Energy drinks lead to diabetes?

Students appearing for exams should have one more thing to worry about other than their studies if they resort to energy drinks for late night revisions. Concentrated carbohydrate ­beverages popularly referred to as “Energy Drinks” have been found to be contributing to the high rate of diabetes. Reason? Because they have high calories that increase one's risk of becoming a diabetic. 

Energy drinks can be carbonated or noncarbonated, and contain caloric sweeteners such as sucrose or high fructose corn syrup. Earlier consumption of soft drinks has been linked with obesity and now these so called energy boosting sugary drinks pose a threat of diabetes too. According to a recent study, individuals in the highest quartile of intake who typically consume 1-2 servings of such sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a 26% higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes than those in the lowest quartile who consumed less than 1 serving per month.

Dr. Rajeev Chawla, Senior Diabetologist, North Delhi Diabetes Center says, “Often students whose exams are round the corner resort to carbohydrate rich energy drinks so that they can study more than 15-18 hours without a dip in their concentration. Also Sports people engaged in high levels of physical activity tend to consume high amounts of flavored or sports drinks in order to refill their energy quotient. They may or may not follow a healthy diet. If they don’t follow, and thus take low intake of fruits and vegetables which are natural source of strength for our body, they are bound to depend more on these drinks. Thus, eventually they become addict of the chemicals in these drinks which pump them up.”

Energy or Sports drinks have been successfully marketed as beverages consistent with a healthy lifestyle, which has set them apart from sodas. However, they have minimal fruit juice and contain unnecessary calories. They contain certain ingredients that are not present in other types of soft drinks like vitamins, amino acids, special chemicals, and minerals and they give consumers an impression that these products are healthy. However truth is not what is projected.

“High levels of consumption of these beverages have the potential to increase weight gain. Drinking just one can of soda or other sugary beverages a day could lead to more than a 10-pound weight gain in a year which eventually can lead to obesity or diabetes. Besides increasing their risk of type-2 diabetes, people who drink one sugary beverage a day increase their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 20 percent.” says Dr. Chawla. Metabolic syndrome is the name given to a collection of risk factors that indicate a progression not only towards type-2 diabetes, but also towards heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and liver disease.

In contrast to the perceptions parents carry, youngsters should have no more than one glass of fruit juice, even 100 percent fruit juice, a day, because of the high calories.