The Kingdoms war on energy drinks

Shortly after September 11 2001 America announced its war on terror, years later Mexico announced its war on drugs and this Winter Saudi declared war on energy drinks. This is of course an exaggeration of the truth, there has been no declaration of war and in fact no outlawing of the drinks. However, Saudi has become one of the first countries to clamp down on the selling of these drinks.

In early March, the Ministry of Interior presented a study showing the effects of energy drinks on the consumers.

This resulted in strict rules being introduced to protect children and adults from drinking too much of the beverage.

These restrictions include:
- All energy drinks not to be sold at any Governmental, health or education building.
- A label must be produced on every can explaining the dangers of drinking energy drinks in large quantities.
- All advertising of the drinks will now be illegal, including the sponsorships of any events

Many people in the West and across most of the world may see these steps as another form of control by the Saudi government or may even see it as an irrational decision. But what effects are these drinks really having on our body that caused the laws to be implemented?

This week I have decided to gather as much available on the web for you to make your own minds up whether the strict laws on energy drinks in the Kingdom are the correct and sensible thing to do. I must say the things I have found out were absolutely astounding in some cases. These are the most interesting facts I have found:

The first fact i found was that the standard energy drink can contain anywhere from 13 to 15 teaspoons of sugar. That is an incredibly unhealthy and unnatural amount of sugar to be consumed at one time. This alone could have a detrimental effect on your body, if you were to consume two cans a day, that would be at least 26 to 30 teaspoons of sugar. Large amounts of sugar effects the amount of knowledge the brain can consume, which is an obvious reason to ban these drinks from schools.

The second thing i discovered was slightly more scary. Most energy drinks contain an amino acid called Carnitine. If you have too much Carnitine, it could lead to illness, seizures and in extreme cases, death. Now, if you are wondering how much of this substance the companies put in their products as I was, then you'd be disappointed to find out that no energy drink company lists how much of this they use in their products. This means a substance that could lead to seizures for the consumer is the same substance being hidden from them.

Finally, since October 2012, there has been reports of 5 deaths and one nonfatal heart attack all relating to the consumption of Monster energy drinks, a company that boasts a 39% share of the energy drinks market. In a market with tens if not hundreds of competitors, just one has killed 5 people. This is worrying and outright shocking that governments around the world are doing nothing to combat the effects that these drinks are having on the people of their countries.

So as Saudi bravely take a stand to become one of the first countries to actively prevent the retail of these drinks, it has become clear that, not only in saudi but the rest of the world, there should be measures implemented to protect consumers from the consumption of these drinks.