Galicia has paved the way for prohibiting the consumption of energy drinks by minors starting in 2024 and now, at least eight communities are studying doing the same. The reasons are not lacking. The most important thing is that they are clearly harmful to the health of developing adolescents, as scientific studies have shown.
Catalonia is one of them, as well as Castilla-La Mancha, Navarra, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Castilla y León and Valencia. Cantabria and La Rioja do not rule out doing so, while Andalusia is considering whether to incorporate some type of restriction in a legal text that it prepares on healthy food.
All of them look closely at how Galicia wants to equate products like Monster, Red Bull or Burn with alcohol. The Xunta alleges the health risks they entail due to their high content of stimulant substances such as caffeine or taurine, which can endanger the cardiovascular and cerebral systems of adolescents. They can also cause “sleep disturbances, nervousness, irritability and anxiety,” the Ministry of Health points out.
The Ministry of Health and also the Ministry of Consumer Affairs are in favor of limiting the intake of this product in minors. But so far they haven't done anything. And that, from their organizations (the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition, Consumer Affairs, and the Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs, Health) have made it more than clear that these drinks contain a high level of sugar, caffeine and taurine, among others. A ticking bomb, which is even more so if it is mixed with alcohol.
