If it were left up to ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, he would add a sub headline to the article “Energy Drinks May Hurt Kids: Study” that would read, “Then Again, Maybe They Don’t.”
The article, published in HealthDay News, is fairly misleading since no study was actually conducted, and no data were presented. “Yet this didn’t stop the journal Pediatrics, a once respected peer-reviewed publication which has since gone downhill, from publishing this nonsense,” observes Dr. Ross.
Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Miami and co-author of the study, believes energy drinks are risky, unregulated and “have no therapeutic benefit.” The authors argue that no safe levels for the ingredients found in energy drinks, like caffeine and sometimes taurine and guarana, have been established for children and teens, and these drinks may contain dozens or hundreds of milligrams of caffeine.
Redbull, a popular energy drink manufacturer, countered, saying that an 8.4-ounce can of its product has about as much caffeine (77 mg) as a cup of coffee (80 mg).
According to Bruce Goldberger, director of toxicology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, even though energy drinks are “probably safe generally,” he says that due to their smaller bodies, young people may be more affected by caffeine than adults.
In summation, this whole so-called study is just a bunch of malarkey, says Dr. Ross. “Aside from energy drinks, kids can buy No-Doz tablets over the counter which serve up approximately 100 mg of caffeine per pill. And why should an energy drink be criticized for not having any ‘therapeutic benefit' — they are not medicinals, after all. This ‘study’ seems to be some sort of political agenda masquerading as a scientific treatise.”