Category: 5-hour energy

On the front page of this morning's New York Times, Barry Meier has a 2,000-word piece on the promise of such "energy drinks" as Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy. Under the headline, "Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof is Lacking," he delivers the following strong message: Energy drinks promise an edge, but experts say the proof is lacking. In other words, once you've read the headline, you pretty much know the story.

It's not a bad story. I learned something about the marketing of energy drinks, their origins in Japan, and two obscure, 40-year-old studies of glucuronolactone injections in rats. (Glucuronolactone is an ingredient in popular energy drinks. The injections in the rats made them swim better, but nobody knows whether it does...