"Energy drinks are the fastestgrowing part of the beverage industry with sales in the United States reaching more than  billion in   more than Americans spent on iced tea or sports beverages like Gatorade. Their rising popularity represents a generational shift in what people drink and reflects a successful campaign to convince consumers particularly teenagers that the drinks provide a mental and physical edge. The drinks are now under scrutiny http_rmoduleinline by the Food and Drug Administration after reports of deaths and serious injuries that may be linked to their high caffeine levels. But however that review ends one thing is clear interviews with researchers and a review of scientific studies show the energy drink industry is based on a brew of ingredients that apart from caffeine have little if any benefit for consumers. If you had a cup of coffee you are going to affect metabolism in the same way said Dr. Robert W. Pettitt an associate professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato who has studied the drinks. Advertisement Energy drink companies have promoted their products not as caffeinefueled concoctions but as specially engineered blends that provide something more. For example producers claim that Red Bull gives you wings that Rockstar Energy is scientifically formulated and Monster Energy is a killer energy brew. Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts a Democrat has asked the government to investigate the industrys marketing claims. Promoting a message beyond caffeine has enabled the beverage makers to charge premium prices. A ounce energy drink that sells for . a can contains about the same amount of caffeine as a tablet of NoDoz that costs  cents. Even Starbucks coffee is cheap by comparison a ounce cup that costs . has even more caffeine. As with earlier elixirs a dearth of evidence underlies such claims. Only a few human studies of energy drinks or the ingredients in them have been performed and they point to a similar conclusion researchers say  that the beverages are mainly about caffeine. httponlinelibrary.wiley.comdoi.j....xabstract Caffeine is called the worlds most widely used drug. A stimulant it increases alertness awareness and if taken at the right time improves athletic performance studies show. Energy drink users feel its kick faster because the beverages are typically swallowed quickly or are sold as concentrates. These are caffeine delivery systems said Dr. Roland Griffiths a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has studied energy drinks. They dont want to say this is equivalent to a NoDoz because that is not a very sexy sales message. Editors Picks   https_idactionclickmoduleeditorContentpgtypeArticleregionCompanionColumncontentCollectionTrending A scientist at the University of Wisconsin became puzzled as he researched an ingredient used in energy drinks like Red Bull Hour Energy and Monster Energy. The researcher Dr. Craig A. Goodman could not find any trials in humans of the additive a substance with the tonguetwisting name of glucuronolactone that is related to glucose a sugar. But Dr. Goodman who had studied other energy drink ingredients eventually found two yearold studies from Japan that had examined it. In the experiments scientists injected large doses of the substance into laboratory rats. Afterward the rats swam better. I have no idea what it does in energy drinks Dr. Goodman said. Krating Daeng the Thai drink that inspired Red Bull. Energy drinks lift appears to come mainly from caffeine.CreditThomas FullerThe New York Times Energy drink manufacturers say it is their proprietary formulas rather than specific ingredients that provide users with physical and mental benefits. But that has not prevented them from implying otherwise. Consider the case of taurine an additive used in most energy products. On its Web site the producer of Red Bull for example states that more than  reports have been published http_RB_Sports_EDversion_f_screen.pdf about taurine and its physiological effects including acting as a detoxifying agent. In addition that company Red Bull of Austria points to a  safety study by a European regulatory group that gave it a clean bill of health. But Red Bulls Web site does not mention reports by that same group the European Food Safety Authority which concluded that claims about the benefits in energy drinks lacked scientific support http Based on those findings the European Commission has refused to approve claims httpec.europa.eunuhclaimseventsearchCFIDCFTOKENedeeaaEAFFEAECFBDEBjsessionidadbdTR that taurine helps maintain mental function and heart health and reduces muscle fatigue. Taurine an amino acidlike substance that got its name because it was first found in the bile of bulls does play a role in bodily functions and recent research suggests it might help prevent heart attacks in women with high cholesterol. However most people get more than adequate amounts from foods like meat experts said. And researchers added that those with heart problems who may need supplements would find far better sources than energy drinks. A spokeswoman for Red Bull did not respond directly to the European marketing claims report but said that the company did not make claims for individual ingredients but rather for the product in its entirety. Sign up for Science Times Well bring you stories that capture the wonders of the human body nature and the cosmos. To woo consumers companies have also used another tactic  including huge amounts of wellknown nutrients that make for eyecatching numbers on labels. For example a twoounce bottle of Hour Energy contains  micrograms of Vitamin B or  percent of the recommended daily allowance. The energy shot also has  times the recommended intake of Vitamin B. Bgroup vitamins serve many functions such as in the digestion of food. But several experts said that healthy people get adequate amounts of them from food and that huge added dosages do not provide benefits. They are not going to increase energy levels said Paul R. Thomas a scientific adviser with the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements httpods.od.nih.gov. Elaine Lutz a spokeswoman for the distributor of Hour Energy Living Essentials of Farmington Hills Mich. said the amounts of B vitamins used were safe and effective. The body is going to use what it needs and it is going to excrete what it does not absorb said Ms. Lutz. The sugar found in some drinks does provide a quick source of energy. But as for glucuronolactone the additive that made rats swim better the authors of a recent report in a scientific journal Nutrition Reviews httponlinelibrary.wiley.comdoi.j....xabstract said they were clueless as to why it was used in the products or what it did.  Certainly this is one ingredient for which evidencebased studies are needed to justify its popularity wrote the researchers. That same review which examined all published energy drink studies also concluded that there was an overwhelming lack of evidence to substantiate claims that  The roots of the energy drink phenomenon  and the claims surrounding ingredient mixes  can be traced to Japan. Those origins appear tied to the emergence of supposed curealls after World War II a time when drugs there were in short supply. In the late s Taisho Pharmaceuticals http a Japanese drug maker began selling taurine extract apparently drawn to it by accounts citing its wartime use by the Japanese Imperial Navy to reduce fatigue among sailors and sharpen their vision at night a history of the drug company states. A formula that is so effective in treating unexplained fevers neuralgia fatigue whooping cough and other conditions for which there is no drug is very rare indeed an advertisement for the extract declared. But around  Taisho executives decided to use taurine in a new product one that helped start the energy drink industry  Lipovitan D. Lipovitan D which was sold in a small vial contained  milligrams of caffeine  milligrams of taurine various B vitamins and flavorings. The product which was sold cold in drugstores was a huge success during Japans economic boom years particularly with overworked office employees. However  years and  billion bottles later Taisho officials acknowledged they had not run a single clinical study involving Lipovitan D.  Taurine is added to Lipovitan D not so much for specific medicinal benefits but for its multifaceted functions said Dr. Takanori Kouchiwa a Taisho executive. It was also in the s that a product appeared in Thailand that was similar to Lipovitan D in its ingredient mix. It was called Krating Daeng pronounced grating deng or Red Bull. An Austrian businessman named Dietrich Mateschitz reportedly discovered it when trying to cure a case of jet lag and in  he and the drinks Thai creator founded Red Bull.  Red Bull quickly became popular in Europe with truck drivers and students and as a mixer for alcoholic drinks. It arrived in the United States in the late s and soon inspired hundreds of competitors. In  for example Monster Energy was marketed in a ounce can twice as large as Red Bulls ounce can and with twice as much caffeine. Over the years some producers have financed scientific studies to try to bolster performance claims. A British researcher Dr. Chris Alford said that Red Bull approached him about a decade ago while he was doing work on the ability of stimulants to reduce fatigue in drivers. In  Dr. Alford a psychologist at the University of the West of England in Bristol who has received financing from Red Bull published a study that found test participants given the energy drink had better reaction times were more alert and showed increased physical endurance than test subjects given a placebo like flavored water. But studies like Dr. Alfords researchers say only underscore caffeines known benefits. And more recent attempts to tease out the impacts of drink ingredients have produced mixed results. Last August Scottish researchers reported  httprd.springer.comarticle.sthat  milligrams of taurine taken as a supplement appeared to improve the performance of middledistance runners. But other taurine studies have been negative or inconclusive. We found it difficult to make any conclusions about what taurine was doing said a graduate researcher at Tufts University Grace Giles who headed a study http that ran participants through a battery of mental reaction and memory tests. Dr. Goodman the University of Wisconsin researcher said he believed there was a reason for such equivocal results. The scientist who works at the schools college of veterinary medicine said that laboratory animals like mice or rats must be given huge dosages of taurine to see an effect. Hour Energy contains quantities of Vitamin B that dietary experts say offer no real benefits to those who take it.CreditSpencer PlattGetty Images   You can force a mouse to drink a lot of taurine said Dr. Goodman. With humans it is harder to do. What may qualify as the strangest trial in the annals of energy drink studies was financed by Living Essentials the distributor of Hour Energy. The office of a proctologist in a small Maine town apparently served as a setting for the  study the results of which were never published. But its findings and other details about it like its location emerged in a  lawsuit filed by the maker of Monster Energy against Living Essentials. The study found that test subjects given Hour Energy experienced energy for about  minutes longer than when given Red Bull or Monster Energy though it was not clear from court papers whether that difference reflected the energy shots higher levels of caffeine. But another finding from that study sheds an interesting light on one of Hour Energys central claims  that the energy shot unlike competitors produces No Crash Later. According to the study  percent of test participants who received Hour Energy had reactions similar to a moderately severe crash that left them extremely tired and in need of rest another drink or some other action lawsuit filings show. Ms. Lutz the Living Essentials spokeswoman said the bold No Crash Later statement on product labels was followed by a special mark. That mark which also appears on the back label explains in fine print that no crash means no sugar crash. That is hardly surprising because Hour Energy does not contain sugar. Asked whether consumers mistakenly believe that the shot does not produce a caffeinerelated crash Ms. Lutz said that the use of the special mark and its explanation were clear. I dont believe that it is misleading said Ms. Lutz who added that the advertising division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus had approved the No Crash Later claim. She added that another study showing the benefits of Hour Energy was undergoing peer review for possible publication in a scientific journal. But she declined to say why the results of the study which was apparently conducted five years ago had not yet appeared. That study found a benefit when Hour Energy was compared to a placebo like flavored water she said. Whatever the case the energy drink boom has come full circle in Asia the region where it started. Over the last decade sales of Lipovitan D have fallen and its maker Taisho Pharmaceuticals has tried various strategies to revitalize the brand. Among them bringing out Lipovitan Junior a caffeinefree version for children. In Thailand Krating Daeng has suffered a similar fate. Its producer has tried to freshen up that brand by proclaiming that the Vitamin B in it helps the functions of the nervous system and brain. Last year the Foundation for Consumers in Thailand an advocacy group started a publicity campaign against energy drinks like Krating Daeng arguing that producers were promoting unfounded health claims to push caffeine. This product just needed a way to add value to extend its life cycle said Patchara Klaewkla an official at the foundation. This product has been in the market for a long time."