How energy drinks affect your body within 24 hours

The energy drink will give you a high for a short period, but will take 12 hours to fully leave your system.

That’s according to a new graphic on how energy drinks affect the body.Within 10 minutes, the graphic says, heart and blood pressure spike. Within 15 to 45 minutes, you’ll feel the most alert. But the beverage’s 27 grams of sugar head to the bloodstream, setting customers up for a crash.


It takes about 12 hours for the caffeine to fully exit the bloodstream, and up to 24 hours later you can feel symptoms of withdrawal. After seven to 12 days of constant guzzling, according to the graphic, your body gets used to the drinks and feels their effects less.

But caffeine is not the only issue here, says New York City nutritionist Brooke Alpert.The real culprit for the spike and crash, Alpert says, is the exorbitant amount of sugar per can — as much as more than one Snickers bar.

A Snickers bar isn’t healthy, but at least it contains nuts, which provides fat to help slow the body’s absorption of sugar..

“I think they’re really missing the boat,” she said.

A hefty dose of sugar also makes you crave more of it, which is why you might turn to a can of energy drink day after day, she added.

If you need an energy boost, have that cup of coffee — but don’t use whole milk or add extras like whipped cream, which make your drink more like a milkshake in calorie count, Alpert recommended.