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YLE
Teens binging on energy drinks
Some Finnish kids are chugging up to a dozen energy drinks a day to get "buzzed."
“It’s not good that growing kids' hearts are pounding fast because of caffeine and sugar,” said Teija Pilli, a social worker at the Tripla youth centre in Lahti.
Pilli said she once encountered a young boy who had drunk 20 half-litre energy drink bottles. In addition to caffeine, one such beverage contains the equivalent of 14 sugar cubes.
“They call it getting buzzed,” she added.
Kids are using energy drinks to achieve a hyperactive state, according to Pilli. Energy drinks also appeal to kids because of their price, which is often half of regular soda.
The city of Lahti and the Finnish Parents’ League have joined forces to forbid people younger than 16 from buying the drinks often loaded with sugar and caffeine. Their petition needs 50,000 signatures to come before parliament.
Kid beer?
Fifteen-year-olds Daniel and Eve from Lahti are familiar with energy drink abuse. Daniel said he used to chug down one can a day but has since stopped because it was harming his sports performance.
“They made my pulse rise too quickly,” he explained.
Eve said she has less problems waking up in the morning after ditching her energy drink habit.
The duo said their peers like to think of energy drinks as beer.
“They feel like they’re adults when they have a lot of energy drinks. Friends will say, 'let's go to your place and drink – energy drinks.' Then they’ll throw back ten cans.”
I have to say after seeing young kids buying lot of energy drinks, what are they really doing? Is this really new way to pretend drinking beer, getting "buzzed".
I wonder what does big use of energy drinks do to you after long period of time. Is it even morally right to let kids drink these while we don't really know effects that might harm them.
Call me a old fashion but I think banning energy drinks wont help at all. Good education about their harms might do better work and increase of taxation as well.
How about other countries?
edit: about half price cost to soda is meant for no-name brands.
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in US energy drinks are definitely not half the price of regular soda, our soda is super super cheaply made, some of it is cheaper than buying water. if i want to buy a liter of monster i have to pay triple what i would pay for a liter of cola.
EDIT: actually it's far more than triple.
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What the hell are their parents doing?
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On November 10 2012 20:14 PrinceXizor wrote:
in US energy drinks are definitely not half the price of regular soda, our soda is super super cheaply made, some of it is cheaper than buying water. if i want to buy a liter of monster i have to pay triple what i would pay for a liter of cola.
EDIT: actually it's far more than triple.
I don't want a large farva. I want a goddamn liter o'cola!
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On November 10 2012 20:16 DJFaqU wrote:
What the hell are their parents doing?
Yeah perhaps some blame for that but most parents doesn't know that their kid drinks those. Our time there wasn't energy drinks available so...
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Man... I don't even know where to start with kids these days.
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Dunno but in Canada (BC at least) you cant even have the things anywhere near a school and kids are taught the problems they can cause in health classes.
However another thing is, cheaper than regular soda my ass 471ml monster $3.99 591ml Pepsi $1.89
I'm going to Finland to stock up on Nos if thats the case
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This isn't actually the worst of it. A lot of teenagers buy energy drinks that have alcohol in them (one popular one is called like Four Loco or something) and drink them at parties. They're usually similar to having Red Bull and beer mixed together.
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On November 10 2012 20:18 Probe1 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 20:14 PrinceXizor wrote:
in US energy drinks are definitely not half the price of regular soda, our soda is super super cheaply made, some of it is cheaper than buying water. if i want to buy a liter of monster i have to pay triple what i would pay for a liter of cola.
EDIT: actually it's far more than triple. I don't want a large farva. I want a goddamn liter o'cola!
lol. yeah. but seriously it's .80 dollars 2 liters for cola and 1.50 a can for monster.
On November 10 2012 20:22 MtlGuitarist97 wrote:
This isn't actually the worst of it. A lot of teenagers buy energy drinks that have alcohol in them (one popular one is called like Four Loco or something) and drink them at parties. They're usually similar to having Red Bull and beer mixed together.
four loko no longer has caffeine or anything added to them according to US law. so they are just bad tasting 24 proof Ices now
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i stopped drinking energy drinks..
i think they really mess with your health
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On November 10 2012 20:22 MtlGuitarist97 wrote:
This isn't actually the worst of it. A lot of teenagers buy energy drinks that have alcohol in them (one popular one is called like Four Loco or something) and drink them at parties. They're usually similar to having Red Bull and beer mixed together.
edit: okay i'm not that funny lol
you can't actually buy drinks with alcohol in them unless you're of age in most countries
so that's the equivalent of teenagers drinking beer pretty much
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I used to do this in my youth, and yes it can cause diabetes, it can cause hypertension and yes, it can cause dizziness and sleep problems.
But let's put this into perspective, I am now 26 y/o and my brain is in perfect health, the same cannot be said for kids who would have abused alcohol instead of energy drink. I am glad it's more focused on a less harmful substance than alcohol at the moment, and comparing sugar + cafein with alcohol is retarded at best (said from a biochemical and health standpoint).
However, I do think there should be warnings on the cans with a recommended limit (not the small 1mm line there is right now).
Also, its less harmful than sigarettes. There is a limit that governments should not cross when trying to stop people from consuming potential harmful drinks. I would be pissed if I couldnt do my exams without energy drinks back then, but also today (though I switched to expensive drinks like RedBull which don't screw up my intestines and which keep me from overconsumption).
Drinking 20 litres of water is also bad for your health. So what I recommend is education - teach the kids in school (during health, PE and/or biology classes) that overconsumption of energy drink is bad for their health and warn them about the possible problems that could arise from overusage.
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it might be cheaper to buy a 5 pound bag of sugar and just eat it, if they're doing it because of the price.
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On November 10 2012 20:21 rewired wrote:
Dunno but in Canada (BC at least) you cant even have the things anywhere near a school and kids are taught the problems they can cause in health classes.
However another thing is, cheaper than regular soda my ass 471ml monster $3.99 591ml Pepsi $1.89
I'm going to Finland to stock up on Nos if thats the case
I'm fairly sure Nos is ridiculously expensive everywhere. I assume that the woman in the interview was talking about no-name energy drinks that are dirt cheap. In Germany, they go for somethling like €0.60 or €0.70 for 1 litre. However, the same applies for no-name soda, too.
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no-name energy drinks cost like 1 euro for 0.5 litre in finland. While 0.5 litre pepsi/cola/7up/etc is 1.5-2.
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On November 10 2012 20:29 ggrrg wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 20:21 rewired wrote:
Dunno but in Canada (BC at least) you cant even have the things anywhere near a school and kids are taught the problems they can cause in health classes.
However another thing is, cheaper than regular soda my ass 471ml monster $3.99 591ml Pepsi $1.89
I'm going to Finland to stock up on Nos if thats the case I'm fairly sure Nos is ridiculously expensive everywhere. I assume that the woman in the interview was talking about no-name energy drinks that are dirt cheap. In Germany, they go for somethling like €0.60 or €0.70 for 1 litre. However, the same applies for no-name soda, too.
I've never seen a generic energy drink in the USA. weird.
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half the price of regular soda? hell, those monster energy drink is twice the price of cola around here.
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Energy drinks half as cheap as soda??? Where do they live... the energy drink factory maybe?
Anyway, getting buzzed on energy drinks... my God. Chugging 20 cans of 0.5L a day... or drinking everyday. This probably has more health risks than chugging a beer a day -.-
I like energy drinks from time to time (maybe a can once a month), but this is just extreme =/ energy drink are a plauge on modern society
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Energy drinks, cheap? LOL, NOPE. The ever popular Monster is basically at least 3 euros a can here. Other brands like Redbull etc. are not much cheaper. As for downing litres of it a day, well, idiots will be idiots.
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Energy drinks are the same price as cheap beer; which are more expensive that soda. Two dollars for a monster two dollars for a tall boy.
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EPT
