Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Marine Corps Times

Do high-caffeine drinks deliver?

Maybe it's because of boring all-night guard duty on some cramped tower, overlooking miles and miles of sleep-inducing nothing. Or perhaps getting there and back in one piece is a 30-hour, round-trip flight, and you're at the stick both ways. It could be a three-day recon mission into a very bad place or a week of constant firefights.

It all boils down to the same thing: You have to stay awake, stay alert and perform like your life depends on it, because it does.

No pressure, right?

It used to be that coffee was king in times like these, but those days are long gone. The Greatest Generation might have won World War II with the help of a cup o' joe, but the war on terrorism is powered by something far fizzier -- and stronger.

These days, the Xbox Generation is taking the Red Bull by the horns, embracing designer energy drinks like nectar from the gods. But are they really everything slick marketing campaigns promise?

Up, up and away

If Red Bull really gives you -- as the slogan goes -- wings, then why haven't all of the troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan flown the coop? Maybe it's the sleep deprivation.

They're certainly getting enough of the amber energy cocktail, buying more than 138,000 cans each month from the 54 military exchanges supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Adding in other sales worldwide, military exchanges have sold about $4 million worth of Red Bull since New Year's.

Then, there's Monster Energy Drink, twice as big as a can of Red Bull and more than a dime cheaper at about $1.78. War-zone sales of Monster top 35,000 cans each month, putting it behind the crimson bovine as the second-most purchased item in theater.

All told, four of the top eight sellers in combat exchanges are human rocket fuels -- either snazzy energy drinks or super-sweet shots of cold, condensed coffee. Not since Popeye put back the spinach has such a big boost been promised from such a tiny package.

Sales of designer energy drinks are soaring at military exchanges this year, up 169 percent over the same period in 2004, exchange officials said. The trend reflects a similar upswing in the civilian market, where everyone seems to be caught in the stampede.

"We get a lot of requests from people who want to send packages to loved ones overseas," said Hoby Buppert, creator of Bawls Guarana, a high-caffeine soft drink that packs twice the punch of Pepsi or Coke.

The demand has been so great, the company plans to add a special military care package to its Web site later this summer, he said.

Plain old drip coffee just doesn't hold the same appeal for today's youth, said Buppert, 32. And traditional soft drinks don't have enough kick.

"The reason I came up with it is that I can't stand coffee," Buppert said. "Bawls is cold. It's light. It's easier to drink."

A large portion of the recent success is surely because of effective marketing, ads aimed at 16- to 35-year-old men through heavy television and print campaigns.

For its part, Red Bull promises to improve performance, concentration, reaction speed, vigilance and emotional status. Oh, and it supposedly stimulates metabolism.

Guys who chug energy drinks get all the girls and win all the races, if you believe the ads.

"They're selling something different than sports drinks," said John Craven, founder and editor of the Beverage Network, an independent analysis group covering the beverage industry. "Those are selling replenishment. These are selling power and other attributes that a sports drink would never promise."

And energy drinks don't promise to replenish vital nutrients and lost fluids, which is also an essential part of maintaining combat efficiency. So what's in these wunderdrinks, anyway?

Cutting through the Bull

"There's really no difference between, say, Coke and Red Bull," Craven said. "There's nothing in there that makes it healthy or good for you."

For example, Red Bull contains additives that traditional sodas leave out, ingredients such as taurine (a nonessential amino acid) and guarana (a Brazilian berry high in natural caffeine).

Oh, and sugar. Plenty of sugar.

But the public's infatuation with Red Bull -- worldwide sales average more than $100 million annually -- has led competitors to flood the market with similar stimulators. Now, the energy-drink category is home to more than 200 styles and flavors, Craven said.

"It's probably second, at this point, only to water," he said.

And those numbers are growing each day.

Faith in the marketing can be misleading, though, especially for individuals who tend to work up a sweat on the job. Caffeine sucks fluid from the body, so large doses of energy drinks can do more harm than good, Craven said.

"It certainly won't help with dehydration and things like that," he said.

Plus, there are issues of irritability, poor judgment and memory errors that come from a sustained lack of sleep. Caffeine, it seems, can't do everything.

"This degradation in mental performance may be acceptable for college students, but not for those who make critical life-or-death decisions during battle," reads a 2004 briefing on sleep deprivation by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military's main research and development group. "Unfortunately, current approaches are only partially effective in warding off sleep, and they are woefully lacking in their ability to sustain peak cognitive and psychomotor acuity."

So scientists are looking for something else, a better way to rewire the body for increased performance during long bouts of sleeplessness.

Until something better enters the open market, though, war fighters are left with few options except to self-medicate with their favorite caffeinated beverage. But should they keep paying out of pocket for expensive energy drinks instead of sticking with coffee or soda?

"There's nothing in there that makes you perform better," Craven said. "But for whatever reason, people have latched on to these funky little cans like some magical elixir."

C. Mark Brinkley, senior writer for Lifelines, hasn't slept in years. He can be reached at (910) 455-8354, or via e-mail at cmark@atpco.com, when he isn't doing the Dew.