Energy stimulants are ruining our bodies
- Feb 29, 2016
- 2 min read
As busy college students, it’s only natural to seek additional energy sources to help us get through the day. Without it, we struggle to stay focused in class and work and life become a drag.
This opinion article was originally featured in PantherNOW and talks about how drinks high in sugar can stress and damage our bodies.
Check out the article’s excerpt below and click the link if you want to read the full story!
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Maytinee Kramer/Staff Writer
As busy college students, it’s only natural to seek additional energy sources to help us get through the day. Without it, we struggle to stay focused in class and work and life become a drag. As soon as we wake up in the morning, most of us reach out for a cup of coffee or an energy drink. As we know, coffee contains caffeine, which many believe boosts energy, while energy drinks contain caffeine and loads of sugar. However, what many of us don’t know is the cost of consuming energy stimulants and how our bodies react to them.
Drinks high in sugar can do a lot to our body, but a new study shows that when the sweet stuff hits our brains, it can be as damaging as being exposed to extreme types of stress or abuse. The caffeine in caffeinated drinks stimulate the heart, causing it to beat rapidly and raise one’s blood pressure. Despite a rewarding boost in energy, the effects of caffeine are temporary, which is why many people drink more than one cup throughout the day. When combined with sugar, the surge of energy increases while also causing blood glucose levels to go up. The “high” eventually wears off, leading to a crash.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales Australia studying the effects of sugary drinks on the brain observed extensive changes to the part of the brain that controls behavior and emotions called the hippocampus. For fifteen weeks, female rats were exposed to adverse conditions while being fed a sugary solution. Brain scans showed that the rats exposed to stress without sugar intake and stress-free rats that drank sugar water had similar changes to the memory center of the hippocampus. In addition, the stress group took in more calories.
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Photo Credit: Flickr
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