December 2, 2015

expert reaction to conference poster presentation (unpublished work) on caffeinated energy drink consumption and blood sugar and insulin levels in teenagers

A group of scientists have presented their unpublished work at the World Diabetes Congress which investigates the metabolic impacts of caffeinated and decaffeinated energy drinks.

Prof. Tom Sanders, Professor emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics, King’s College London, said:

“The measurement made in this study does not really predict diabetes. Caffeine stimulates the release of non-esterified fatty acids which may transiently influence insulin sensitivity.

“It is a jump too far to suggest caffeine containing beverages increase the risk of type diabetes 2 based on acute measurement in such a small sample (10 males, 10 females), especially as there can be marked variation in women with the menstrual cycle.

“Additionally, participants were given 5mg caffeine/kg which is a high dose – about 350 mg for a 70 kg man. The amount of caffeine in Coca-Cola is about 32 mg, there is about 150 mg in Relentless Energy Drink, and about 140 mg in a 500 ml mug of filter coffee (data from Coca-Cola website).

“This is also a pilot study, so further studies will be needed to corroborate the findings.

“A meta-analysis of epidemiological studies has shown the risk of diabetes to be reduced by coffee consumption. The caffeine supplied by coffee and tea is much more than in soft drinks, except possibly energy drinks like Red Bull.”

Poster title (there is no full paper): ‘Energy drink consumption impairs oral glucose tolerance in adolescents: a randomized, double-blind, crossover pilot study’ by H. Virtanen et al. presented at the World Diabetes Congress.  

Declared interests

Prof. Tom Sanders was a member of the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee that recommended that trans fatty acids be removed from the human food chain. Tom has previously acted as a member of the Global Dairy Platform Scientific Advisory Panel and Tom is a member of the Programme Advisory Committee of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. In the past Tom has acted as a consultant to Archer Daniel Midland Company and received honoraria for meetings sponsored by Unilever PLC. Tom’s research on fats was funded by Public Health England/Food Standards Agency.  Tom is also a Scientific Governor of the charity British Nutrition Foundation, member of the scientific advisory committee of the Natural Hydration Council (which promotes the drinking of water), and honorary Nutritional Director of the charity HEART UK. Tom is now emeritus but when he was doing research at King’s College London, the following applied: Tom does not hold any grants or have any consultancies with companies involved in the production or marketing of sugar-sweetened drinks.  In reference to previous funding to Tom’s institution: £4.5 million was donated to King’s College London by Tate & Lyle in 2006; this funding finished in 2011. This money was given to the College and was in recognition of the discovery of the artificial sweetener sucralose by Prof. Hough at the Queen Elizabeth College (QEC), which merged with King’s College London. The Tate & Lyle grant paid for the Clinical Research Centre at St Thomas’ that is run by the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Trust, it was not used to fund research on sugar. Tate & Lyle sold their sugar interests to American Sugar so the brand Tate & Lyle still exists but it is no longer linked to the company Tate & Lyle PLC, which gave the money to King’s College London in 2006. Tom also used to work for Ajinomoto on aspartame about 8 years ago.