The immensely popular energy drink has been marketed as a healthier alternative to other energy drinks such as Lucozade and Gatorade but recently this has been called into question as we are finding out that it is not actually the healthy drink it was made out to be.

 

A local boy named Harry Tong (14) said ‘At first I bought several bottles to keep with the trend but after I read the label I was shocked at the amount of unnatural ingredients in the supposedly healthy drink’.

 

Prime’s target audience is adolescents who get wrapped up into the trend and want to buy a drink to ‘be cool’. However prime contains roughly 140mg of caffeine and the safe amount of caffeine for an adolescent is 150mg (this varies by age and bodyweight). Although it is not dangerous if consumed in moderation, overconsumption of Prime could be very problematic for the health of a child or even an adult.

 

The drink also contains many ingredients that can be detrimental to a child’s health. Prime contains artificial sweeteners such as sucralose which, in recent studies, have been linked to heart disease and other circulatory issues.

 

Having said this, it’s not all bad. Prime contains roughly 250mg of amino acids which has been shown to benefit you before exercise.

 

How does it compare to other energy drinks though? Prime may have a lot of caffeine and artificial sweeteners but when compared to other drinks it is much healthier. It contains no added sugars and even contains multiple vitamins which when compared to other similar drinks is a much healthier option.

 

So even though Prime isn’t as healthy as we originally believed, it is still much better in comparison to its competitors. Next time though, think twice before buying things just because they are trendy.