Caffeine Levels in Energy Drinks Are Risky for Teens

Energy drink companies will tell you that their products aren’t for kids. Members of the American Beverage Association, which the organization says represents 94 percent of the energy drink manufacturers, have agreed to follow its guidelines, which include not marketing the products to those under 13 and not selling or marketing them at K-12 schools and school events. Many brands note on the can or bottle that their product isn’t recommended for people under 18 (though CR testers say that in some cases, you have to look really closely to spot that information). “We believe parents should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to what their children have for beverages,” says William M. Dermody Jr., ABA’s vice president for media and public affairs, “which is why ABA-member energy drink companies adhere to a longstanding commitment to not market to children or sell drinks in schools.”

But the way some energy drinks are packaged and sold makes them attractive to young people. They come in brightly colored cans or bottles and candylike flavors, such as sour gummy worms and Jolly Rancher, according to Frances Fleming-Milici, PhD, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health at the University of Connecticut in Hartford. “We know from years and years of research that this type of packaging, cartoon imagery, and sweet taste is very appealing to kids and teens,” she says.

And then there’s the marketing. Social media influencers represent various brands or peddle their own drinks. And energy drink makers sponsor high-profile teenage athletes, including skateboarders and surfers, and extreme sports events like Formula 1 racing and the X Games. 

Video games and streaming are increasingly common vehicles for energy drink advertising. “Our research is showing that in the gaming space, energy drinks are marketed more than any other food or beverage,” Fleming-Milici says. Teens might see an ad in a game or on Twitch (a streaming service that lets you watch others play). Or the product may be featured in banner ads or splashy promotions—one of the gamers may be sipping a drink while they play.

“These new spaces are really for a young and expanding audience,” Fleming-Milici says. “The marketing is so seamless, it doesn’t even feel like an ad. It feels like advice from a trusted source.”

The Food and Drug Administration says that a daily limit of 400 mg of caffeine—which you’d get in about one-and-a-half to three 12-ounce cups of coffee—is safe for most adults. Too much caffeine is linked to insomnia, anxiety, jitters, dehydration, a racing heart, increased blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, and, in some cases, seizures.

But for children and teens, the threshold for those side effects is lower. Caffeine acts more rapidly in most of them than in adults due to their smaller size and still-developing bodies and brains, and can reach a high level in the body very quickly, says Mark Corkins, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and chair of the committee on nutrition for American Academy of Pediatrics. “The [intake] level where we start to see serious side effects in teens is 100 mg a day,” he says. That’s why AAP guidelines recommend that children ages 12 to 17 not exceed that amount, although Corkins says it’s best for teens to avoid caffeine. For kids under 12, the guidelines are clear: no caffeine at all.

While there’s no regulation requiring manufacturers of energy drinks and shots to list the amount of caffeine a product contains on its label, many do. CR scientists wanted to see how accurate those claims were. 

We tested 17 energy drinks and six energy shots. For the most part, the amounts on the labels matched our test results or were very close, as the chart below shows. But eight of the products contained 8 to 16 percent more caffeine than the labeled amount. Only one energy drink tested below the 100 mg daily limit for teens: Red Bull, which had an average of 76 mg of caffeine, slightly below the 80 mg listed on its label.

Caffeine isn’t the only worrisome ingredient in energy drinks and shots. More than half of the products CR reviewed included one or more additional substances such as amino acids (L-carnitine, N-acetyl-L-tyrosine, taurine), which are involved in energy production in the body, and stimulants (ginseng, theobromine, theophylline). 

“In many cases, you have no idea how much of these ingredients you’re getting,” Rogers says. Often, they’re listed as part of a proprietary blend. The Food and Drug Administration requires companies to tell you what’s in their blends, but they don’t have to reveal the amount of each component. 

Researchers are concerned about many of these ingredients. For example, Vetter points to studies that have found a link between energy drinks that contain them and an increase in the heart’s QTc interval, which can make the heart less electrically stable. “They show that a drink with caffeine and other ingredients increases the QTc interval significantly more than a drink with caffeine alone,” says Vetter, who teaches at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In one such study involving 18 young, healthy adults, drinks with caffeine plus taurine, panax ginseng extract, and other such ingredients increased QTc intervals by an average of 10 milliseconds vs. the same drink with just caffeine. To put that in perspective, in a separate study, researchers noted that some medications that raise the QTc interval by just 6 milliseconds have a warning on their drug label or were removed from the market. 

Energy drinks and shots can also contain high doses of B vitamins, such as biotin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12. About a third of the ones CR looked at had 200 percent or more of the daily value for at least one of these vitamins. Some had much more. For example, 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Energy Shot provides 20,833 percent of the daily value of vitamin B12.

B vitamins don’t provide an immediate energy boost. They do help your body use carbohydrates for energy, but you don’t need such high doses. And regularly sipping energy drinks with vitamin levels in excess of what the body needs could be problematic, especially if you have more than one a day. For example, too much B6 can lead to numbness, tingling, or burning in your limbs, loss of balance, nausea, heartburn, and skin lesions. Niacin (vitamin B3) can cause flushing, burning, and itching.

Finally, the amount and type of sweeteners in these drinks are concerning. Four of the drinks CR looked at contained 39 grams, or nearly 10 teaspoons, of added sugar. The others relied on sugar substitutes like erythritol, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, or stevia extract. 

Research has linked excessive added sugar intake to weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and tooth decay, says Amy Keating, RD, a nutritionist at Consumer Reports. And too much sugar has also been shown to negatively affect learning and memory, as well as academic performance. 

Some substitutes have also been linked to an elevated risk of heart disease and other conditions. What’s more, there are no long-term studies on the effects of nonsugar sweeteners in children and teens, according to a large 2025 review of the literature in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

Although consumers may assume that if a food or supplement is on store shelves, its safety has been vetted by the government, that’s not the case for energy drinks. The FDA doesn’t have any regulations specific to the use of caffeine or ingredients such as taurine or L-carnitine in these products. 

But, as with any food or beverage company, energy drink manufacturers are subject to the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, and “ingredients must be GRAS [Generally Recognized as Safe] for their intended uses,” an FDA spokesperson told CR. 

The agency has designated added caffeine as GRAS, but technically only for use in “cola-like drinks” (the FDA’s term for sodas) at 200 parts per million, which adds up to about 72 mg in 12 ounces. But the FDA hasn’t made a similar GRAS determination for many other typical energy drink ingredients, such as glucuronolactone, L-carnitine, and taurine.

Why are they allowed in energy drinks then? “Due to a loophole in the federal law, companies can do their own research to evaluate an ingredient’s safety,” says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at CR.

According to Bob Durkin, former deputy director of the office of dietary supplement programs at the FDA, companies are required to have data on hand showing that the ingredients in their products—used alone and in combination for their intended use—are safe. But they’re not required to share their research with the public or the FDA unless the agency requests it.

“This means a lot of products and ingredients that consumers might assume are safe, including energy drinks, may have little to no independent safety data or information about their long-term effects,” Ronholm says.

We asked the companies that make energy drinks and energy shots we tested whether they had data showing that the ingredients were safe to use individually or in combination, and with caffeine. For those whose products didn’t specify that the product was for people 18 or older, we asked whether they had evidence to show that the amount of caffeine in the drink or shot was safe for teenagers. 

Consistent with its labeling, Whole Foods said its energy shot wasn’t recommended for people under 18, but didn’t comment on our questions about the product’s ingredients. Bloom said its drink was intended and marketed for people 18 and older. (The product label says “not recommended for children” but doesn’t specify an age.) It also said that the active ingredients in its drink “hold GRAS status, as required by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and are safe to consume in combination with caffeine in the amounts used in our formula.”

Responding for members of the American Beverage Association, William Dermody Jr. said: “Energy drinks have been enjoyed by billions of people around the world for more than 30 years and are recognized by government food safety agencies worldwide as safe.” Red Bull sent us the same statement. None of the other companies responded directly to our questions.

One key reason teens say they gravitate toward energy drinks is that they’re readily available. Hundreds of options line convenience and grocery store shelves. 

But parents may not always be aware of their teens’ caffeine or energy drink intake. A 2024 C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll of 2,057 parents found that 23 percent said that their teen consumed caffeine at least four days a week, but a third of parents overall thought the recommended daily caffeine limit for teens was higher than 100 mg.

You can help limit your teen’s caffeine consumption with regular check-ins, as well as having good caffeine habits at home. Consider these suggestions: 

Check your own caffeine and energy drink use. In the Mott Children’s Hospital poll, parents said the most common place their teens had caffeinated drinks was at home. “We live in a Starbucks culture,” says Corkins from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Drinking caffeinated beverages has become such a normalized activity that we almost don’t think about it, he says. But getting kids to consume less caffeine—or none at all— starts with good modeling by adults. 

If you find yourself reaching for caffeine in any form, including energy drinks, when you need a boost, consider instead hydrating with water or fruit juices, minimizing processed foods, and creating a bedtime routine that helps you relax and sleep better so that you’ll have more energy during the day, Corkins says. 

Help your teen know the difference between energy drinks and hydration beverages. These two types of drinks may be sold side by side, and their packaging might look similar—think Prime Hydration and Prime Energy drinks or Ghost Hydration and Ghost Energy. 

Take a minute to show your teen how to scan a beverage container to quickly find the caffeine information, says CR’s Ronholm: “Doing so is a great way to teach kids early on how to read beverage and food labels.”

More than half of parents in the Mott poll said they rarely looked at caffeine amounts when buying beverages for their teens.

And remind your teen that even for athletes, water is still the best choice for hydration. Energy drinks may actually cause dehydration, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If your teen insists on a sports drink, suggest they look for one that contains electrolytes like sodium and potassium, but no caffeine, Vetter says. 

Check in on your teen’s sleep habits. Teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. But too much caffeine from any source can disrupt sleep—and create a vicious cycle, Corkins says. “Patients tell me, ‘I’m tired in the morning. I wake up, and I need something to help me,’ ” he says. “But you can’t overcome a lack of sleep by using caffeine.” Too much caffeine in the daytime can then cause yet another restless night.

Lack of sleep has serious consequences for teens and can cause mental health problems like anxiety and depression, reduced focus, poor memory, an increased risk of diabetes and obesity, and an increased risk of substance abuse, according to the CDC.

To help establish a bedtime routine, consider what Corkins and his teenagers do: Spend 20 to 30 minutes reading a book or magazine to wind down (no screen time). Doing so promotes relaxation and improves sleep, he says.

Take an inventory of your teen’s total caffeine consumption. In addition to caffeinated beverages, Corkin and Vetter remind parents that all sorts of other products can contain it, such as over-the-counter drugs like Excedrin (acetaminophen, aspirin, caffeine), chocolate, and coffee-flavored treats like ice cream. 

Keep an eye out for signs of caffeine overload. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends calling a doctor if your teen or child exhibits these symptoms: a racing or irregular heartbeat, fast breathing, uncontrollable shaking (tremors), anxious feelings, or an unusual and increased level of hyperactivity.