5 things you need to know about energy drinks

Coach Jonathan Wong has a Doctorate of Science in Holistic Medicine and is the author of "The Happy Body - Getting to the root of YOUR fitness, health and productivity". He is also the founder and CEO of Genesis Gym Singapore (tm), which aims to provide the best personal training and fitness services in Singapore. The views expressed below are his own.

I can understand why energy drinks have a big appeal to many people. School going kids feel they need these drinks to stay awake to study.

Adults feel they need them to work late for sales targets or project deadlines. And athletes need energy drinks to train harder or longer.

But like everything else in life... there isn't anything that comes for free.

Here are some things to know about energy drinks.

1. Their "secret" ingredient is caffeine.

This is not in itself bad, and this combination is almost sure to give you a buzz. In fact caffine is well researched to give performance-boosting effects in both strength and endurance when taken about 30 minutes before exercise.

However this doesn't come for "free". Caffeine actually tricks your body into thinking it does not need to rest. Eventually, we all need to rest. Either now, or later in the form of stress-related illness or disease.

2. The other big ingredient is sugar of some kind

The impact of a high sugar load is also well known. Blood sugar and insulin can be a health problem when too high. If you take these drinks in addition to a diet that is too high in carbohydrates for your current activity and body fat level, then these drinks are bad.

3. Effects of caffeine will impair fine motor skills and creative problem solving

If you need caffeine to do repetitive, non-technical tasks faster, for a short period of time, it's a good choice.

But if you need to come up with a long-term creative solution to a problem then it may not be the best idea because you will become dependent on it and it starts to lose effect after a while. In addition when you stop taking caffeine, you hit a "wall" and can't think as well as you may need to.

4. Pre-existing illness?

Caffeine and sugar can affect you negatively if you already have a cardiovascular, kidney, liver or brain illness.

5. Only if you can tolerate caffeine well.

Some people can sleep after drinking coffee at 10pm, some people can't sleep at night, even if they drink coffee at lunch time. Caffeine is cleared in your liver by what is known as the cytochrome p450 enzymes. Some of us are genetically good at clearing caffeine (no problems sleeping), and some of us are not (can't sleep at all).

So... here are the take-aways:

• If you are one of those who can't sleep with and caffeine, then energy drinks are probably a bigger burden to your detox system and you should avoid them.

• Make sure you are already healthy before using energy drinks. They can be of use before training, but are not to be used as a substitute for improving sleep and nutrition quality.

• You will have to "pay back" energy debt eventually, just like all other debt. Make sure you still get rest.

• If you are trying to burn fat, the sugars in energy drinks are a bad idea. Simply take a shot of expresso black instead.

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