Bailey Singletary is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].Recently, Mountain Dew has come out with a new flavor drink: Game Fuel. This drink is marketed intentionally to jack some kids up on caffeine so they can play Halo or Guitar Hero on an advanced level, of course, for seven straight hours.
But how healthy can this drink really be for America’s already obese children?
Even though this drink has 121 milligrams of caffeine in a 20-ounce bottle and an 8-ounce cup of coffee has about 108 milligrams, you don’t see kids running around the schoolyard drinking Starbuck’s lattes. Thousands of adults drink one or more cups of coffee everyday, and while this isn’t healthy for their bodies, it doesn’t do as much damage to them as it would to a 7-year-old child.
And Mountain Dew knows exactly what it’s doing by targeting this new drink to children, or even college kids, who need to excel in the gaming world. It’s getting worse than when cigarette companies try to appeal to younger crowds.
And unlike smoking, kids aren’t drinking caffeine drinks like this to be cool; they are doing it because they really think that it will help them get that new high score in whatever game they are playing.
People forget that caffeine is considered a drug. In fact, it is considered the most popular and one of the most addictive drugs in the world. When I was in high school and even my freshman year of college, I got headaches whenever I didn’t have caffeine because I usually had some sort of soft drink to get my addiction fix for the day. I can’t imagine what I would be like if Game Fuel was out when I was in the fifth grade, because I know Surge was bad enough for our little kidneys and blood pressure. The amount of caffeine in Surge can’t stand a chance with this new drink.
It makes me wonder what effects the amount of caffeine that kids are drinking now will have on them later down the road. I don’t think younger children have been drinking it long enough for doctors to realize how it is affecting them.
Who’s to say that the kids now drinking these massive amounts of caffeine won’t be infertile when they hit about 30 years old?
Or for that matter, what if the entire age group forms this new strange cancer that was caused by drinking massive amounts of caffeine when they were younger?
I think caffeine drinks might be the new tobacco products for our future’s society.