Whether you’re exhausted from a sleepless night, or desperate to stave off that dreaded afternoon crash, energy drinks can be the ultimate life-saver.
While they are a convenient alternative to a cup of coffee or tea, there is a dark side to energy drinks that a lot of people are more than eager to sweep under the rug.
Taken in excess, they can cause dependence and even addiction, not to mention a wealth of health problems such as caffeine overdose and diabetes.
While not the healthiest energy drink out there, Celsius does win the consolation price for being sugar-free and having a relatively safe amount of caffeine.
If it’s that good, you might ask: can I drink Celsius every day?
In spite of its benefits, I do not recommend drinking Celsius every day, nor would I encourage it.
Read on to find out why in more detail.
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Is It Safe To Drink Energy Drinks Everyday?
It is generally safe to drink energy drinks every day as long you don’t have any underlying medical conditions. Children, teenagers, pregnant women and nursing women should avoid them altogether.
However, this begs the question: why are you even drinking energy drinks every day? Or, why do you need to?
Some use energy drinks as a pre-workout to enhance their physical performance during a an exercise session. Others may drink them to boost concentration during strenuous intellectual tasks like doing homework assignments.
Energy drinks are fine once in a while, but it is best to keep them out of your daily diet. There are many concerns raised by health professionals who warn people about the dangers of drinking energy drinks regularly.
This is also seriously dependent on the brand of energy drink. Some are overloaded with sugar. Others pack tons of caffeine. Others taste amazing, but contain all kinds of suspicious artificial ingredients.
Danielle Rath, known as the Green Eyed Guide, a researcher and consultant in Food Science and Biochemistry, discusses the nuance behind drinking energy drinks every day.
In the video Danielle lists down five rules to follow if you are drinking energy drinks every day:
- Don’t be predictable
Don’t drink energy drinks at the same time every day. You will develop a tolerance for caffeine and you will continue needing more and more of the product for it to continue working for you. - Don’t be exclusive
Energy drinks shouldn’t replace every other fluid in your diet, you still need to drink water, milk, orange juice, etc. Also don’t drink the same brand every day. On some days you may need a brand with a lot of caffeine, on others you may just need one with only a little.
- Don’t be single-minded.
Energy drinks are not the only thing you should worry about. Some pre-workouts, beverages, chewing gum, candy, potato chips are caffeinated and consuming these food items can easily add up to your daily caffeine intake and possibly result in an overdose. - Don’t be a superhero
Energy drinks are not medicine. If you are having a mental health crisis or going through depression or an illness like a cold or fever you shouldn’t use energy drinks to “power through” the situation. Talk to someone about it or get some rest. - Don’t be a clone.
Everyone has different levels of caffeine sensitivity, so take your own diet and body into account and don’t drink what everyone else is drinking. Take it slow the first time you’re trying an energy drink as caffeine can take 20 minutes to kick in.
What’s Inside A Can Of Celsius?
Celsius contains a good amount of caffeine, a lot of vitamins, numerous natural extracts in a proprietary blend, and an artificial sweetener.
The biggest selling point of Celsius is the fact that it has absolutely no sugar. This is an extremely attractive feature because of the many negative connotations attached to sugar. An artificial sweetener called sucralose is used instead
However, Celsius still contains 2 grams of total carbohydrate. To understand the significance of this, read about it in my article breaking down Celsius’s ingredients.
Just like most energy drinks, caffeine is the key energy boosting ingredient in Celsius since there is no sugar to give you that sugar rush.
A can of Celsius is also infused with MetaPlus® Proprietary Blend, which consists of taurine, guarana extract, caffeine anhydrous, ginger extract, green tea leaf extract, and glucuronolactone.
I will be talking about these ingredients further on in the article.
Why Drinking Celsius Everyday May Be Bad For You
There are three things to note when it comes to Celsius: caffeine content, vitamins, and sucralose.
These ingredients aren’t bad in and of themselves, but in the context of consuming Celsius every day, then they may have detrimental cumulative effects.
If you would like to know more about Celsius Energy Drink, and if the drink could potentially bad for you specifically, have a look at the article I’ve written on if Celsius Energy Drink Is Bad For You, you’ll definitely find it informative.
Caffeine Content
Celsius contains 200mg of caffeine, which presumably comes from caffeine anhydrous, a highly concentrated powder form of caffeine that must be measured accurately to prevent overdose.
The FDA’s daily recommended amount of caffeine is 400mg for healthy adults.
In the proprietary blend mentioned above, you might have noticed guarana extract and green tea extract included among the ingredients. Guarana contains caffeine, and so does green tea.
When Celsius lists 200mg, it is not clear whether this includes all the caffeine from the guarana and green tea, or solely from the caffeine anhydrous. Therefore, the total amount could possibly be slightly higher than 200mg.
While the caffeine content of Celsius is still well within the FDA-approved daily limit of 400mg, drinking 200mg every day is eventually going to raise your caffeine tolerance. Our bodies adapt to caffeine, which results in us getting used to it.
Soon, you will find that 200mg is no longer enough, and you will have to take more to get a boost, and more, and more, and eventually you will be dangerously close to the 400mg limit.
But just because you are now unfortunately immune to the energy-boosting effects of caffeine, it doesn’t mean you’re immune to the crippling effects of caffeine overdose, which includes side effects such as:
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Digestive Issues
- Dizziness
- Irritability
As such, it probably isn’t healthy to consume the amount of caffeine that is contained within a single can of Celsius every day.
Excessive Vitamins
A can of Celsius supplies a fairly high amount of Vitamins, which borders on being overly excessive.
Let’s look at the percent daily values of the vitamins in Celsius.
| Vitamins | Amount | Percent Daily Value (%DV) |
| Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin | 1.7mg | 131% |
| Vitamin B3 or Niacin (as niacinamide) | 20mg | 125% |
| Vitamin B5 or Pantothenic Acid (as calcium d-pantothenate) | 10mg | 200% |
| Vitamin B6 or Pyridoxine (as pyridoxine hydrochloride) | 2mg | 118% |
| Vitamin B7 or Biotin | 300mcg | 1000% |
| Vitamin B12 or Cobalamin (as cyanocobalamin) | 6mg | 250% |
| Vitamin C or Ascorbic Acid | 60mg | 67% |
Percent daily values show us how much of a daily recommended amount is contained in one can of Celsius. Here, anything over 100% means that it is in excess and will be flushed out of the body.
As we can see from the table above, almost every vitamin in Celsius is way past the required amount.
Our body needs vitamins, but we can only use a certain amount at a time. Excess vitamins will be removed from your body and are thereby wasted. There is no storage for extra vitamins to be used at a later time.
You may ask, is there such thing as vitamin overdose? Yes, the condition is known as hypervitaminosis, which is fortunately in this case only true for vitamins A and D.
However, it is still possible to overdose from B vitamins. The potential side effects include insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and tingling sensations.
For a more detailed breakdown of the vitamins, check out my article on Celsius Energy Drink ingredients, where I dive a bit deeper into the vitamin content of Celsius.
Sucralose
The sugar substitute used in Celsius is a common artificial sweetener known as sucralose.
Sucralose is an artificial sugar, claimed to be 600 times sweeter than sucrose, while bearing no nutritional value.
The safety of artificial sweeteners is a subject of ongoing debate. Sucralose itself is an approved substance by the FDA, but there have been studies questioning its safety.
One study connects non-caloric sweeteners (e.g. sucralose) with causing glucose intolerance. Another paper calls for a reduction of sweetener usage, due to its potential for causing obesity and other diseases.
In this research, sucralose potentially impairs insulin sensitivity in the presence of carbohydrates. This is the time to recall that Celsius does have 2 grams of total carbs.
In Celsius’s defense, they have a sub-brand called Celsius Stevia which uses the sweetener Stevia as a replacement for sucralose.
If you are watching your carb intake, please consult your doctor before drinking anything which uses artificial sweeteners.
What does Celsius do to your body?
It has been scientifically shown that CELSIUS may speed up your metabolism and provide you with more energy. In addition, excessive usage might lead to negative consequences including increased heart rate or irregular heartbeat, sleeplessness, and anxiety.
If you are pregnant, nursing, under the age of 18, or if you have caffeine sensitivity, you should not consume Celsius. If you’ve already given this some thought, then by all means have a can of Celsius energy drink before a workout or whenever you need a caffeine boost.
Can You Drink Celsius Everyday?
I don’t encourage you to drink Celsius every day.
Celsius has many things going for it. It’s free of added sugar and artificial flavoring and is considered healthier than a majority of energy drinks out there.
Yet it still raises a few red flags which disqualifies it as a healthy energy drink.
As good as it is, Celsius is still an energy drink, and most health professionals would be very reluctant to endorse it as an addition to your normal everyday diet.
Potential Loopholes
You may ask: what if I drink only a little bit every day?
Most experts agree that it is best to limit your intake of energy drinks to 16 ounces (473 ml) per day. So a 16oz can is okay, right?
Keep in mind that the 400mg limit of caffeine is like a ballpark figure, because everyone’s caffeine tolerance is different.
Some people might overdose at 200mg while others may need more than 400mg to even feel the effects.
Sometimes it’s not about the amount, but the frequency as well. A person who drank 200mg at one-shot might be less adapted to caffeine compared to someone who drinks 20mg every day for 10 days.
Overall, it’s still better to avoid consuming such products every day. Even if it is as ‘good’ as Celsius is.
Personal Opinion
As good as Celsius ranks, I would not recommend drinking it every day.
No matter how good something is, moderation is always key. Too much plain water is also pretty bad for you, and considering that Celsius has a lot more going on than plain old H2O, it’s best to be cautious about this energy drink.
That being said, Celsius is definitely commendable for coming up with a drink that breaks many norms, takes effort to be healthy, and manages to keep itself in the market.
If you haven’t tried Celsius yet, I suggest you do so. But only in moderation.