Stop blaming the drinks

The Herald reports:

A mother has blamed her teenage son’s secret energy drink habit for a breakdown in his mental health.

The Auckland woman said the 15-year-old told her he drank up to 16 cans of Monster Energy a day.

This is like the family of the women who died blaming Coke for her death, and she was drinking almost 10 litres of it a day.

A couple of energy drinks are fine. Drinking 16 cans a day is lunacy, The problem is not energy drinks, but drinking that many.

“I’ve talked to him since and his explanation is that [the energy drinks] are his best friends because when he was low he could have one of those and they’d make him feel better,” said the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous to protect her son.

I think he had issues before the energy drinks!

Most popular energy drinks, including Monster, contain 32mg of caffeine per 100ml.

Research quoted by the NZ Food Safety Authority says a 70kg adult can usually consume 400mg a day without adverse effects.

So no more than 1.2 litres or four cans a day. A coffee has around 100 mgs also, so no more than four a day of them also.