Nutritionists Recommend These 9 Gut-Healthy Drinks for Better Digestion - Health.com

Sean and Heidi Cripe will never forget the call from their son’s high school saying Davis was being taken to the emergency room. “He chugged an energy drink — like, just trying to be cool,” said Sean Cripe, recounting the day nearly a decade ago. The teen’s heart soon fell out of rhythm and he died. While such deaths are rare, doctors across the country have warned for years that energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine that can seriously harm children, causing problems such as abnormal heartbeats, increased heart rate, sleep disturbances, dehydration, agitation, high blood pressure and seizures. A newly formed coalition of doctors is highlighting these risks in the wake of a sponsorship deal between Monster Energy and the Big 12 Conference college athletic organization. The group has asked conference leaders to pause the sponsorship and the NCAA to review energy drink marketing to youths in general, citing the deaths of three children including Davis, a 16-year-old from South Carolina. Story continues below advertisement

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have completed what they describe as the longest and most comprehensive randomized controlled trial to date examining non-nutritive sweetened (NNS) soft drinks. Non-nutritive sweeteners are low-calorie or calorie-free sugar substitutes commonly used in foods and beverages. The 104-week study found that NNS beverages, including diet soft drinks, performed similarly to water when it came to long-term weight management.