A blonde Kim Kardashian wearing a white leotard and heels while sitting on a workout bench and lifting dumbbells is the picture of health — or at least that’s what Alani Nu wants people to think.
The striking photo, which served as a promotion of a pink lemonade flavor energy drink called “Kimade,” took social media by storm when the wellness brand and reality TV star shared it on Instagram on July 10. Within weeks, and 2.1 million likes on the announcement later, the product sold out. Why? Because people are addicted to caffeine and anything touted as wellness culture, according to one registered dietitian, Abbey Sharp.
“These kind of new age energy drinks are becoming seen as a healthy alternative for soda or coffee to women who are seeking that buzz maybe for the gym, or just for performance or for everyday life, but maybe are watching their weight,” Sharp tells Yahoo Life. “They’re often marketed alongside a lot of female celebrities who have socially desirable bodies. And so there’s this obvious assumption that in some way, this contributes to the way their body looks.”
While Kardashian attracts a unique kind of attention to her body and lifestyle, it isn’t the first time that the industry has seen an energy drink in pink packaging, a fun flavor and 200mg of caffeine with minimal calories. TikTok “It girl” Alix Earle had a similar collaboration with AminoLean — a brand whose tagline is “good energy only,” with products that are said to give you energy, help build muscle and manage weight — on a Berry Alixir flavor in March. Other brands, like Celsius and EBOOST’s Super Fuel, have also employed the help of female fitness influencers and models to market their products.
This “health washing” of the industry, as Sharp calls it, is contributing to an already concerning trend of young people consuming energy drinks, now specifically targeting women.
Why women?
Red Bull and Monster Energy continue to dominate the market, according to a Mordor Intelligence report. But with evolved consumer interests, brands introducing energy drinks labeled as “clean” or low-calorie are disrupting the market and enticing a new customer.
Women, specifically, were noticeably absent in the marketing strategy of energy drinks, says Michelle Cordeiro Grant, an entrepreneur whose brand Gorgie hit supermarket shelves in January.
“I remember seeing a girl buy an energy drink at a convenience store [in Florida] and kind of put it down next to her hip,” Grant tells Yahoo Life. “You knew she wanted it and she wanted to drink it, but she wasn’t proudly walking out, the way you would with a matcha or a Starbucks.”
Grant, who also founded the lingerie brand Lively, knew that the big-name energy drink brands had a “stereotype” that didn’t align with “health-conscious humans,” as they were typically associated with essential workers or other high-performance use cases. Today, however, she sees energy drinks as a daily beverage.
“Especially post-pandemic — because everyone needs to get back to that insane cadence they were holding in life pre-pandemic,” she says. “What I realized is, it’s already happening, so what we could do is just normalize it and make it really proud and exciting and fun.”
More importantly, she sought out to make it something that could exist in the wellness space. Whole Foods, for example, couldn’t carry other energy drinks because, she says, “they have sucralose, they have erythritol, they have too much caffeine, and then they have weird things like taurine, etc.” Grant says Gorgie does not.
Can energy drinks be healthy?
“This is a really great example of health ‘washing,’ where we take something that’s generally not healthy for you, and we add a little something that we feel is gonna give it that nutritional buzz, and suddenly it is transformed into a health food,” says Sharp.
The knowledge that energy drinks aren’t healthy isn’t new. In fact, adverse effects from the beverages have been reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for decades. “Caffeine has been and continues to be challenged,” says Roger Clemens, an adjunct professor at USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Excessive caffeine, which is considered anything over 400 milligrams, according to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, is of utmost concern, as it can lead to gastrointestinal distress, anxiety, insomnia, elevated blood pressure and rapid heart beat. Harvard School of Public Health notes that in rare cases, it can cause seizures and cardiac arrest. The amount of sugar in many of these drinks can lead to other chronic diseases, while the affects of additional substances added for alertness — like ginseng root and guarana seed extract — haven’t been properly researched.
Regulation of these ingredients is also complicated. “Energy drinks are typically sold as a dietary supplement in the U.S., whereas sodas and coffee or tea are considered foods,” Clemens says. “On the dietary supplement side, as long as the ingredients are considered safe [according to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act 1994 or New Dietary Ingredient petition], then the composition of that product may be marketed without any clinical studies or regulatory approval.”
In the case of Gorgie, it was consumer input on social media that determined what ingredients were most desired in the beverage. “We had BCAA in there and magnesium, but people really cared more about L-Theanine, B6, B12 and biotin,” says Grant. People also contested the 200mg of caffeine that the product originally contained. She determined that most “big brands” had that amount or more. Comparatively, “a regular cup of coffee is around 80 to 120.” Gorgie consumers wanted just a bit more than coffee.
“We really wanted to create something where you just feel alert and focused. And that’s really where we found the sweet spot, with 150 milligrams of green tea with a dash of L-Theanine,” she says. “It’s basically the Red Bull of 2023. It’s better for you, better-tasting, better-looking.”
“Many of the natural ingredients mentioned above are better than just megadoses of caffeine,” Dr. Melina Jampolis, chief medical officer and co-founder of a precision nutrition program, Ahara, tells Yahoo Life.
Even then, Sharp says, “Don’t aim to get your nutrients from energy drinks. …If you want B6, you want B12, then eat whole foods.”
What women should consider
“Women metabolize caffeine more slowly than men, so they may be more sensitive to high doses in energy drinks,” Jampolis explains. “Large amounts of caffeine may have an effect on hormonal balance, so for women with hormone-related issues, including PMS fibroids and endometriosis, they may want to limit intake of high-caffeine energy drinks.”
Aside from the caffeine intake, she also warns against “falling for products with a ‘health halo,'” while seeking “better for you” options, which Jampolis says women are more likely to do.
With irresponsible influencer or celebrity marketing, this can only get worse.
“Well, if they look healthy, if they look fit, if they look great, then how could this be unhealthy? This could be nothing but good for me,” might be the thought process of consumers, according to Sharp. “But obviously, we know that’s not the truth. We also don’t even know if these celebrities or influencers are even consuming these things, period.”
