Effects of Energy Drinks on the Body POSTER

Have you seen an uptake of students consuming energy drinks as their main form of everyday beverage? The energy drink market has seen unprecedented growth over the last 10 years and their popularity is continuing to grow, especially in our youth and adolescents.

While there may be some positives to consuming the occasional energy drink, there are many short and long term health effects including addiction, anxiety, dehydration, fertility and heart issues.

This poster provides an easy to read outline of some of the most major impacts energy drinks have on the human body. It includes the definition of an energy drink (in case your students like to argue why their energy drink isn’t an energy drink or isn’t bad for them!) as well as a QR code students can scan to view a cool, short, free YouTube video on ‘What if you only drank energy drinks?’ by the team from AsapScience whose aim is to make science make sense.

The inspiration behind the creation of this poster came when one of my 15 year old students had a full-on meltdown and screamed it was the only thing she has to drink today and I was stopping her from hydrating (conveniently forgetting the cool filtered bubblers outside and the fact she’d just come in from break) because I asked her to tip her (just opened) large can of V down the sink because energy drinks are banned at our school (which she already knew!).

For our students to live long and happy lives, we need to help them understand the importance of looking after their bodies (including what they put into it), and minimising their intake of energy drinks is one aspect we can help educate them on.