Energy Drinks

When my husband had his heart attack, during his first follow-up appointment, his cardiologist looked him in the eyes and said these words:

“You are never to drink another energy drink. Do not look at them. Do not buy them. Do not consume them. Your heart is vulnerable and those drinks are very dangerous.”

Needless to say, he hasn’t had 1 energy drink in almost 10 years. And he doesn't miss them one bit.

I’ve personally never been a consumer of any energy drinks. That’s not to say that in my 30’s I didn’t drink one every now and then. When RedBull first came out, I think everyone my age drank one here and there.

💲 Now, the energy drink business is projected to be worth $233 Billion (yes, with a B) by 2027! 💲

👉🏼 Here is my take on energy drinks. I don’t care what the ingredients are. I do not care what sweetener they use. I do not care how “natural” it is. 

JUST. SAY. NO.

Why? Because they unnaturally jolt our energy, heart rate, blood pressure, and breath. 

According to the National Institute of Health:

Several reports have suggested that energy drinks may contribute to ischemic stroke and lead to epileptic seizures. Hallucinations might be observed in individuals that consume more than 300 mg of caffeine per day. High levels of cortisol that follow caffeine intake could explain this.

And for those that consume them on a regular basis, their risk for heart damage increases. What ends up happening is the heart gets tired. It wears out from all that hard work and it begins to weaken. 

Although I am not surprised, it saddens me that there are not more regulations or laws around buying these drinks; especially for minors. 

Picture this: a high school football player chugs 2 energy drinks before practice…every single day. How in the world is his heart going to keep up? How will his heart stay healthy throughout his life? And yet, there isn’t ONE law to prevent him from buying them. 

Long term, studies are showing they mess up our hearts and they mess up our brains. 

If you want to read more from the government, click HERE for the link.

My solution is probably not what you are expecting. I have a similar approach to most “issues” in my life. If I have an issue, I want to get to the root cause. I want to dig deep, avoid putting metaphorical bandaids on the issues, and fix them from the core.

Here’s an example: 

I used to get chronic headaches. Since I was 5 years old, I have had headaches. As a matter of fact, I had to quit gymnastics because I couldn’t spend very much time upside down without my head pounding. To the point where I was in tears.

As a young adult, I popped Advil like candy. But during my journey of learning how to get healthy (from the core), I realized there were actions I could take that could help me get to the root of the problem. Everyone gets headaches for different reasons. I have a close friend that can’t eat chocolate or drink red wine (I know, a tragedy). 

For me, it’s dairy and gluten. I was raised on dairy and gluten my entire childhood so I had never “been without”. We would eat them at every meal. My body was screaming at me for YEARS (decades really). 

Once I made the connection 

Ailment —> root cause → elimination — FREEDOM

I probably get 1-2 headaches a year now. And most of it now comes from not drinking enough water or hormones.

I tell you all of this because I want more people to stop putting bandaids on their issues, like being tired, and start to take full ownership of their health. 

As a society, why are we so tired all the time? Do you think our ancestors needed energy drinks? Do you think they drank coffee all day? No. They worked hard. Ate real food. And slept like champs at night. 

Today, we have SO SO SO many culprits for why we are tired:

• Too much screen time = terrible sleep patterns at night

• Stress increases cortisol, dragging us down

• Lack of hydration 

• Rx drugs

• Too much alcohol before bed

• Not having a nighttime routine 

• Lack of 7-9 hours of sleep at night

• And my favorite……POOR DIET

What we eat directly affects our energy, how our body uses energy sources, and how we store it.

We consume ultra-processed foods daily, HOW IN THE WORLD do you think that “food” is going to sustain us all day? 

We have got to get serious about what we consume daily. We have got to take the reins on our health or these statistics of people just killing over are going to continue to rise in epidemic proportions. 

As always, this always goes back to food. Instead of masking our tired state with coffee, cokes, candy, and energy drinks, let’s assess WHY WE ARE TIRED ALL THE TIME and get to the root cause. 

When we approach this with food first, it’s amazing how so many health issues can be resolved. One of the biggest side effects to thyroid issues today is lack of energy. When you change your diet and adhere to a strict anti-inflammatory diet, did you know a lot of those thyroid issues will just vanish? See where I’m going with this?

Most of the time, here is the scenario:

Symptoms → clean up your diet → symptoms lessen or disappear

An anti-inflammatory diet eliminates ultra processed foods and foods that cause inflammation. When we eliminate those, our bodies “wake up”. They use the food to heal us. 

To sum things up. Please stop drinking energy drinks. Please assess your daily food intake and be honest with yourself about what you are consuming. And yes, the candy at the doctor’s office counts.

The blog is not to scare you from caffeine. Energy drinks often times have WAY more than caffeine to give you that jolt. Consult your doctor before consuming caffeine, but in my opinion, one cup of coffee in the morning (without the junk creamers) is a-ok. 

If you want to learn more about how to begin, sustain, and be encouraged about an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, please join my newsletter! I offer weekly tips to help you understand and be inspired on making small changes in the food you eat. 

You can join by clicking here: www.shelleycanhelp.com/join

I'm rooting for you. Always,

www.shelleycanhelp.com