A Physician Assistant at the Mallam Atta Government Clinic, Ms Stella Asiamah, has advised parents to desist from giving their children energy drinks because they are harmful to their health.
Ms Asiamah said energy drinks contain caffeine, taurin, artificial colouring and mostly sugar which make it harmful for children’s health when consumed due to the effect of the ingredients.
She said these ingredients are too strong for the children because their system is not matured and that could cause diseases such as obesity, heart problems, liver damage and high blood pressure. Ms Asiamah added that children did not need energy drinks because they were not athletes who require to revamp the bodies for sports activities.
Moreover, they do not exert excess energy when they are playing.
She explained that because some of these energy drinks were cheap on the market with attractive names and sizes, both parents and children consumed them regularly and even added them to snacks.
She said if parents took time to read the ingredients on the products, they would not buy them because of the risk they posed to children.
She asked parents to give their children natural fruit drinks or feed them with fruits or low sugar content drinks in order to avoid any dangers in the future.
Ms Asiamah charged the manufacturers of these energy drinks to label their products with something similar to the warning on the cigarette or alcoholic drinks about the appropriate age which would help minors to avoid them.
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