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I recently discovered that my teenage son is hooked on energy drinks. I was most perturbed by this news. I deliberated for a while before deciding to confront him and discuss his addiction with him. As a parent, i feel that it is my responsibility to navigate the fine balance between being an open available for my son to confide in and instilling the correct values in him. Needless to say, this case is particularly challenging as no amount sensitivity to my sons plight could allow me to show him any wiggle room with this machala. My wife and i sat him down and expected him to show some guilt at having been caught. To my surprise, he tried to justify his actions and told me that it is commonplace amongst todays teenagers. Not only do the children abuse these substances in schools but to my horror, they are even being abused our torah institutions like yeshivos and seminaries.
These abhorrent drinks are filled with harmful chemicals which increase the risk of heart disease. This alone is reason enough to call for a national ban but i reserve my most passionate objections to what is surely the more serious reason. These stimulants ply the children with abilities to attain areas of otherwise unattainable achievement. This complete removal of ameila, the most crucial mida for successful learning, is a poison amongst us and must be stopped. Trust me, the brisker rav, Reb Yerucham, The Ketzos and the chofetz chaim were not high on these things when they wrote their masterpieces. They managed without, not in spite of but because of the fact that they had to toil in their learning, not have it all made easy with translations and energy drinks.
I seem to have been unsuccessful in conveying this message to my dear, wayward son and so i turn to you, fellow coffee room writers, for any help or views you can offer me to wean my son off these substances and maybe someday to come up with a klal yisrael wide solution.
thanks
There have been over a dozen death, r’l, attributed to these drinks.
Jews have been drinking coffee and tea for numerous generations with few problems. I believe coffee was popular and available from about the time of the tsfat kabbalists 500 years ago. In Eastern Europe tea was more popular. On this subject, does anyone have any anecdotes about gedolim of today or the past drinking coffee or tea?
Perhaps you could allow your son to drink two cups of coffee or tea a day if he needs energy, as long as he doesn’t drink the second cup past noon or 1pm?
However, he thing about caffeine is that it can easily disrupt sleep, and teenagers need way more sleep than they get. Teenagers are biologically programmed to want to stay up late and sleep in late. But the school schedule forces them to get up early. So what they really need to do is go to bed really early, like 9pm, even though they don’t feel like it.
There’s also the possibility that stimulant use (such as caffeine) can lead to anxiety or other psychological or behavioral problems. After all, teenagers are moody and their brains are still developing.
A better way to have more energy and concentrate very well is to get aerobic exercise. Studies show it’s more effective and longer-lasting that caffeine, and it increases mood (not to mention making you healthy and preventing obesity). Teens should get up and run around every hour or two to get their energy levels up, and maybe have a quick snack to compensate for the calories they burned.
This is from the net:
Energy drinks like Monster Energy, Rockstar, Red Bull and others contain potentially dangerous levels of caffeine and other stimulants, such as guarana and taurine.
They forgot to mention STROKE which can leave a person completely paralyzed, has v sholom. That is on other websites.
The menahel should convene a meeting, give out the medical evidence printed out to everone, say the drinks are prohibited, and suggest as an alternative – water with sugar dissolved in it (but not for diabetics) in a plastic bottle from home to re-hydrate and get a little burst of energy with the sugar.
Yeshivishsocrates1 -First of all -it’s a misnomer -there are No ingredients in these drinks that give energy. It’s just the drug caffeine -a lot more than a cup of Joe.
Question of the day: Why are these drinks worse than smoking cigs -which is the norm by lots of guys in certain Yeshivos?
I am not going to say that energy drinks are good for you but if you research some of these deaths one of the girls had a major heart condition and she should not have had any caffeine in the first place while another drank way more than any normal person should drink. these are just people looking for a lawsuit. quoting product liability lawyers as scientific proof is probably not the best idea. while caffeine is an addictive substance it is much more difficult to be come addicted to it than to nicotine.
It is interesting that the big ingredient involved is cafeine. At least one religious group (Mormons) ban it. Of course, cafeine in large amounts can be dangerous (which is probably true of virtually anything, even bread and water). But is adopting a quasi-religious objection to cafeine (a major ingredient in coffee, chocolate, tea and many soft drinks) raising a shailoh of avodah zara?
Environmental and health nuts are fine when they stick to science. But their enthusiasm tends to blend in into a mystical faith in their positions, and that raises shailohs.
No-one can properly judge an acceptable level of consumption -its not worth the risk.
Nicotine is a different poison again.
Yeshivishsocrates1 – My advice to you is to be honest, not overly dramatic. Present the truth.
I did some research on the net for you from reputable sites.
The amount of caffiene varies greatly amongst these drinks. Red Bull (8oz) has less caffiene than a cup of Joe -about 80mg. An 8 oz cup of coffee can have about 130mg.
Caffeine overdose for some people can start as little as 200-300 mg per day. In other words upto this amount is basically a safe amount you can consume.
Some “energy” drinks have 350 mg/can.
Caffiene, like any drug, you can develop a tolerance to. These people can handle upto 600mg/day. Therefore one can of these high caffiene drinks don’t send them to the hospital. Even if you can handle 600mg a day because your body got used to such a high amt., it’s not recommended to ingest this amt. on a daily basis.
You say that your son is addicted and is abusing a substance. Can you give more details?
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