A new study suggests that overconsumption of energy and sports drink can lead to unhealthy teen behaviors such as smoking, video game play for hours and drinking soda.
Lead author of the probe from University of Minnesota's School of Public Health Nicole Larson and her colleagues found that teens who drink energy and sports drinks are more likely to do unhealthy activities. They conducted a survey of 2,800 teens in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area's middle and high schools. The teens were asked to answer questions on their activities and how often they consumed energy and sports drinks.
Their analysis showed that 38 percent of the participants consumed sports drinks at least once a week; 15 percent takes energy drinks at least once a week, and eight percent rarely consumed any of the two drinks. The researchers observed that the teens who consumed energy and sports drinks at least once a week were also drinking soda, playing video games and are smoking cigarettes more often than those who did not.
Boys who consumed energy drinks once a week played video games four hours per week longer than those who didn't drink sugary beverages. Those who imbibed sports drinks once a week also watched TV an hour longer. Around 20 percent of those boys and girls also smoked cigarettes.
"It is critical that adolescents and their parents are educated about the potential consequences associated with consuming sports and energy drinks, and that targeted advertising does not continue to encourage them to purchase these beverages," Larson said to LiveScience.
Researchers declared the results were troubling, as they pointed to problem behavior clustering among some teens. The study didn't ascertain whether or not unhealthy behavior came before the consumption of the drinks, however, but it did note that teens' exposure to TV advertising of energy and sports drinks rose 20 percent from 2009 to 2010.
This study was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
