• sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    What is it that makes coffee better for you than an energy drink? I know they usually have an obscene amount of sugar and caffeine, but you can get that in coffee too. I make a drink fairly often with 4 shots of espresso, around 250mg of caffeine. It doesn’t have that much sugar but I could easily add as much as I wanted. A normal cup of coffee would of course be much better than an energy drink, but if energy drinks should have restrictions then why shouldn’t coffee too?

    • TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That’s what I don’t understand too. They can just buy a doubletripple espresso and add a lot of sugar to ease the taste. Maybe a bit of cinnamon hint too. What’s the real difference here?

      • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The difference is popular conception. Laws aren’t set based on science. They’re set based on what enough people believe. People believe energy drinks are worse and thus they get regulated whether or not it’s true.

        Advertising, audience, and stereotypes play a part in this too. Coffee is stereotypically consumed by older people, whereas energy drinks are often younger people (who older people find annoying). Coffee also has a much greater social acceptance that would make it controversial to regulate. End result is that it’s popular to limit energy drinks but unpopular to point out that coffee has far more caffeine.

        • uis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Laws aren’t set based on science.

          That is big problem in our societies.

        • TrustingZebra@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          It’s a weird trend. Products that are popular with youth and “seem” un-healthy get banned by populistic laws, despite limited evidence proving them actually being un-healthy.

          The other prominent example I can think is vaping. I don’t even vape, but it’s weird to see it demonized as much as cigarettes, when the evidence for it being as harmful is very limited.

      • pikmeir@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It’s the convenience I think. You can carry an energy drink in your backpack all day and consume it whenever. A coffee is more motivated so you order it when you want to drink it. But of course there are exceptions. It seems the goal of this is just to cut down the caffeine by making large doses less convenient, not to remove caffeine completely.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      1 year ago

      What is it that makes coffee better for you than an energy drink?

      He drinks coffee instead of energy drinks, therefore coffee is better.

      Same thing with drugs. All the drugs I do are okay, all the drugs everyone else does isn’t.

      It’s a childish mentality that we’ve yet to get over as a species, even in adulthood.

      • Joshua Casey@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        did you just make an assumption about what I consume? Damn, that makes you look pretty dumb. I don’t drink coffee, btw. I love the smell, never had it or tasted it. The only way caffeine gets into my body is through pop (Dr Pepper, preferably) and I guess chocolate since chocolate has caffeine. But definitely not the absurd levels of caffeine that energy drinks have

    • FLeX@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Everything makes coffee better. Energy drink is ultra processed crap, coffee is natural and has been used for centuries.

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Well according to you, being natural and having a long history means its safe. Are you now saying that maybe a substance’s origin has nothing to so with how dangerous it is?

        • sep@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Probably more that the long term use of coffee is very well understood and researched. And while excessive use of anything is bad, coffee have not displayed issues bad enouhf that it needed regulation.

          A “coffee” at starbucks, or an energy drink Have more in common with a dessert, then water filtered thru ground up beans.
          And 3 desserts a day have quickly shown health issues.

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            A “coffee” at starbucks, or an energy drink Have more in common with a dessert, then water filtered thru ground up beans.

            Is your only problem the sugar? If so, don’t you think some coffee drinks should be regulated as well as energy drinks? That’s essentially my point, I don’t think it makes sense to enforce age restrictions on energy drinks but not on similar products too.

            If its the caffeine, then regular coffee isn’t necessarily better than an energy drink anyway. Caffeine content in coffee varies wildly based on numerous different factors. You can make a cup of black coffee with 265mg of caffeine in it, and it would even be cheaper than one with 100mg.