After hours of homework, a student finally wraps up their assignments and calls it a night. As they put away their books and pull back their covers, the alarm goes off. Surely, this cannot be right. They check their phone and see that it reads 6:30 a.m., time to get ready for school. The student stumbles out the door, barely able to keep their eyes open, as they get behind the wheel of their car. As they sit in class their eyes get heavy, and they start to doze off. There is no time to sleep, there is work to be done. The sleep-deprived student performs the only remedy they see fit. They pull an energy drink from their bag with a list of ingredients they couldn’t even imagine pronouncing, and they try their best to power through the day.

This is a reality for far too many high school students. According to the American Heart Association, over 30% of teens regularly drink and depend on energy drinks. In 2021, the value of the energy drink market was estimated at $86 billion. This number is projected to double by the end of the decade, as the number of adolescents consuming energy drinks is at an all-time high and shows no sign of stopping. When looking at the cause of the sudden spike in adolescent energy consumption, one clear answer prevails. That products, deleterious to the health of minors, are openly marketed towards children. Products such as tobacco, vaping, alcohol, fast food and most certainly energy drinks, are thrown in grocery stores with bright colors, fun flavors and even toys to attract adolescent buyers. Who can blame large corporations for marketing toward children? It is the easiest way to make money, as many adolescents are impulsive, stubborn and very vulnerable to marketing tactics. This is comparable to going shopping at Kohl’s in the early 2010s, when kids’ shirts or pants would come with Tech Decks and RC toys. For parents, the marked-up price is easier to deal with than a nagging child.

It becomes very clear why teens and even younger adolescents want to buy and try energy drinks with cartoon characters and fun colors. The most trending of these is the G Fuel drink inspired by Naruto, one of the most successful anime and manga series of all time, with the flavor of the drink being “Sage Mode.” This fun and carefree design inspires young people to purchase it while covering up the 300mg of caffeine (three times the daily recommended caffeine intake for teens) and the potassium beta-hydroxybutyrate lying inside.  Now, potassium beta-hydroxybutyrate is a keytone that naturally occurs in the body, side effects of taking an increased dose can be gastrointestinal discomfort, vomiting and even lack of energy when the potassium beta-hydroxybutyrate is no longer supplemented, which seems pretty counterintuitive.

This goes hand in hand with drink brands making true yet deceitful statements. The biggest example of this is energy drinks labeling their drinks as zero sugar. While it is true, it makes the drink seem healthier than it truly is. Corporations purposefully misleading children with unhealthy products need to be stopped. The two easiest solutions are corporations and energy drink brands to put people over profits and for teens to focus on better time management and to think before they buy.