Nations mull energy drinks ban for younger teenagers

The government in England plans to ban under-16s from buying high-caffeine energy drinks. Health ministers say products - such as Red Bull and Monster - fuel obesity, disrupt sleep, and make it harder for children to concentrate in school. Some countries have already gone down this path, and others, like Australia, are watching closely and may follow. If a new law is passed, shops, cafes, and even online retailers will no longer be permitted to sell these drinks to younger teenagers. It’s a move that could affect thousands of young people and aims to tackle childhood obesity head-on. Amelia Lake is a professor of public health nutrition at Teesside University, and is also part of a research centre called FUSE- a group of universities which examines issues around public health…

Amelia - An energy drink is different to a regular soft drink because it contains caffeine and the threshold is more than 150 milligrams of caffeine per litre.

Chris - What does that mean though? Because Coca-Cola, Pepsi, they've got caffeine in them, haven't they?

Amelia - A cup of coffee might contain 80 milligrams of caffeine in a cup of coffee, a cup of tea about 50 milligrams of caffeine, a cup of cola 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine. And then energy drinks, we are looking at those bigger cans, we're looking at 160 to 200 and sometimes even higher milligrams within that one can. So those larger cans, that is about two espressos worth of coffee in a can.

Chris - And the calories, how many calories are in a can of these energy drinks?

Amelia - Okay. So if we think about one of the larger cans like Rockstar Monster, they have around 230, 240 calories. So similar to cans of pop because they've got sugar in them.

Chris - Who is drinking them?

Amelia - These drinks have been one of the fastest growing sectors of the soft drink market, and that is globally. So this is a global issue and it's a global story. These are global companies and this is a big proportion of their global sales. About 1/3 of 13 to 16 year olds are having them once or more a week, also 11 and 12 year olds. So we know it's happening in younger children as well.

Chris - But occasionally during the week is arguably much less bad than if someone's got a regular habit. So is there evidence that there is extreme intake or that there's a rising trend towards more consumption?

Amelia - There is evidence globally around rising trends. There's evidence internationally, for example, I've just looked at data from Finland where it has been increasing year on year. And also the gender gap that there once was between boys and girls has completely narrowed, which is really interesting and is down to the marketing and advertising of these drinks. Given the fact that it is the fastest growing sector, the concern globally is that this is particularly in younger age groups and in under 12s. So looking at 10, 11 year olds.

Chris - And what sorts of health harms might be arising from this rising trend of use?

Amelia - We have reviewed the international evidence and we have found that there has been physical health outcomes associated with them. And that is what you might expect, stomachache, headaches, dental health impacts, cardiac issues, obesity in relation to increased calorie intake. And then in terms of the mental health factors associated with the intake of them, it is a whole range of issues through anxiety, increased stress, increasing depressive symptoms. And also the caffeine in these drinks impacts sleep, which is hugely important when it comes to every age group, but particularly adolescents and that growing brain and that growing body.

Chris - Do you think it's a symptom of lifestyle in general and other pressures on young people rather than just the prima facie cause here? Because a colleague of mine in Australia said that what she's seeing there is increasing numbers of young people who are staying up half the night playing computer games, socialising online, playing with smartphones, so they don't rest properly. They feel sleepy the next day, don't have time for breakfast. So on their way to school, they snag down a couple of tins of this stuff. It wakes them up, gives them a bit of energy because it's got calories in it. Then they crash at school later, having been up half the night, can't concentrate. But then come the evening, having slept it off, they feel perkier again. So they rinse and repeat and it's a vicious cycle.

Amelia - It is, absolutely. And our qualitative evidence actually supports that. So we know that that is what is happening, whether or not the energy drinks are at the crux of this and putting a sales restriction in place isn't going to magic wand that away. But there is a lot to be discussed around, for example, devices in bedrooms and just the importance of sleep. But using caffeine as a means of combating that sleep deprivation, adults do it. But now we're seeing younger and younger children do it. And there is a strong link between these drinks and computer gaming culture.

Chris - How practical is it to intervene in the way that the government are proposing to though? Because we've seen a number of things like sugar taxes and junk food interventions and healthy eating legislation's got more bits of policy around it than almost any other sector of science or health science. And it clearly doesn't work very well because of rising trends in terms of obesity, for example. So do you think that regulating these drinks in this way is practical and going to translate into any particular benefit?

Amelia - So if we go back to your question about policy, my colleague Dolly Van Tolleken and her PhD explored how many pieces of obesity legislation we'd had in the last 30 years, and there was nearly 700. And had it curbed obesity? No. So that's an interesting point. Around using things like the sugar drinks levy, that has been vastly successful and we do have some excellent evaluation of that. I think in this case, a sales restriction on energy drinks. First of all, we are not, with the sugar tax, the UK was a pioneer. With this, we're not a pioneer. Latvia, Lithuania, Poland already have restrictions in place. And those are for under 18s. Norway, it comes into place in January, that's for under 16s. So we're seeing a trend, there's a global trend in terms of restricting by age. We already restrict by age for many other things. So, you know, cigarettes, alcohol. In fact, we restrict by age for lots of things to do with children that don't actually have a scientific evidence base. They can't go in and buy aerosols or knives or crossbows or, you know, fairly sensible things, but yet they can walk in and buy a can that contains the equivalent of two shots of espresso.