DRINKS HELP WEARY BEAT ENERGY CRISIS.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

When Cody Duncan wants to pick himself up, he reaches for a Rock Star energy drink.

Packed with caffeine, sugar and other stimulants, one 24-ounce can of the tart, carbonated drink delivers everything he needs to complete his job at the Hot Topic T-shirt shop in Valley River Center.

"When you're working here, you're going like 100 miles an hour, so it's a good thing to have," says Duncan, 22.

"It's better than coffee. I really don't like coffee."

Duncan isn't the only one embracing energy drinks. Although they've been around for years, these European-born pseudo-health beverages continue to gain in popularity, particularly among young people.

Red Bull remains the Coca-Cola of the industry, but more varieties are appearing in store coolers as beverage companies struggle to meet the growing demand for liquid stimulants in a can.

"People are becoming immune to Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Coke," says Brian Bach, owner of the mall convenience store More of Everything. Bach stocks close to a dozen different varieties of energy drinks, including Rock Star, Red Bull and Kronik.

"They want something stronger."

Workers, college students, even junior high schoolers are chugging can after can of drinks with names such as Adrenaline Monster, Amp and Whoopass, even as health experts warn of potential hazards.

The beverages can boost heart rate and blood pressure, and cause dehydration and restlessness. Many nutritionists see them as essentially "liquid candy with extra caffeine."

"I think they are actually considerably worse (than soft drinks)," says Daniel Marks, an assistant professor at the Center for the Study of Weight Regulation at Oregon Health & Science University.

Marks sees sugar and caffeine as the two greatest evils of energy drinks. One jumbo can of Rock Star per day per year is enough to produce 20 pounds of weight gain in the average adolescent. And the 225 milligrams of caffeine (a can of Coke contains 48.75 milligrams) can contribute to anxiety, sleeping disorders and other problems.

Another concern is that the effects of many of the common energy drink ingredients, such as the amino acid taurine, haven't been thoroughly tested on young people.

"Basically, what we're doing right now is an uncontrolled experiment," Marks says.

Duncan's co-worker, Cynthia Gomez, doesn't seem too concerned. She regularly drinks two 24-ounce cans of Rock Star a day - and has been known to drink more than that.

"Sometimes, if I'm going for the gusto, I'll have three," the fast-talking Gomez says. "I had eight (smaller cans) in a night once. I felt like a crack head, but I got my job done."

Among some energy drink fans, there is a grudging acknowledgment that the beverages may not be the best thing for their health. At the Web site www.energyfiend.com, energy addicts can use a Death by Caffeine meter to find out how many cans of their favorite beverage it would take to kill them.

According to the site, 168.25 cans of Rock Star would do in a 150-pound person.

Justin Field, owner of the Big City Gamin' video game store, advises against drinking energy drinks to excess.

"When Red Bull first came out, I drank like four of them in a half-hour, and I honestly had to go home from work with flu-like symptoms," Field said.

"Several is definitely not good. Back to back is bad. Drinking one over an hour period is not bad."

Field carries several beverages at his store, including Bawls, a caffeinated drink in a bumpy blue bottle that is the unofficial favorite of gamers. He sells several cases a week to gamers between the ages of 13 and 33.

Field has seen his sales of energy drinks increase substantially in the past three years, mirroring national trends.

According to Beverage Marketing Corp., sales of energy drinks in the United States will top $1 billion in 2005. The industry is growing by about 50 percent annually, and Red Bull still owns roughly half the market.

And the fact that Pepsi (Amp, SoBe), Coca-Cola (Full Throttle, KMX) and Anheuser-Busch - which not only makes BE, but also the nonalcoholic drink 180 - have all gotten into the game suggests that beverage makers see even more growth potential ahead.

Like soft drinks, energy drinks have widespread appeal. Some, such as Red Bull and Mountain Dew Amp, are marketed to the extreme sports crowd, while others, such as Crunk and Pimp Juice, are geared to hip-hoppers. There's the aforementioned Bawls for gamers, and even a drink called Bong Water, marketed, presumably, to marijuana users.

At the Revolution, a Chris- tian-themed skate jam and carnival that takes place at the Willamette Christian Center in Eugene during the summer months, energy drinks are a common sight. The church sells Full Throttle, which is popular with teens and preteens, says volunteer Kate Bilyou, 24, herself a casual drinker of energy beverages.

`(My friends) drink energy drinks because they give you energy," Bilyou says. `A lot of times, you're doing so many things, you have to get up and go to school, go to work. ... You need something to keep you going.

"Kids should really just sleep more, but they don't."

The energy drink phenomenon is, not surprisingly, "all about energy," says Andrea Purcell, 19, a sales clerk at More of Everything at Valley River Center.

`I have so many people coming in, and they're like, `I need energy, how's this one?' (Mall) employees come here first thing in the morning, leave with a Rock Star, then they have a Rock Star for lunch."

Marks, the OHSU doctor, says energy drinks shouldn't be taken lightly. And when parents allow, or even encourage their kids to drink a beverage loaded with stimulants, they may be sending the wrong message.

"You're sitting there as a parent and a child is sitting there taking (something) to have an intended effect, and there's sort of a tacit approval of drug abuse," he says.

The association between energy drinks and drugs is even closer when the beverages are paired with alcoholic drinks. Kayla Parer, 18, doesn't use energy drinks, but some of her friends at the University of Oregon stir up Red Bull with Jagermeister liquor to create "Jaeger blasters." Red Bull vodka and other energy drink cocktails are staples at most bars, and alcoholic energy drinks such as Sparks, Anheuser-Busch's BE and the Portland-produced Liquid Charge are taking off.

Most health experts warn against pairing energy drinks with alcohol, since the combination of stimulants and depressants may be dangerous. Gomez, the Hot Topic Rock Star drinker, has other reasons for avoiding the mix.

"I don't want to ruin the taste of Rock Star by mixing it with anything else," she says.

CAPTION(S):

Cynthia Gomez, who works at a T-shirt shop in Valley River Center, has consumed as many as eight energy drinks in one shift.