Opinion: Switching Coffee for Trendy Energy Drinks Did Not Go Well

Coffee loyalists might want to think twice before swapping their lattes for a pastel can of "clean" rocket fuel. In a reported essay for the Wall Street Journal, Jamie Waters ditches his three-a-day iced lattes for a week-long experiment with trendy energy drinks like Celsius and Alani Nu—and ends up wired, headachy, and uneasy about what exactly he's chugging. "By midweek," he writes, "I had nearly lost my mind." These cans, marketed with wellness-y slogans and zero-sugar promises, pack about 200mg of caffeine each, about 50mg to 80mg more than each of his usual coffees, and close to the daily limit many experts recommend.

Waters talks to dietitians and physicians who note that while decades of data back coffee's benefits, these newer drinks mostly have "excellent marketing data." They rely on ultra-sweet sucralose instead of sugar, an additive federal health officials now say we should cut back on. Some users praise the mental jolt; Waters concedes the euphoria can be real, but so are the side effects—and he ultimately retreats to coffee for its taste and proven track record. For the experiment, expert caveats, and flavor horror stories, read the full piece in the Wall Street Journal.