Gen Z’s Energy Drink Crisis

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Coffee has been around for nearly 500 to 600 years, and you could argue it's probably one of the most successful drugs ever released to society. People's whole civilizations built off these damn beans. Of course, when coffee wasn't hitting hard enough, they had to make a teeny tiny subtle switch to cocaine to boost production. Hey, we can say what we want about it, but you can't tell me they wasn't handling with swiftness from the 70s to 80s, which was at the time in the US when things were at their most affordable. But sadly, that became illegal. So eventually they found a brand new totally not harmful at all product to replace it, energy drinks.

[00:00:34]And slowly over time, especially since the 2000s, they become more and more popular every year with Gen Z now leading the chart as the group who consumes the most energy drinks. And I'm not going to lie, >> it's not even close. Uh we're we're kind of close.

[00:00:48]>> According to studies nowadays, 75 to 80% say they drink them regularly. And older generations drink them the least. But to be fair, that doesn't mean older generations don't have caffeine. They just have coffee a lot more than energy drinks. I can give boomers credit on that though. They can manage their caffeine a lot better THAN US. YOU KNOW, other than destroying the world's economies, causing wars for no reason, being selfish and on younger generations for a world they created, and saying just buy a house like I did for two pennies in a handshake. Seems like they've gotten caffeine addiction pretty beaten. And as someone who started having energy drinks and pre-workout around 4 years ago when I turned 19, not going to lie, it was mainly because I started going to the gym and wanted to get the best gains, caffeine addiction is probably top five addictions this generation has right now. And especially when I started having it more, I can understand why it's hard for some people to stop. Because just like all other stimulants, you end up getting a tolerance to it and needing more. For some people, it's bad. It it can get to the point where if you have it too much, days you don't have it will give you headaches and some people even throw up because their body needs it. WHICH IS WHY you should always keep it balanced and have some break days a week where you don't have caffeine, like at least 2 days in a week. But even then with people having it, one thing I didn't realize because I did research before I started having it is how many people don't know the limits and drink over it a day. The FDA and most of the world's health organizations say you should have a max of 400 mg of caffeine a day, which is already a lot. For reference, that's having four cups of coffee a day, 10 cans of soda, or two cans of 200 mgram energy drinks. But really, the only reason you should even be having that much is if you go to the gym and lift a lot or work like 14-hour days. But even with this being clear public information, people will casually brag online that they have double that amount or even more. Like you just admitting to overdosing on social media in 2026 because that's what you're doing.

[00:02:36]>> How much caffeine do you drink per day?

[00:02:37]>> 1,000 millig, which is 1 g, which is 10% of a lethal dose. What's your,000 milligs of caffeine a day like schedule?

[00:02:43]>> I start the day off with four shots of espresso. I mix that with two protein shakes. That's about 256 g of caffeine.

[00:02:49]Later in the day, I have a pre-workout before I hit the gym. This one is like 300 milligs of caffeine. So now we're at like 650. And then I'll probably either have another one of these later in the day for my second workout or one more shots of espresso around. Do you have a problem sleeping?

[00:03:01]>> No, I sleep great. I track it with my ordering every night. I can drink a pre-workout and go to bed if I wanted to. What is the most amount of caffeine, milligs of caffeine you've had in one day? And how did it make you feel? Um, for me, my all-time high, career high is 750 millig in one day. Um, that's a lot.

[00:03:16]And I remember, so I had two rains, so that's 600 right there. And then I had, I think, like two or three diet cokes.

[00:03:20]Um, so that got me up to like 750.

[00:03:22]>> The comment section of this video is worse, too. Somebody said 3,200, which is 8 times the max limit. 1,750 mg, which is four times the max limit.

[00:03:33]Funniest thing about this is having all this caffeine is actually going to make it work for you. You're just breaking up your tolerance to the point of having one energy drink is going to give you zero effect on your body. So, if you think you're caffeine addicted for almost having the limit every day, there's levels to this You at level two. Obviously, the main problem with having that much is you risk having a heart attack at any moment. Your heart can only handle so much stimulation before it pops. There was a sad case recently of someone in Gen Z passing away from having too much caffeine. The 17-year-old girl named Lissa Rodriguez was having energy drinks a lot from a specific BRAND CALLED ALANI. NOW, at her age, even though it's not recommended to have energy drinks under 18 as a teenager, the max you're supposed to have if you do is 100 millig a day and the Alani has 200 mg. So, we're already starting off bad. On October 20th, 2025, she sadly passed away from a heart attack after having them. Although it's not exactly confirmed how many she was having a day, people are speculating it was way more than the limit because you don't pass away at that age without really putting pressure on your body.

[00:04:36]You saw that Tik Tok comment section.

[00:04:37]There was admitting to having absurd amounts and even they didn't pass away.

[00:04:41]The biggest thing going around was that she was having six of them a day which would be 1,200 mg a day. Three times the daily limit by the way for AN ADULT. AND IF THAT'S REALLY TRUE, it's so crazy how people don't check the limits of anymore. The fact that no one in her life told her she has to stop having that much because it's going to make her die faster is crazy. IF I HAD 1,200 millig of caffeine a day, I'd probably be able to run around the whole world three times and still be good for her body. She definitely got used to it, which is the problem. And now her family's trying to sue the company saying they didn't have enough warnings about excess caffeine use, even though it says it right on the can. Or you could search up the health facts online and instantly know the limits. Rest in peace to her. Obviously, tragic death, but this lawsuit is not going to go anywhere. This would be the equivalent of someone who died from alcohol poisoning suing the beer company for giving them that much alcohol. Also, what the were the parents doing?

[00:05:36]They should have especially asked her about her energy drink habits since she was having so much. My mom to this day still gets on my ass for having any type of caffeine. And I'm not going to lie, she's right. Loki, in general, no one should be having caffeine preferably.

[00:05:50]The tolerance comes up no matter what.

[00:05:52]Even if you drink coffee, BUT IF YOU ARE going to be drinking it like most people in the world do, you should at least be hitting the limit max and not going higher than it. It also doesn't help that energy drinks have turned into a hobby FOR PEOPLE. LIKE, WHY DOES EVERYTHING have to be a hobby, man? Tik Tok is ruined doing any TYPE OF THING.

[00:06:07]YOU HAVE PEOPLE show off their collections of energy drinks like they're a car collector. They can point out every single chemical compound in each drink like they're Walter White.

[00:06:35]This is an expensive hobby. I don't know how they're getting all these different types of cans. Okay. Well, not expensive like being a car collector, but a 12-pack energy drink is usually like 30 bucks, so it adds up. The closer you are to them, the more you're going to want to drink it. So, it's probably not the best idea if you already take a lot of caffeine now to stack up on it. Energy drinks going to be calling your name midday like the Green Goblin mask. Now, in defense of all this caffeine consumption, because one may wonder why Jenz has so much, it's a couple of reasons. One being currently in college and since you're studying a lot more, you need more energy, hence the energy drinks. Every generation has had their things for colleges. Back then, it was taking out your stress on a cigarette pack or taking Coke to make the 7 a.m.

[00:07:17]test. Also, going to the gym a lot more, which like I said is the reason I even have it on my days off. I don't. If you're coming from working in a long day and want to hit the gym after, most people need a little something to pick themselves up. Another thing some people might be surprised by is party. There's been an uprise in bars serving drinks with energy drinks intertwined or just drinks having it themselves. Some people completely replace having alcohol with just an energy drink and go to a concert. The alcohol industry might be dead by the time we're old. They're practically begging for the youth to drink. But we have morals, all right? We draw the line at getting blackout drunk.

[00:07:50]We'd rather be getting heart attacks by 30 or getting severely addicted to gambling that we lose our life savings.

[00:07:55]It could also be that statistically Gen Z right now is the most stressed generation. Whether you believe that or not, every time a generation is feeling stressed, there's always something to help with that coke. One of the other reasons for the uptick is it seems like everyone has an energy drink now. I can't even count on my hands how many celebs have come out with their own custom energy drinks. The Rock has one.

[00:08:16]Kim Kardashian has one. Logan Paul and KSI, which we all remember. Kids were getting cracked out thinking a prime energy drink was just like their apple juice, only to all of a sudden be able to bench 500 lb five times in a row.

[00:08:28]Parents don't truly check on their kids anymore because how is your kid casually having caffeine at 8 years old and 10 years old and you don't even know? Even Baron Trump, Donald Trump's son, announced he's releasing one in May of this year. What the does this know about energy drinks? I don't think I've even heard him talk. The only thing I want to see him do was be in them warfields for the his father started.

[00:08:47]The main problem with it is it's not like food or something that doesn't affect your body too much. It's a stimulant that if you have too much, you can die from. I assume even people who don't drink caffeine who are fans of these celebs are going to try their energy drinks and potentially get hooked on having them or may not know they can only have a certain amount before they get Fortnite eliminated. You should also only be having the energy drink in the morning or 3:00 p.m. max. Any later and good luck getting any type of sleep.

[00:09:13]There's a ton of people who have permanent sleep problems every night because the amount of caffeine they consume. Caffeine has a halfife of 3 to 7 hours, meaning it takes that much time to get down to half the amount in your system. And if you have like 200 mg at 5:00 p.m., you're still going to have a cup of coffee and a half in your system by 10:00, extending the time it takes for you to sleep. You most likely won't be able to sleep until like 1 or 2 a.m., which for anyone in school that has a job, that's probably going to make life worse for you, or you're going to have the worst stage of it, having to take copious amounts of caffeine in the daytime. Well, at night downing a bottle of melatonin to fight it. It creates an endless cycle of you doing that until one day you either take a break or I guess wait until you're at 900 mg of caffeine every day and have a heart attack in the middle of the night. To wrap it up, the main lesson of today's video, I guess, is to always remember the limits of caffeine. More and more are there cases of people either having heart attacks or destroying their bodies over having too much. Which is why we should put cocaine back in Coke.

[00:10:12]Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok. As always, I love you guys consensually. And until next time, I'm out.