Coffee is much better than energy drinks to give you a quick boost because with coffee you are drinking a 100% naturally grown product whereas with energy drinks there is a lot of artificial ingredients.
Whenever you get the choice to consume something that is natural or artificial it always makes sense to go with the natural over the synthetic.
Who wants to put human created chemicals added to something in order to improve the flavour or benefit you get from it compared to something that grows out of the ground?
One of the main reasons that coffee is so popular, especially in the mornings, is that it gives us an energy boost to kick start the day or a pick me up in the afternoon to push us through to the end of the working day.
The energy boost comes from caffeine and it’s the reason that caffeine is added to energy drinks because without it you would simply not get the “hit” that energy drinks provide.
Let’s not beat around the bush here, energy drinks taste ok but if you didn’t get that boost to the brain then no-one would drink them.
Energy drinks have become increasingly popular in recent years because they seem to give the same boost in energy as coffee does so why do energy drinks get such a bad rap whereas you can drink coffee till the cows come home and no one blinks an eye?
Is coffee an energy drink?
Yes! Coffee is the original energy drink that was born hundreds of years before Red Bull or Monster and absolutely delivers the same energy-boosting pick me up as an energy drink.
The average cup of coffee contains twice the caffeine of a Monster energy drink and caffeine is the ingredient that provides the boost.
The reason that it is perceived that energy drinks provide more energy than a cup of coffee is that you are more likely to drink an energy drink fast and therefore the caffeine will enter your body quicker and therefore you will feel the boost faster.
With coffee, its mostly drunk hot and therefore you sip it and as a result, the caffeine in coffee doesn’t give you the big noticeable hit that energy drinks do.
Are energy drinks worse than coffee?
The jury is still out on the overall safety levels of energy drinks and some countries have actually banned it due to the uncertainty.
At various times, France, Norway and Denmark all banned the sale of Red Bull due to it being unclear as to whether it could adversely impact your health.
We are not saying that Red Bull is bad for you but if entire governments of more than one country have decided that it may not be a good idea to sell it then it should at least make you think twice as to whether you should drink it on a regular basis.
Coffee, on the other hand, has never been banned from any country (not in the last few hundred years anyway).
Most people drink coffee every day and due to its extraordinary popularity, there have been a mind-boggling amount of long term studies to determine if coffee could adversely affect you.
All scientific studies on coffee show that coffee contains properties which benefit people that drink it on a regular basis compared to people that don’t drink coffee.
Here is an article that explains in detail:
What’s in an energy drink?
Coffee is the ground down beans which are found on the inside of the coffee cherry that grows on coffee plants throughout the world and is 100% natural but energy drinks contain a number of artificial ingredients.
Let’s take a look at what’s in a Red Bull:
Glucose & Sucrose – Otherwise known as sugar and there is a very large amount of it in energy drinks with a standard can of Red Bull containing 27 grams of sugar. That is a LOT.
An adult should only be consuming around 30g of sugar a day and so if you drink a can of Red Bull every day then that’s your entire sugar intake for the whole day just in that one drink.
You would need nine teaspoons of sugar to get to 30g so if you take 1 teaspoon of sugar with your coffee then even if you drink 4 cups of coffee a day that’s about half of the sugar in one can of Red Bull.
Too much sugar is bad for you so you don’t want to be drinking too many energy drinks with 27g of sugar in them.
This article explains more about how much sugar is ok in coffee:
Is sugar in coffee good or bad?
Taurine – Although generally considered safe, this is the ingredient that caused Red Bull to be banned for a while in several countries. We are not scientists and so can’t comment on how safe it is to consume on a regular basis but it is an ingredient that has caused concern in the past.
Caffeine – This is the reason that a lot of people drink coffee. It is proven to be perfectly safe even if you drink as many as 6-8 cups of coffee a day.
Everyone is different of course and you will know if you have taken more than your fair share because your body will tell you. You can’t take too much because you’d have to drink litres of coffee very quickly to get anywhere near close to it giving you a problem.
Energy drinks also contain caffeine because that’s what gives you the “energy” you are drinking it for in the first place. Coffee is a much better way in our opinion.
Artificial colours and flavourings – To get to the colour and flavour you get out of all energy drinks things are added that certainly do not grow naturally out of the ground. With coffee, the flavour is 100% natural and even more so if you stick to organic coffee but with energy drinks, you get all sorts of other stuff added to make it taste better.
There are some other things in energy drinks as well but the above covers the main ingredients to be aware of and enables you to make an informed decision.
Is coffee better than Red Bull for staying awake?
Yes, coffee is better than Red Bull if you want to concentrate longer for studying purposes or have a late night at the office.
Coffee contains more caffeine and therefore will have a more sustainable longer-lasting benefits whereas Red Bull will give you a quicker noticeable boost but you will crash quicker as it wears off.
Can you mix coffee and energy drinks?
Not recommended. All you will be doing is doubling up on the amount of caffeine you consume in one go.
Stick to one or the other but not a good idea to mix them both together.
At the end of the day, caffeine is the main ingredient in energy drinks that provides the energy boost and coffee is 100% natural and naturally contains caffeine.
What you need to ask yourself is do you want to drink something that will naturally give you an energy boost or something that has your entire recommended daily intake of sugar in one can plus other artificial colourings and flavourings?
I am biased because I have always been a huge fan of coffee and love the taste as well as the energy-boosting caffeine that it contains.
If you are not a huge fan of the taste of coffee and that is one of the reasons that you prefer to reach for a can of energy drink instead then there are many ways that you can improve the flavour of coffee without adding loads of sugar.
Most people drink instant coffee because it’s so easy but its the least tasty.
If you want to really enjoy coffee and get much more out of it than just the caffeine hit then take a look at this article:
