This is obviously intended to be a fun forum, with nothing heavy, etc. But I'm wondering how long our fascination with caffeine drinks will continue. One can see two parallel trends going in opposite directions. Some of the most popular energy drinks greatly exceed coke and pepsi in caffeine content, while many others are moving away from caffeine beverages due to its negative impact on many individuals. What does this mean? Which trend is likely to prevail over the long haul?
I have moved almost 100% away from caffeine drinks now. I heard too many things about how bad it is for your health. Not to mention the sugar that is usually side by side with caffeine drinks. I know some people who are addicted to caffeine and have to have several pops/sodas/coffees/energy drinks/etc per day or they go crazy. They also go through $3-4+ a day buying drinks out of vending machines etc. That's over $100 a month I'd rather still have.
I think caffine will be here for awhile longer with its growing popularity in coffee, sodas and energy drinks. Personally, I try to avoid them as much as possible because of the sugar content. Though, I still have my usual Frappicuno once every two weeks as a treat for myself.
I really only drink water and tea because I'm fortunate enough to actually like the taste. General fitness seems to be a growing trend as of late. With that comes the incentive to avoid caffeinated drinks and the like. The only problem is that the same companies putting these products out just start marketing some other crap like "caffeine free" Pepsi and 0 calorie Coke, etc. With that said, I think these companies will just continue to adapt and market their latest changes. There are far too many uninformed (and uncaring) people out there to even think that one day these or similar products wont be on our shelves.
The problem with drinking all of these energy drinks that are filled with caffeine, or hell, anything with caffeine for that matter, will cause a tolerance for it; you start needing more and more of it than you used to. In other words, you need larger and larger doses to get the "kick" you used to get out of, say, a 16oz can of soda. That, and you become extremely addicted to it, and can't "survive" without it. (I've had both happen, i dropped the addiction, but i still need to drink a hell of a lot of soda to actually be affected by the caffeine.)
