More than one in three teenagers in Australia drink at least two of these unhealthy drinks a day.
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead paediatric sleep expert Dr Chris Seton found in a survey that some kids are consuming the equivalent of 10 cups of instant coffee a day, reports News corp.
Researchers have found kids start consuming energy drinks around ten years of age and they have been linked to headaches, sleeping difficulties and heart palpitations and the US FDA is investigating 18 deaths linked to the drinks.
There were 300 calls relating to caffeinated energy drinks made to the NSW Poisons Information Centre between 2004 and 2010, 128 of which resulted in hospitalisation.
Dr Seton says he is being called in to advise schools on how to manage sleep deprivation problems in teens that he links to energy drinks and technology and he is backing a ban on sales to under 18s.
The Australian Dental Association and the Obesity Coalition and the CWA want energy drink sales to children banned, claiming they are as bad if not worse than soft drinks.
The Heart Foundation, Diabetes Australia and Cancer Council Australia want them taxed to discourage consumption.
Insomnia is one of the better known side effects of excess caffeine intake.
Others include increased anxiety, panic attacks, high blood pressure, bowel irritability and cardiac arrhythmia, according to WA Health’s deputy chief health officer Andy Robertson.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver calls for a global ban on the sale of the caffeine-laden drinks to under 16s claiming schoolkids are dangerously addicted to energy drinks, with some consuming more than two litres per day.
Last year a British teen, who suffered two miscarriages which she attributes to energy drinks, took to Facebook in a plea for others to not make the same mistakes she has. Read more – “Energy drinks caused my miscarriage”.
Related story – Is it time to restrict the sale of softdrinks to children?
Is it just a myth that coffee is bad for kids?
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