What Does Every Energy Drink Have In Its Ingredients?

Caffeine used to be simple: ground up coffee beans and heated water in a cup. Nowadays your options for a quick boost are far more complicated, with brightly colored bottles, cans, shots and powder shouting the promise of more and more energy at you from nearly every beverage aisle. There are many brands of energy drinks, each claiming to provide the "best" energy, but dig a little deeper and you'll find the market and its ingredients aren't as complicated as they appear to be.

Energy Drinks: A "Bull" Market

Although many energy drinks are available in stores, five brands make up the majority of the U.S. market share. According to Mass Market Retailers, or MMR, 2010 food and beverage report, Red Bull, Monster Energy, Rockstar, Doubleshot and Amp, owned by Red Bull Inc., Monster Beverage Co., Rockstar Inc., Starbucks Co. and PepsiCo, respectively, make up the five top brands of energy drinks sold. "Beverage Spectrum Magazine" currently lists Red Bull as the dominant brand in terms of revenue, while Monster is the top brand by volume sold. The energy drink market was worth $4.8 billion in 2008, and is expected to be worth $19.7 billion in 2013, based on a 2010 report in "Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety."

Ingredients You'll Find in Most Energy Drinks

The same 2010 Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety report details the ingredients in energy drinks. There are common ingredients across all major brands, chief among them being caffeine, taurine and sugar. Depending on the drink, guarana, ginseng, yerba mate and B vitamins might also be included. The concentrations for the ingredients listed below are per 8 oz., but many energy drinks are in 16-oz. containers or larger, so be sure to do the math.

Caffeine: Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and is safe for healthy adults at or below 400 mg a day, according to a 2003 study in the journal "Food Additives & Contaminants." A typical energy drink has between 80 to 140 mg of caffeine per 8 oz.

Taurine: Taurine contains an amino acid, the same type that is naturally produced in the body. It's found naturally in meat and fish, so most people consume about 40 to 400 mg of taurine a day. Energy drinks contain synthetic taurine, at an average amount of 753 mg per 8 oz. That is a significant amount of taurine, and although preliminary research hasn't shown any harm in consuming this much, more research needs to be done to better understand its effects on the body in high doses.

Ingredients You May Find in Energy Drinks

Energy drink manufacturers experiment with different ingredients to find a balance of taste and "energy" that works for their consumers. You may find some or all of the following ingredients in energy drinks:

Guarana: Guarana comes from the seeds of the Paullinia cupana plant, located in South America, and contains both caffeine and antioxidants. One gram of guarana is the equivalent of about 40 mg of caffeine and has been shown to have similar effects. Research published in the "Journal of Ethnopharmacology" in 1998 showed no negative side effects of consuming large amount of guarana.

Ginseng: Ginseng is an herb that has been used for various physical and mental remedies for thousands of years. Although the purported benefits of ginseng haven't been proven conclusively, it is widely considered to be safe by both Western and alternative medicine.

Yerba mate: Yerba mate comes from the Ilex paraguariensis plant native to South America, where it has been used to make tea for thousands of years. Yerba mate has been associated with a host of positive physical and mental effects, but it is in energy drinks because of its high caffeine content. The caffeine in 8 oz. of yerba mate is about equivalent to the caffeine in 80 oz. of Red Bull.

B vitamins: Many energy drinks contain far more than the recommended daily dose of B vitamins, often claiming that this has a positive effect on physical and mental performance. However, there is no research to support this. The body can only absorb a limited amount of vitamin B, and since B vitamins are water soluble, the rest is excreted through urine.

Energy Drinks Are Not Regulated

Energy drinks are currently classified as nutritional supplements, meaning they don't have to adhere to the limit of 71 mg of caffeine per 12 oz. that the Food and Drug Administration has set for soda. Since several of the common ingredients in energy drinks contain caffeine, and little research has been conducted to show what happens when all of these ingredients are consumed together, that age-old axiom applies -- "best when used in moderation."