Energy drinks get canned from Winnipeg teacher’s classroom

They may not give you wings, but they will likely put your brain in the clouds.

The popularity of energy drinks has prompted a Winnipeg high school teacher to ban them in his classroom and alert parents to their dangers.

“It’s common with every grade in my school, and it’s hard on teachers, it’s hard on kids. It’s a huge issue,” David Law, a Grade 10 teacher at the Seven Oaks Met School, told host Marcy Markusa in an interview with CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio.

Students who consume the drinks are “really jacked, they’re really jittery and not able to concentrate,” he said. “Their brains are not really functioning properly, and so you’re getting these kids who are awake but not really present.”

A 355-millilitre can of Prime energy drink, for example, has 200 milligrams of caffeine. In comparison, the caffeine content in the same sized can of Coke is 34 milligrams.

Health Canada’s recommended maximum daily caffeine intake for children up to age 18 is 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

Law knows of some kids who drink two and four cans every single day.

“There are obviously pretty serious short-term effects, but also I’m genuinely worried about the long-term effects as well,” he said.

Some pediatricians have said caffeine can cause a range of physical and psychological side effects.

And the high sugar content in the drinks can lead to obesity, diabetes and other diseases that affect the heart over time.

Regulation ‘a pretty simple solution’

Law has watched the drinks increase in popularity over the past several years, “but I have found an uptick recently for some reason.”

There are more brands on the store shelves, which means more advertisements and endorsements by celebrities and athletes.

“I got maybe a bit fed up the other day. I think I was on my last nerve and gave the whole class a lecture about it and how damaging these are,” Law said.

“There was zero pushback. These kids know how terrible it is for them, but a lot of them are just unable to make those healthy choices themselves.”

He implemented a ban on the drinks in his classroom as of that day.

“I don’t want to see them anywhere,” he said.

He also sent an email to his students’ parents, outlining his concerns and decision, and said the response has been “super positive.”

“Sometimes teachers are the only way parents can know what’s going on at school [but] banning drinks at a school level, that’s one step,” Law said.

“This isn’t the most serious or pressing issue facing the younger generation now — there’s drugs and alcohol and online things, and all those are super serious. So the problem of energy drinks, I think, has kind of fallen off people’s shelf,” he said.

But “there’s also a pretty simple solution here, which is just regulation. Right now a 13-year-old can walk into a convenience store and … just binge drink on them all day. Minors have no business purchasing these products.”

Erich Schmidt, a spokesperson for the Canadian Beverage Association — the association for more than 60 non-alcoholic beverage brands — said in an emailed statement that all its products follow “robust science-based Health Canada regulations.”

The maximum amount of caffeine an energy drink can contain is 400 milligrams per litre.

“You would have to drink about three small cups (237 ml) of brewed coffee to reach 400 mg of caffeine,” he wrote.

‘I just had to cut them off’: student

In the absence of government regulations, Law said he’s doing what he can.

Meanwhile, some students in Winnipeg are shifting away from the drinks. Matthew Boychuk, who spoke to CBC News near Grant Park High School, said he used to have about two cans a day but stopped about two months back.

“I got sick. I was puking constantly. I just had to cut them off,” he said, adding he initially felt sluggish. “But the longer I was cut off from them, the more energy I got.”

His sleep habits have also improved. He now goes to bed around 11 p.m., instead of about 3 a.m. when he was using the energy drinks.

Lindsay Martens, a dietitian with Proactive Health Nutrition, a consultant business in Winnipeg, said the drinks bolster an unhealthy cycle of poor sleep, which then leads to the use of more energy drinks among teens — many of whom are already getting too little sleep.

“I think it’s really important to remember caffeine is a drug. It’s a stimulant. It’s meant to keep us alert and awake,” she told CBC’s Markusa.

“And this is such a key time for brain development, emotional development, cognitive performance,” for teens.

There’s also a risk to bone health, since there’s a loss of calcium that can come from excessive caffeine intake, and the possibility of gastrointestinal upset, she said.

All of that can contribute irritability and moodiness, impacting a teen’s emotional health, Martens said.

Quitting energy drinks cold turkey, meanwhile, could lead to mood swings and even headaches.

Switching to pop, with a quarter of the caffeine, can make the transition easier, but the long-term solution for sleepy teens involves behaviour change — possibly using summer break to develop better sleep habits, and ensuring a well-rounded breakfast “to give you that long lasting energy instead of just that quick fix.”