expanding to those produced by each drug separately, namely:
1. Because of a caffeine induced confidence in one's own alertness, there is the false impression of sobriety. Caffeine may lessen drowsiness, but it does not counteract or even lessen the way in which alcohol affects judgment, reaction time and coordination. Those alcoholic effects will persist until the body has wholly metabolized the alcohol.
2. Because of the effects of the caffeine, a drinker can continue drinking beyond the point at which he or she would commonly pass out, expanding the possibility of alcohol poisoning.
3. An effect of mixing caffeine with alcohol, is a lessened sensation of being drunk. The User feels less impaired than he or she admittedly is. This increases the incidence of driving drunk and other risky behaviors.
In truth, caffeine does not mitigate impairment from drinking. Blood alcohol level is the real determining factor. If you drink four ounces, you will be impaired just as badly as person who drank four ounces along with two Red Bulls-they just will not feel as impaired with the extra caffeine.
Most of these products hover colse to 6% to 9% alcohol by volume (Abv). But a few, including Four-Loko, put out by Phusion Projects Inc. Of Chicago, run over 12% Abv.
Definitely sufficient to keep it in the hard alcohol section of the liquor store.
At this writing, the convention of adding caffeine to alcoholic drinks is the field of some serious congressional questions and a probe by the Fda into the manufacturers of these drinks.
"Caffeinated alcoholic beverages are being marketed to American youth and gift a inherent hazard for our young people," Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Or).
Pressuring retailers to keep alcoholic beverages clearly separated from the non-alcoholic varieties, and forcing breweries and distilleries to label their products so they cannot be mistaken for non-alcoholic will go a long way toward lessening the negative effects of these drinks.
But in the end, only by production sure that young citizen are aware of the dangers of drinks that mix stimulants with alcohol can we wholly counter the corporate push to get these beverages into the hands of our youth.
Alcoholic power Drinks, What Are the Dangers?
