Ranting about Red Bull

This morning, I came across an article entitled Charms School in the Washington Post Express paper. This article will be in the Washington Post on Sunday, which annoys me. The reason this irks me is because the article mentions a top female athlete and her pregame superstitions, one of which is to down a Red Bull energy drink before taking the court. Let’s only hope that young athletes don’t read the article and emulate her actions.

In the article, they talk about the sports word and superstitions. Which is fine, I mean, if you’re niaave enough as an athlete to believe in that stuff, you might find that type of thing intriguing.

What annoys me is a story they included about Alana Beard, a guard for the Washington Mystics. They discuss her pregame meal which includes a sandwich with peanut butter and jelly. Then, they talk about how she must shower, do her hair, and get off to the game. She gets to the gym and goes through a series of warm-ups, then finishes with, what the author words as, “another treat” – a Red Bull.

This annoys me for a few reasons. First, the whole pregame stuff is a bunch of crap. As long as you do something which relaxes you before the game, you will be fine.

Second, downing a Red Bull before an athletic contest has proven to be dumb and dangerous. For example, sports nutritionist Liz Applegate from the University of California at Davis, said in a 2001 CNN article,

“These cans of energy drinks have some enticing, very sexy-sounding claims — that they lift you up, that they give you more energy,” Applegate said. “Frankly, they’re nothing much more than caffeine in a can with a lot of sugar.”

In that same article, Red Bull claims the “extra energy” comes from vitamins and amino acids, such as taurine, which “acts as a metabolic transmitter and additionally has a detoxifying effect and strengthens cardiac contractility.”

However, Applegate thinks differently. She says,

Applegate maintains the boost comes mainly from caffeine. And that, she says makes energy drinks a bad idea for athletes.

“Even though they’re labeled ‘energy drinks,’ they should not be consumed during exercise,” and, “They have caffeine, and they’re too concentrated in sugar. That’s going to slow the body’s ability to absorb water.”

Dehydration is dagerous. BUT what’s even more dangerous is what energy drinks can do to your heart.

“If they were to drink multiple glasses of this mixture or concoction, I think there’d be a potential for significant danger — danger such as a racing heart beat, elevation of blood pressure and even potentially a heart attack,” said Dr. Laurence Sperling, a cardiologist at the Emory University School of Medicine.

So if your daughter picks up this Sunday’s Washington Post, sees a picture of Alana Beard, and reads the article, what do you THINK she’ll want to drink before her next game???

THAT is where I see a problem.