Caffeine, College Students, the Media and My Rant

Caffeine Content and Media Attention (Rant)
Well not too long ago I used to be a college student so the memory of long nights and early morning cram sessions is still very clear in my memory. When combining going to class, studying, sports, group work and lets not forget the "Occasional" night out caffeine almost becomes your drug of choice. Caffeine and college students might start off with the occasional caffeinated soda or two. But as the school and work load gets bigger the caffeine content has to go up. That's were a lot of college students turn to Starbucks or the campus coffee hut. Well this was not the case for me as I was not a huge fan of coffee, cappuchino or anything else the overpriced Starbucks had to offer. I was into Energy Drinks. So yeah caffeine and college students goes hand and hand, but so does caffeine and energy drinks. Lately there has been an increase in the caffeine content of energy drinks and a blitz of negative attention from the media.

Caffeine Content
Gone are the days of the 8.4 slim line can of Redbull with 80 milligrams of caffeine in it. No only are the energy drinks increasing in size but so is the caffeine content as well. You have the real mainstream energy drinks such as Monster and Rockstar coming out with larger sized cans that are available everywhere and contain anywhere from 140 to 240 milligrams of caffeine, but you also have a new market of energy drinks coming out as well. Hardcore energy drinks are leading the way with caffeine contents from 280 milligrams all the way up to 505 milligrams (largest caffeine amount I know about). Thats where the negative attention from the media comes into lay as I have seen way to many headlines having to do with negatives of caffeine and energy drinks. You hear all sorts of attention in the media about these new hardcore energy drinks containing too much caffeine. Well lets put things in perspective. A 12 ounce cup of Starbucks coffee contains roughly 280 milligrams of caffeine and a 16 ounce cup of Starbucks coffee contains about 370 milligrams of caffeine. There's two Starbucks on every corner but you don't see the media lashing out at them for the caffeine content of their coffee. But the first time an energy drink approaches 300 milligrams of caffeine you have a newsworthy event.

Although I don't agree with all the negative attention from the media pertaining to caffeine content of energy drinks, there is one difference between Starbucks (or coffee in general) and energy drinks. Energy drinks are marketed more towards the younger crowd. If you want to see my stance on this read my Previous Article. Now don't get me wrong. More caffeine is not always the best solution for more energy. Some energy drinks have way to much
sugar which give you a spike of energy than a complete crash. Not a fan of those. However, some of the sugar-free or low sugar energy drinks with a lot of caffeine suit the purpose well.

Purpose of Caffeine Article?
So what is the purpose of this article? Well it started out as a caffeine and college students post, sidetracked into a caffeine content comparison between regular Starbucks coffee and energy drinks then veered again into a rant about negative comments from the media pertaining to energy drinks. So what was the purpose? Nothing really - just a rant! Nothing compared to a Dennis Miller rant, but still a rant. Post your comments or rant on about something pertaining to anything from the article.