Energy Drink Companies – Are they telling us the whole truth?
In today’s busy and hectic life, the average person does not get the necessary six to eight hours of sleep. They do not eat healthy foods to give their body the energy they need. As a consequence, they most of the time feel tired and lazy. A smart solution would be to get enough sleep every night, eat the right foods, and keep a balanced diet. However, because today the world has progressed from an active and fast paced to a lazy and sluggish one, people try to find the easy solution to every problem. In this case, when they feel fatigued they think energy drink can help them out. These energy drinks claim that they improve performance, endurance, reaction, concentration, and they also claim to have some nutritional value in them.
Energy drinks have been in use since the 1960’s. Lipovitan D is the first energy drink made by the Taisho pharmaceutical company Japan that is still in use. Energy drinks have recently become very popular. There are over 500 different brands of energy drink in the market now. Esther Renfrew, director of Zenith market intelligence in the press release (2012) “Global energy drinks market spurts ahead to $37 billion” states that “Energy drinks remain the most dynamic segment in the soft drinks market, with strong growth in most countries. This is testament to its combination of both fun and functionality.” Appendix (A) shows the global market growth rate of energy drinks from year 2007 to 2011, and appendix (B) shows their growth in specific regions.
The most famous energy drinks are Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, and the infamous Four Loko. However, the counterintuitive message here is the fact that these brands do not do what they claim. For example Red Bull claims it improves performance, concentration, stimulates the metabolism, hydration and energy. However, the report of BBC “Energy drink claims
References: http://www.zenithinternational.com/articles/1012 www.zenithinternational.com/assets/images/pressreleases/GED_Charts_Page_1.jpg www.zenithinternational.com/assets/images/pressreleases/GED_Charts_Page_2.jpg http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1133348.stm Appendix A Appendix B