Energy Drinks Industry Secrets

The thing is, our body doesn’t want all the energy 24/7.

Photo from nattu’s flickr

Coffee is no longer the only beverage to keep us awake and alert. Energy drinks tipped its popularity and valuation is in billions of dollars. The market is even expected to reach $52 Billion by 2016.

Effective or not, it doesn’t matter for me. I drink it because of the premise of extended performance. Knowing that I should perform longer is enough to push me to do more.

But studies show that energy drinks can really sustain energy for up to 90 minutes after consumption. Athletes perform better and drivers counter their sleepiness. Since these benefits are real, these drinks should be good right? We are not given all the facts.

We are not supposed to devour on energy drinks everyday.  Franca Alphin, director of health promotion at Duke Student Health, said it well: “caffeine is not a substitute for sleep”. I know no one wants to sleep when we demand more time from us but drinking anything will not do the sleeping for our body. We still need to rest.

But energy drinks can be addicting and people will drink it everyday. People will think that an energy drink is a necessity for concentration. Tracy Falba, a faculty who studied addiction, claimed that energy drink addiction is in the same isle of alcohol or smoking addiction because people suffer the withdrawal symptoms after halting the consumption.

Bruce, et al’s (2000) study shows that caffeine dosage of 6 mg/kg body weight has the same effect with 9 mg/kg body weight. It doesn’t matter whether you drink more – you get the same benefit of increased performance. Nonetheless, certain energy drinks can contain caffeine of 7 cups of coffee.

More is worse. Cans after cans of energy drinks could lead to caffeine toxicity. Signs of too much energy are anxiety, nervousness, nausea and the list goes on.  Seizures, manias and strokes are not unheard of. Death incidents are also linked to the head players in the industry including Monster and Red Bull.

Energy drinks are very high on sugar, which is one of the reasons why it’s very hard to combat diabetes. A ploy to escape the sugar content is using artificial sweeteners instead. Certain artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose are hazardous chemicals. Heck, sucralose is even harmful to plants and animals; and the human body won’t even recognize them as food but toxins.

It’s delicious, but the myriad of ingredients are too much for the human body.

How frequent do you consume energy drinks?

Sources:
Experts: energy drinks can be addictive; The Chronicle
What happens if you drink too many energy drinks?; Livestrong
The Dirty Secrets of Energy Drinks; Natural Commando
Energy Drink Side Effects; Energy Friend
MarketsandMarkets: Global Sports and Energy Drinks Market is Expected to Reach $52 Billion by 2016; PRNewswire
Energy Drinks: An Assessment of Their Market Size, Consumer Demographics, Ingredient Profile, Functionality, and Regulations in the United States; Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety

Blood Vs Oil

Both are necessary to do some work.
by Chris Demas

Photo from photoXpress

When it comes right down to it, part of the reason we invent new devices is to avoid having to do extra work. The phone is a tool used to connect two people together without having to make them travel to one another. If they need to travel we have the car that can move them long distances without making them walk or exert themselves. Are we making ourselves obsolete? Is that notion a bad thing?

After all, we created machines to help us with everyday tasks. And while sometimes this knocks a person out of a job it makes the people using the machine quite happy. Let’s look at the automatic teller machine or atm. It’s convenient and in many cases harder to rob. The atm is also capable of taking care of strings of people with their financial needs and doesn’t get tired. Also, while you may no have a personal emotional experience with it, the machine  will give you the same service it gave the last person.

On the other hand, machines make awful mistakes sometimes that a human could probably fix on the spot. Machines can’t give you that interaction that a friendly employee can. And having to deal with a machine when it comes to returns is the worst kind of hassle. Obviously machines aren’t perfect and can malfunction at the strangest times. But do occasional glitches matter when the machine for the most part is handling your light work?

I love human interaction and I’m sure you do too. There is a pleasant feeling when you go to the mall and can be directed around by the help desk and don’t have to memorize a map. It feels good in those rare times when you return a product and the staff is friendly with you while offering good service. It can be incredibly satisfying to hear “have a nice day” after purchasing!

Does human interaction outweigh the idea of mechanical convenience? Do I go to the cashier or the self-checkout? Will the people inside Bank of America be jealous that I gave their atm machine more attention than the human employees inside the bank? What do you think? Are we ourselves becoming more obsolete or do we just use machines for our light work?

More from Chris in ChrisDemas.com

Success is for Morning People

If you want to be successful, try to be a morning person.

Photo from photoXpress

Author Laura Vanderkam argues that successful people, referring to CEO’s and top of the industry successes, are mostly morning person. That’s a correlation, and she believes in transforming night owls to morning peeps for the sapid success everybody wanted.

There’s a part of me that’s agreeing with her. Productivity is at peak in the morning; mind is fresh, body is rested. Just compare it to the evening status of our selves, where our body and brain are both exhausted. You see the rationale behind it.

This is good news for me because I’m all around. I can peer like an owl at night but be able to wake up early to do something valuable, be it exercise or this article. But the night lovers could cringe, or perhaps disagree overtly because this claim is robbing them their chance for success.

Another part of me believed in productivity at any time of the day. I know mornings are the best time, but there are slits of opportunities throughout the day. I’m talking about a jog between break time or midnight study. This is the general finding; it’s good to know but our opinions about ourselves will still be the loudest. Just whatever works for us, worked for us so keep on doing it!

At what time of the day are you most productive?

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Source:
Why Morning People Rule the World; Inc.

Perfect Imperfections

Scars, moles, and extra nipples are all subject to cosmetic correction unless the owner regard them as beauty marks.

The popular notion of beauty is perfect all throughout, hair to heels. Makeup and cosmetics are invented for human’s need to conceal the perceived mess in their body, that is, the ‘imperfections’. But really, who defines a part of you as imperfect? These people are focused on camera but they won’t care:

Madonna’s teeth gap

Photo from static.gigwise.com

Kiefer Sutherland’s & Mila Kunis’s heterochromia (different eye colors)

Photo from kanbyamadworld.wordpress.com

Photo from 4.bp.blogspot.com

Joaquin Phoenix’s lip scar

Photo from i2.listal.com

Mariah Carey’s facial mole

Photo from dirrtyinc.com

Mark Wahlberg’s third nipple

Photo from justjared.com

Mila Kunis could just wear matching contact lenses, or Mark Wahlberg could pay a doctor to scrape off his extra nipple. But they haven’t, and it shows that they are not ashamed to carry the ‘imperfections’ themselves. The tricky truth is, a perfect human has imperfections.

I love that these people didn’t succumbed to the demands of hypocritical beauty. I have a scar on my cheek. What imperfection in your body are you proud of?

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Big Boys Cry

Here’s something that almost made me cry – toys on the verge of destruction. 

Big Boys Cry. Photo from Cosmopolitan

Yeah, that scene from Toy Story 3 when Woody and his pals already accepted their demise. And then once more was when Andy played with his toys for the last time and gave them away. I mean, all men can relate to that. It’s just so hard to let go of your, um, action figures.

Remember the moment when you received a test sheet, scanned the rest of it and found it to be too long. After you’re done with it, you can already publish it as a book. Just looking ahead of that very long boring test, your eyes could water on its own because like it or not, you have to go through with it.

A guy in the name of Rob Dyrdek spent $700 Million on lottery tickets (paid in cash), on which the jackpot prize was $356 Million. The draw came, numbers arise, and surprise him. He lost. Nobody won on that draw. Talk about slap on the face, that’s worth crying to.

Men are taught to not show their weak emotions. Part of masculinity is to hold back tears, an attribute women typically exhibit. So to be a man is to be not a woman. Though, it doesn’t mean that men, over the years, have lost emotions. Men have estrogen as well. It’s undeniable; but denying it is expected of men.

Big boys cry, perhaps not in public but there are instances that can make them cry. Loosing a game of their favorite sports team could do the trick, but also try taking something they treasure so much, be it family, friends, or lunch. Ideally, breaking up with a girl too.

We all have our own story, isn’t it? Actually, there is one thing that can burst me every time. It’s a very horrible experience; I’d want to forget about it; I’d want to get over it; I’d want it to mean nothing. But it just always make me cry – peeling onions.

Remember this episode in friends, where Monica tried to tear up her beau Chandler?

When was the last time you cried or made your man cry?

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