Each of those cans full of artificial flavors, taurine and caffeine is equivalent to “drinking two coffees at once,” warns the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), which recommends “zero consumption” of energy drinks for minors. «The health consequences of … This excess of caffeine in the body, especially in the child and adolescent population, is all deleterious: it negatively affects the intestinal microbiota, promotes sleep disturbances and excitability, and can cause cavities, nausea, vomiting and problems in the cardiovascular system such as arrhythmias, tachycardias or high blood pressure,” the pediatricians maintained at the ’70 AEP Congress’, held in Córdoba this Friday.
Captivated by the “high sweetness”, which also “favors food preference for this flavor and makes our food choices shift towards the desire to consume more sugar”, almost half of Spanish adolescents consume stimulant drinks, according to experts’ calculations. , based on data from the Ministry of Health.
Consumption starts early. At ten years old, according to European authorities. At twelve, one in three children (38%) in Spain has already tried it, and between the ages of 14 and 18, half (48%) consume these ‘combinations’. “Teenagers are the largest consumers of stimulant drinks, incorrectly called ‘energy’,” the pediatricians warned. In Europe, the percentage is even higher: two out of three consume one of the brands available in any store without restrictions.
“Both children and families have little information about what it means to consume this type of stimulant drinks,” said Rosaura Leis, coordinator of the Nutrition and Breastfeeding Group.
Materna of the AEP, in a statement. “Most of these drinks exceed 32 milligrams of caffeine per 100. That’s 80 milligrams per can, the caffeine equivalent to drinking two coffees at once, something we would never give to a child.”
The expert requested regulation of the sale of these products, something that “already happens in other countries such as Poland, Lithuania or Latvia” and gave as an example that in Galicia there is a draft law to prohibit their sale to minors. Especially when “some brands” conceal the real amount of stimulant ingredients, by adding “other substances that also contain caffeine, and which are not taken into account in the calculation.” When these drinks are consumed, habits are altered and people stop reading books or playing musical instruments, the pediatrician said about this new ‘drug’ that attracts the youngest.
Dangerous cocktail
The other factor that mixes with stimulant drinks to harm the health of young people is a sedentary lifestyle. A “usual and dangerous” recipe. Along with the consumption of these legal but harmful substances, young people do not practice the recommended moderate or vigorous exercise: 60 minutes a day. The average is below 20 minutes, experts maintain.
“50% of the pediatricians surveyed consider that they do not have enough time or knowledge on the matter to be able to offer advice to their patients,” said Ignacio Güemes, pediatrician at the La Salud Hospital in Valencia, in his presentation ‘Adolescence: physical activity and sport. in a framework of healthy habits’. «We ignore physical activity in consultation, many times due to lack of training to make recommendations. But from the consultation we must give importance to physical activity, to such an extent that we should prescribe it as if it were a medicine.
With the alarms going off, pediatricians propose to regulate the consumption of these drinks and prescribe physical exercise in the consultation. “Not only for adolescents who do not exercise, but also for those who do so in a poorly planned and obsessive manner, sometimes leading them to symptoms of vigorexia, anorexia or ‘burnout’ due to excessive demands,” Güemes added.
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