It was not that long ago that the study I wrapped my coffee arms around said, drink up–coffee has great benefits. It’s disturbing to learn how many people skip the coffee and go for the drinks that have more caffeine and way more uncertainty.

These so-called energy drinks are powerful caffeine boosters (and financial windfalls for the major companies), but they are unregulated beverages in terms of the amount of damage they can inflict. The other day the bullet shaped ones were recalled for a possible problem. Now there seems to be some movement afoot to try to figure out what is in the drinks and the effect. Sure we all need a wake-up call from time to time, especially when we are in the midst of the lazy, hazy days of summer and a deadline looms, but…

And that’s the problem. The beverages are without regulation and without adequate warning–they need to have some sort of black box warning that speaks to the potential damage to the heart. Many of these boosters, single containers, have as much caffeine as a 12-pak of soda. That’s serious. Their contents are a mere blurb of information that most people cannot translate into commonsense.

Once again we are left with the disturbing question: Who is in charge here? Not the FDA–they have done nothing. They limit the amount of caffeine in sodas but allow these booster drinks to fall into a stimulant, dietary supplement category. Congratulations to The SUNY Youth Sports Institute (in Cortland, NY) for holding a national symposium on the health impacts on youth from the $5 billion-a-year energy drink industry.We don’t mind ingesting as long as we have some idea about the consequences. These drinks are true drugs and need to adhere to some prescriptive label.

Too many people are consuming too much of a product that can be dangerous.

We do not always need a lesson in hindsight.

The time to focus is now and not with another energy booster.

I’m not an over-regulating person, but common sense dictates.