Energy drinks are supposed to give you the boost needed to get your tasks done, but one YouTuber discovers that the extreme versions might just have been banned for a reason.
YouTube challenges often give you ways to improve your life by introducing healthy habits, but sometimes its more exciting to watch someone put themselves through hell for our own entertainment.
That's exactly what happened when fitness content creator Will Tennyson made it his mission to try out five banned energy drinks with dangerous levels of caffeine, putting them to the test alongside strength workouts and daily life.
Here are all five of the energy drinks that Will tried throughout the video, and all have been banned for excessive caffeine levels alongside some reports of illness and even death:
- Spike (350mg caffeine)
- Cocaine (280mg caffeine)
- Panera Charged Lemonade (~390mg caffeine)
- Monster Energy Java (300mg caffeine)
- 5-Hour Energy (200mg caffeine)
Starting off with Spike, this self-professed 'hardcore' energy drink is a bit of a double edged sword as not only does it have 350mg of caffeine - approximately 5.5 times that of an espresso shot - but it also has 41,670% of your daily B12 intake. Yikes.
This was what appeared to hit Will the most as he was working out, describing the feeling as follows:
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"In terms of energy, I have a ton of energy, but it's a kind of energy I never want again. It's like more of a nervous energy. I feel like there's a predator watching me from afar while Elmo is tickling me."
He also reports many of the symptoms of excess B12 consumption, including headaches, nausea, fatigue, and tingling sensations - definitely one to avoid.
Moving onto Cocaine, while the name certainly suggests an intense rush - and remains a key part of why the drink was banned - it actually proved to be quite disappointing overall.
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Will does remark that it "tastes like a panic attack," but the energy gained compared to Spike is less immediate and leaves few of the horrible sensations.
Proving as by far the best of the five though was Panera's Charged Lemonade, despite reports that it has killed two individuals in the US since it's release and subsequent ban.
This meant that Will had to make it from scratch using Guarana Powder, which boasts around 220mg of natural caffeine per gram. The initial effects are quite extreme, with it being described as "feeling so much more," but this quickly turned into a rather positive senstation.
"I really did feel invincible and incredibly strong," Will reveals during his post-Charged Lemonade gym session, and he describes not being able to sit still and not realizing that he spent the entire workout not even listening to music.
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Monster Energy's Java drink was a bit like Cocaine in that it was a bit uneventful, and not too different than a standard coffee despite drinking it on a non-workout day where you might expect to feel the effects a bit more.
He perhaps saved the best for last though, as not only is 5-Hour Energy the only one that you can actually buy in shops, it's by far the worse when it comes to side effects.
It's the type of energy drink that makes you hit a heart rate personal record while sitting on the toilet, but at the same time you're able to do things that you haven't been capable of before.
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"It's PR after PR after PR," outlines Will, feeling stronger than ever before, but at the same time he's experiencing an 'insane' headache that feels like someone is "squeezing my head as hard as they possibly can."
It reached a point where he could barely finish the workout - which is a stark difference to the Panera drink that almost forced him into a post-workout run he had so much energy - so somehow the only legal drink on the list ended up being the most destructive.
One comment describes feeling "ranging anxiety throughout the whole video on [Will's] behalf," and we can't help but agree as we truly see the extremes that you can reach when consuming high doses of caffeine.