A few days ago Lola explained to us why it is not good for children to drink soda and a recent study in California has determined that children drink more juice than they should.
After these data that seem to indicate that children should drink more water than they are drinking, we also see other data that surprise us as illogical: one in five children drinks, on average, two liters of energy drinks per month. Yes, you know, those that carry caffeine and taurine, among other things.
Data from a survey at European level
These figures come from a survey published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), conducted on 52,000 people from 16 countries of the European Union. The survey assessed the consumption of energy drinks by age groups ranging from 3 to 65 years, being the group that occupies us formed by children from 3 to 10 years.
Putting the figures in percentage, according to the results obtained, 18% of children aged 3 to 10 consume an average of two liters per month of energy drinks. This is something that, as I say, seems illogical and inexplicable, because I don't see what the reason may be for so many children to drink stimulating drinks. The most curious (and even more regrettable) is that of all children who drink such drinks, 16% are considered chronic consumers, since its monthly intake becomes an average of 4 liters (0.95 liters per week).
Undesirable effects of drinking energy drinks
For some time now, the consumption of these drinks has been worrying the scientific community, largely because the big consumers are young teenagers and also partly because the children also end up taking them, as we have seen.
Pediatrics magazine published in 2011 a study explaining what the effects of drinking energy drinks in children, adolescents and young people. Among them is a lower sense of well-being, low self-esteem, depression, poor school performance, poor sleep quality, childhood obesity, increases in blood pressure, interactions with medications taken by children, dental and bone problems, etc.
How hard is it to give them water
I really do not quite understand. Why don't children drink more water? Among juices, soft drinks and energy drinks it seems that water is the great forgotten, when all the comments are just the drink that children need most.
Energy drinks have a very variable amount of caffeine, which can go from 70 to 400 mg per liter, and children they don't need caffeine. Or is it that parents have replaced the glass of milk in the morning with coffee and I have not heard?
