Sugar-Free Energy Drinks Still Cause Spike In Blood Glucose And Insulin, Linked To Diabetes, Study Finds

An alarming new research shows that caffeinated energy drinks cause a 25 per cent spike in teenagers blood glucose and insulin levels even when they contain no sugar.

A study to be presented to a world diabetes conference in Vancouver has found the caffeine alone in the drinks could predispose people to diabetes and heart disease.

Sugar-Free Energy Drinks Still Cause Spike In Blood Glucose And Insulin, Linked To Diabetes

Around 30 per cent of teens and half of all young adults consume the drinks which have been associated with a handful of deaths worldwide and over 300 health events, including 128 hospitalisations in Australia.

Consumption of the drinks in Australia surged fivefold in the decade to 2010 and some experts are calling for them to be banned from sale to those aged under 18.

Ms Heidi Virtanen, from the University of Calgary in Canada, will tell the conference a study of caffeinated drinks in adolescents found they caused a 20-30 per cent increase in insulin and glucose levels.

Groundbreaking ... The new study, found even sugarless energy drinks can predispose people to diabetes and heart disease. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

Results showed a 25 per cent increase in blood glucose levels in the two hours after consuming the caffeine-containing energy drink compared to the decaffeinated version. Insulin levels surged by 26 per cent.

In 2012, 14-year-old Anais Fournier died of a heart attack after consuming two cans of Monster energy drink.

She had a pre-existing heart condition and her family sued the drink manufacturer.

A 2012 Medical Journal of Australia study checked calls to Australia’s poisons information centre concerning toxic reactions to energy drinks.

It found in the seven years to 2010, almost 300 people had contacted the information line about exposure to energy drinks with many reporting palpitations, tremor and gastrointestinal upset.

Sugar-free energy drinks still cause spike in blood glucose and insulin, linked to diabetes

Twenty-one people had signs of serious cardiac or neurological toxicity including hallucinations, seizures and heart problems and 128 required hospitalisation.

Half the people in the study had also consumed alcohol, caffeine tablets, ecstasy and amphetamines or other caffeinated beverages at the same time.

A Deakin University conference on energy drinks late last year found they had been associated with cardiac arrest and sudden death and should be used with caution.

The conference called on governments to ban the sale of energy drinks to anyone under the age of 18 years old, as done in countries such as Denmark, Turkey, Norway, Uruguay, Iceland and Lithuania.

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