Rant Banning Enegry Drinks from Minors?

Try to know what you're talking about before posting, you won't come across as an idiot that way. Taurine is an amino acid, conditionally essential in humans .

Taurine strengthens the heart muscle, boosts vision, and helps prevent macular degeneration; is the key component of bile, which is needed for the digestion of fats; useful for people with atherosclerosis, edema, heart disorders, hypertension, or hypoglycemia; is vital for the proper utilization of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium; helps prevent the development of potentially dangerous cardiac arrhythmias; has been used to treat anxiety, epilepsy, hyperactivity, poor brain function, and seizures.

Not a bad list of functions for something that does nothing for humans so far. It also apparently has a stimulant effect, though I've never felt anything from an energy drink beyond what its caffeine content would deliver. And coffee is a hell of a lot cheaper.

 

WTF here in NZ i can get Caffeinated energy drinks, far far cheaper than a cup of coffee, with roughly the same caffeine content! I dont drink energy drinks that much, but when i do i can take a serious amount in at once! being only 15 i guess thats a bad thing!

 

No, the only ill effect from drinking too much caffeine in that in 20% of males their penis falls off.

 

LOL

 

Birth control in a bottle or can!

 

Is that because you try and perform a dastardly deed on the can

 

eugh! scunge. maybe energy drinks raise the amount of estrogen in males/ females? all a contraceptive pill is, is estrogen and stuff!

 

Some energy drinks really do contain a nasty assortment of caffeine and other stuff to manipulate one's body chemistry hard and quick.

I'm all for banning the stuff for teens younger than 16. Why? Typical teens are irresponsible and can't differentiate between bad things they should partake in, and bad things they should stay away from. That said, the ones that can handle the drinks will find a way to get it anyways, and the ones that cannot get it will probably be the ones who shouldn't be drinking it anyways.

Maybe soda should be banned too. Thinking back, I consumed way too much candy and soda. Yup, ban candy too - it could lead to hyper activity and cavities. Maybe chips and pretzels should go too; salt's not good for you in excess.

What about chinese food? 3000mg of sodium per meal just ain't right. Fast food - that should be banned too. Too many chemicals and lots of fat. Hmm, what about restaurants - cheese isn't good for anyone, so let's ban Italian restaurants. Too many resources are consumed to bring meat to the table, so let's put a quota on meat.

I do think that perhaps energy drinks and the light should be restricted from minors, but if that is done, what about all the other harmful things they could injest. Nobody would have ever been able to rid me of my fruit snacks and sour candy habits back in high school.

 

Energy drinks are more expensive than takeout coffee here. And I can brew coffee myself for pennies a cup. Energy drinks, not so much.

A lot of the effect you feel from energy drinks is just a niacin flush. Niacin is great marketing, harmless stuff and produces a tangible reaction. You want the customer to "feel" that the product is working. I bet they could take out everything but the niacin and it would sell just as well.

Reminds me of an article I read about the development of the game Unreal. The US-based dev team, like many coders, was powered by Mountain Dew. They talked about all the Dew they drank to get the energy to get through crunch time, including after they moved to the Montreal offices. The funny thing is, Mountain Dew is caffeine free in Canada (it was at the time, anyway. Real Dew was sold here a few years ago; I think it might be sans caffeine again now). Anyway, placebo effect Cheesecake.

 

Darlington, North-East England
Has Blue Bolt gone up where you work too? Used to be 26p can^-1 here, it's now 40 odd. Bottles are the same price though IIRC.

 

I remember some shops round my school wouldn't sell Red Bull to people under 16, it wasn't law or anything, but for some reason they decided kids weren't allowed them.

 

Having previously worked in Sainsbury's, I feel I can shed some light on people being I.D'd for 'Blue Bolt (Cheap red bull knock off)

From what I recall, it has never been illegal, but there was a newspaper that was running a campaign for an age restriction on energy drinks, because of detrimental effects on health. A few weeks later, we we're being told to I.D for it. Apparently the healthier, sugar free version was more dangerous. I remember the till prompt saying the min age to purchase was 18, while the sugar filled stuff was 16.

Needless to say at our store it was scrapped after a few months. Not sure about other stores however.

 

4 Quote streak.

 

I posted as much as I knew, and I looked that up quite a while ago.
I knew it was good for cats, and when I had read that information it had mentioned nothing about that amino acid being beneficial to humans.
And yes, Coffee is generally cheaper.

 

Why does anyone under 16 need energy drinks, don't they have plenty of energy anyway, won't having energy drinks make them bounce off the walls?

 

No idea if its gone up tbh, its still overpriced for what it is though.

 

wtf is this. I had a full blown caffine addiction at the age of 13 and had to beg for some coffee at the childerns holiday camp I went to to make myself feel normal again (I couldn't stop shaking and just felt very ill).. I cut back a little after that but not much as actualy having the ability to regulate my tiredness is esential to getting things done otherwise I would onyl be awake when everyone is asleep as I get tired during the day and less tired at night.

 

Under 16's after several energy drinks = superball being used on a squash court.

 

How much worse could they be for the minors than the alcohol, tobacco, and drugs they'll inevitably be consuming? Banning it will make it more tempting. Then again are there other options?

 

The trouble is, some kids do go absolutely mental. My mate's 12-year-old goes skitz when he has sugar, can you imagine what would happen if he was drinking energy drinks all the time?

Also, have you ever seen the effect Red Bull and Vodka has on rampant teenagers?