You might have heard recently about a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health by a group of researchers, some affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO).  The researchers call for more regulation around the sale of energy drinks.

We think it’s important to keep in mind that the views expressed in this paper are that of the author and not official WHO positions.  The paper is a random collection of headlines of papers which the authors judged to be relevant while ignoring the scientific articles which come to different conclusions.  They state themselves:

"We reviewed publications retrieved from this search and selected those that we judged to be relevant."

Many of the concerns about energy drinks seem to be related to caffeine – and most mainstream energy drinks contain about half the caffeine of a similar sized cup of coffee.  Importantly, leading energy drink makers also voluntarily display total caffeine amounts from all sources on their packages; display an advisory statement on their packages indicating that the product is not intended (or recommended) for children, pregnant or nursing women, or persons sensitive to caffeine; and do not market energy drinks to children or sell or market them in K-12 schools.

These labeling and marketing guidelines, among others, are included in the American Beverage Association’s Guidance for the Responsible Labeling and Marketing of Energy Drinks, which can be found here.

And if you have more questions about energy drinks, check out EnergyDrinkInformation.com.