In today’s world, it’s very common to see people become dependent on different forms of caffeine. They would include coffee and energy drinks such as Rockstar, Red Bull and Monster. However, there has been shocking news lately in regard to the caffeine content and exactly how much is too much? The caffeinated beverage under fire again is Monster Energy. There have been claims that on five separate occasions, five people died from drinking them. The news that came in the spotlight this week was of that of a 14-year old girl from Maryland who sadly passed away from heart complications that have been pin-pointed to have been caused by the two twenty four ounce cans of Monster Energy drinks. Her parents are now filing a suit ever since the autopsy confirmed that her heart complications were directly correlated from caffeine toxicity. The article states that that company denies the claim that their products pose a health risk however, the FDA is stating that they failed to put a label on their drinks stating a warning risk.
In lieu of this situation, it brought about the most important question of how much caffeine is too much? They further researched that in each 24-ounce can of an Monster Energy drink contains 240 milligrams of caffeine which would total only 480 milligrams that Anais Fournier (the 14 year old girl) had consumed. It is clearly stated by a cardiac surgeon that only over 1 gram of caffeine can cause serious reactions whereas 10 grams is considered lethal. As the article further explains, the claims that the parents of Anais have cannot prove that it was lethal to their daughter since the amount she consumed was much less than 10 grams. They have to further look into the other ingredients that are contained within the drink, which would include that of taurine, B vitamins, L-carnitine among others. It very well could have been that she had a caffeine intolerance and or sensitivity, which put Anais and her family in this unfortunate situation.
In my opinion, I am a Starbucks addict and have never been into energy drinks of any kind. I find them to be artificial and much more risky in the caffeine content than there is naturally in coffee. It is sad that deaths are being linked to these energy drinks and should indeed have a warning label of some sort.
This article was found on news.yahoo.com