The Neurological Threat of Energy Drinks & Screen Fatigue in Teens

Are hyper-caffeinated drinks and endless screen scrolling silently damaging your child's nervous system? In this episode, Dara Wax (founder of Sam+Leo) joins Ryan McDonough to break down the hidden dangers of energy drinks targeted at pre-teens, the reality of screen-induced anxiety, and tactical tools parents can use today. 

Connect with Dara Wax & Sam+Leo:

• Website: https://shopsamandleo.com
• Available on Amazon, Whole Foods, and Walmart Marketplace 

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Transcript

Neurological Threat of Teen Energy Drinks

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Your teenager's developing brain physically cannot process hyper stimulants the same way an adult can. Yet unregulated energy drinks, infinite video scrolls, and screen fatigue are quietly pushing an entire generation into a permanent state of fight or flight. What happens when beverage marketing targets our kids? And how do we actually protect their central nervous system when the world outside is hyper-stimulating them 24-7? Today we're unpacking hidden caffeine traps, post-COVID social gaps, and practical parenting boundaries with the founder of Sam Plus Leo. Dara, you've stated that flatly that no 11-year-old needs an energy drink like a monster or a Red Bull. What is the actual neurological threat when a developing teen brain is bombarded by these hyper stimulants daily?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, well, thanks so much for having me. I'm going to preface that by saying that I am not a medical provider or professional. I don't have any letters after my name. I am a parent with a lot of my own background and information and research, and I developed my own products. But I will say anecdotally, and what we're seeing in the news and from a lot of parents is that no one really needs that level of caffeine, but we're seeing huge rises in emergency room visits, heart palpitation, heart issues, and a lot of other brain disorders coming from that overuse of caffeine, partly because it's unregulated and also partly because we don't have the data and research to know what it actually does to a developing body puberty or non-puberty. And so we're just kind of caught in this gray area.

How Brands Target Teen Anxiety

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah. And that's interesting. So, like, how do you think these beverage companies or brands are intentionally masking the severe anxiety and sleep disruptions to kind of hook the teens into, you know, getting getting on their product?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah, I think, I mean, it's coming at them from a lot of different ways. One, it's this over stimuli of all of us in this world we live in with social media and go, go, go. And so there's constant pressure on us to be awake and alert for everything all the time and less downtime. So our bodies are constantly feeling like we need more. And perhaps before we would go to a coffee or tea or even a Mountain Dew, something like that. And now it's like, what can I get that's most fastest? But then additionally, there's a lot of marketing to say, this tastes better, this is gonna make you feel great. Look at this celebrity doing it, look at this influencer doing it. And so it's really just pushing them out there. And then on the the next layer is that there's competition among them. So it's not just one energy drink out there. There's so many. And so they're all vying for the dollar for the purchase. And so at the end of the day, they're just trying to get as many eyeballs on their product and as many sales without really looking at what the consumer, the health of the consumer.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And as as I'm looking at my desk, I have a Mountain Dew. I got two kids under five, one with autism. So I'm like, I'm always like tired and always need a little bit of a kick in the butt or a jolt, or if you will. So I I'm guilty of like, I know you're talking about this, but I'm just just trying to be honest with people. Like, I struggle with

Prefrontal Cortex & Caffeine Crashes

SPEAKER_00 2:48

this myself. And it feels like if I go without it, I'm like, I struggle. Like, I feel like I get headaches and all this kind of stuff with caffeine withdrawal. So I'm kind of hooked in this middle space where I'm like, I know like so much. I try to keep it under like 200, that was a milligrams a day, but but I know that's I go over sometimes. It just it happens. So I'm I'm bad.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Well, I'm guilty as well. I've had my own energy drinks where I need to pick me up or we're going for a long drive. I just think the younger teens and kids don't know their bodies well enough to know what they need or they don't need or how to reset themselves or sleep. So it's more of a vicious cycle. Like their frontal cortex, right? The prefrontal cortex is a brain isn't developed enough to make some of those decisions. Where if you and I maybe said, Oh, I had too much caffeine, I'm gonna hydrate to help myself, or I'm gonna take a day off tomorrow. Like we can make those decisions. I don't think the teenage brain or the preteen brain can even get there with that. And so I definitely think there's a need for caffeine and alertness at different points. It's just how our kids are able to make those decisions around.

Hidden Caffeine in Everyday Kid Juices

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, yeah, totally. And it does it seems predatory when you look at it like that, where it's like they're targeting kids that don't really know about it. And I, you know, I've I've seen some stuff in the news too, where like I think it was Panera or they changed their name. Yeah, they changed their name. I can't remember what their new name is, but they they had like this charged lemonade, and I guess some some teen or young adult drank it and kind of had like a caffeine overdose, and like she didn't realize that there was so much like caffe, like a charger. Like there wasn't, you know, she didn't know there was like caffeine in it. So that's even some of the the case now, too. It's like caffeine is in everything, like even like some of some of the meals I get, and you know, we put in our little kids' juices and stuff, like the the energy ones or whatever, like they have caffeine. It's like I would have never guessed, and we honestly didn't know that for a while. So we were like unsuspectingly giving our kids caffeine and didn't realize

Energy Drinks: The Regulatory Wild West

SPEAKER_00 4:38

it.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Smoking long, you know, 50 years ago, um, where people didn't know the full detriments of smoking and kids and teens were smoking at a very young age. There's lots of like it's not new to exposing kids to something they shouldn't be doing. I just think that it's in a world where the media is so prevalent around us all the time, there's a lot more of it in our face.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, and that's true. Like if you watch old tiny film, like everyone is like literally smoking. And so, what do you think? Like, why is the drink market just this regulatory wild west for unsuspecting parents?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

It's a really good question. Because it's accessible, you can't just go out and buy it. There's no regulation around it. So, and it's inexpensive for the most part. It's accessible. And uh kids are trying to keep up or sports or homework or whatever. And, you know, there's so much regulation. When I I launched a vitamin brand, the regulation around that of what can be in it, what cannot be in it, is more than what the energy drink regulations are. And it's crazy to me. And there should be some regulation, there should be, you know, things that dosage and all of that. It's I'm not saying it should not be regulated. It was just crazy to me that this my caffeine-free energy supplement was more regulated than a caffeinated energy drink. And so it's, you know, I don't want it to get to a point where they were seeing more hospital visits or more kids being sick because of the caffeine overdoses. It was just trying to c bring more awareness to it earlier.

Screen Fatigue & Central Nervous System Stress

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, no, no, no, that's a good point. And I want to get into like some of the screen time fatigue and the isolation issues that we're seeing with teens as well. So we know teens spend on endless hours behind screens, whether it's video games, YouTube, whatever. So beyond the basic eye strain that it does, and I know this because I work nine to five at home on a screen. So, how does chronic screen fatigue physically trigger a kid's central nervous system into a permanent state of fight or flight? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Again, preface, not no medical letters after my name, but for my research. And this is also an area where we don't have enough research, right? It's just still very new that all of our eyeballs have been on screens for a lot. But what we are seeing is one, the physical, like there's definitely eye fatigue and eye strain happening at a younger age. The ophthalmologists are recommending supplements that they used to be offering to aging patients and seniors, offering those same supplements to kids and youth now because of that. And then also the brain regulation. Like I said before, brains aren't fully regulated. I have it in my own kids. Screens are a safe place to go. There's you can manage bullying, you can manage your feelings, you're in isolation. It feels good, you can be successful in what you're doing. You can opt out when it doesn't feel good anymore. You make friends that you might not make, you know, friends in other places. It's a social element. These kids are also a whole generation that went through COVID,

Post-COVID Social Skills Gap

SPEAKER_01 7:21

that we don't have that data yet either to know that full effect. And so I see in my own kids who are older teens, they miss some of the social norms and social conditioning that we had growing up. Like they missed the whole point in like middle school where you go out with girls and boys and you go get pizza and movies and kind of joke around. Like they missed all of that. And so they don't have those skills. And in lieu of that, screen the screens feel safe and they can navigate that world a lot easier. And so I think what we're seeing now is that kids who are not naturally extroverts, who not naturally want to be out in the world, meeting people, that if they're not forced out there, the screens are a safe place to go. And then, you know, there's starting to be more awareness about like I have screen hours schedule around my kids as much as I can. Um, but then they're on phones and they all know ways to hotspot and get around it. But having conversations about it and just being like, I'm not the best at it, I'm on my phone all the time, I'm running a business, like being very transparent and open and modeling and not making the screen the bad guy because it's part of our world, it's not going away. But having conversations. And I think the other anecdotes I'm starting to hear are kids that are saying, like, that screen doesn't make me feel that great. Like, I know I'm addicted. I need to put in the other room, I need to do other things. I think that's the minority, but I we are seeing it and we're starting to see more of it. Um, but it'd be really great to have it more mainstreamed in

The Argument for No Phones in Schools

SPEAKER_01 8:41

schools, the screen education. I will also say I am personally a big proponent of no phones in schools for a lot of reasons. One is, and for me it's the biggest one, it's that when kids are on their screens, they're not aware of their surroundings and it's becomes a safety thing. They're at the lunchroom, they don't know the kid who's depressed, they don't know the kid who's having a bad day, they don't, they have no idea what's going around them. And I don't, you know, bringing in gun violence or anything else to do with suicide and depression, if you're always on your screen, you're not aware of what's going on around you. And so to take that phone away for kids to have to inter interact and have to be attuned to what's happening is so important for their safety and their peers' safety. And then just in learning environment in general, like to know that something's in your bag and could be pinging all the time is just a distraction. And it's a distraction for me. And so I am a big proponent that I would love for schools to really crack down and not have the phones in the schools.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I was a teacher, just to give you some context. And I just like I know with my own kids, like I don't want to be a hypocrite. I don't want to be on my phone constantly, my laptop constantly, on my home computer constantly, and then be like, oh, you can't be on your tablet, or oh, you can't, you can't watch YouTube. Like that just that doesn't jive for me because like we are in this very technological, savvy world and and just only gonna get more and more with the, you know, how AI is speeding up and all this and that. So I just, yeah, I don't know. Like it's just it's very, very complex, but it's also like I just feel like it's it's like you said, it's it's like important to be authentic with your kids and like kind of explain to them, like, hey, I'm I'm working on stuff, like, you know, like when they see us doing that, because it's like practice what you preach, but I don't know, like I just feel very bad to be hypocritical with my kids of like, hey, I'm always on my phone, but you can't be on your tablet because I said so, like kind of thing. Yeah. You know, you reach a point where you're just like, I'm done, like overload.

Doom Scrolling vs. Long-Form Attention

SPEAKER_00 10:23

You know, so for sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I also think it is the attention span element of it where watching a movie or a show is even challenging because they're so used to the quick hit. Like my one of my kids, the anxiety producing of a YouTube or TikTok, or it's the next video, the next video, there's no end. That is very different than sitting there and watching something long form or kind of dialing in. And that's the other place where I see a huge anxiety spikes, is where you're just doom scrolling or whatever you want to call it now. But they're the unlimited access versus intentional uh consuming of of content.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yeah, no, totally. You know, I work for so I design courses for a living, and like I realize that too. Like we used to have like long form videos and courses, and now it's like we know students don't look, don't don't like get past like three to five minutes. It's like so that's the struggle with uh, you know, YouTube videos, but it's also the struggle for parents because like like you said, it's this endless loop of YouTube like shorts or Instagram reels or like the little short forms stop, but it's just like this constantly there's no beginning, there's no end. It's already to do that to you kids. Like I'm like, yeah, it's like they they don't even know what that is. So yeah, it's just it seems different. And you brought up the COVID thing, and I I know I'm gone off this on this tangent a little bit, but that's interesting too, because that was actually my next question. Like, do you think the COVID landscape, you know, everyone's kind of isolated, everyone's it was weird for me. So it must have been really weird for for a kid or even a teen in that time, and now growing up past pandemic uh or post-pandemic, like thinking about like those factors that it really just speed up this tech age where it's like the isolation, the screen time, perhaps the energy drink consumption, all this stuff is just kind of like at an ultra high.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, I think um I see, I mean, every kid's different, every person's different. You know, one of my kids was fine online school, one of my kids wasn't. And I think it's just how they learned and they adapted. And so a lot of it's how each person is individually, what age they were when it happened to them, and like where they were when it was happening. So I think there's a lot of things that contribute to it. But I think the social impact's the biggest that the some of the social skills that you learn at different points at those ages were just so impacted. And so they're catching up now. And I see it, I see a catching up happening in my own kids, and I can imagine it's happening in other kids too. But to not acknowledge that they miss something or that to not acknowledge it is probably the worst. Say, okay, we don't have the answers, we don't know exactly what it is or what it means. But I think to not acknowledge it is the worst part about it. And so, yes, we're glad COVID's over and we all survived it. It almost seems like a dream, you know, in the past. But there's this generation that definitely got has different social skills because of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah, for sure. No, definitely we're realizing these patterns, right? Of like overconsumption of, you know, the the devices, you know, screen-induced burnout, consumption of energy drinks, all this stuff. So what's like the tactical pivot parents could do to like detox their

"Support vs. Fix" Parenting Strategy

SPEAKER_00 13:21

kids from, you know, there's lots of different ways to do it.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

I think some of it, and this comes back to like teen and kid mental health in general. I start it by saying and rephrasing it is that we're not trying to fix our kids, we're trying to support them. Because if you're trying to fix them, then they think something's wrong with them, or anybody thinks something's wrong. And so I come at it from this like, how do we do this together? It's not gonna happen overnight, but how can we support you through this? And so just first changing the language of what it is helps a lot. And then it's having the conversations and this awareness of like, I've noticed this, I've noticed you act a certain way after a certain amount of time, or I've noticed that you're not out and about so much. I've noticed how does that make you feel? And sometimes you don't have to say more and they say, Yeah, I don't feel that great. I would love some help. And other times they don't notice an issue, right? So there's all these like pathways and avenues to start having those conversations, but I think it's just having really open and not coming at it as like, this is my rule, and you have to abide by it, or no more, you know, no more Wi-Fi. I think it's a real a more gentle approach, is what I think is is needed. And and being transparent about how it makes us feel as adults, what we want for them in the future. And sometimes they come up with their own solutions and sometimes they need support doing it. And like I said, every kid is different. One of my kids can really just handle his phone and manage it, and the other one is just like kryptonite. And so it's knowing the child you have as well. And some kids need more guardrails and more boundaries, and some and some don't. That's where I that's where I lean from and and and start from. And then the the bigger overarching too, back to the mental health is like really noticing your kids' patterns of mental health, right? Are they what's the word I'm looking for? Like not disgruntled, but like and are they irritable after a lot of screen time? Are they you notice they go for a walk with the dog and they come back and they're okay? Like just little things like that help change the situation a lot. So I think it's noticing, and we're all busy parents, and it's hard to pause sometimes and like do all of that work right, but I think that's where it comes from. Um and the ultimate goal is to set our kids up for success when they leave home so that they're good humans going out into the world and that they can have these own conversations with other people as well. Because they're gonna run into people of all, right? They're gonna run into the person who's never leaving their dorm room, it's on the computer all the time, and they're gonna run to the kid who like is done with video gaming and is moving on to, I don't know, student leadership or something. They're they're gonna run into all these people, but they may not be seeing it right in their current lives.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, totally. And I just just to give you some background on my my life, like my kids, my daughter, she's she's on the spectrum, so she's four, and she's really good at Mario Kart, like super good, like to the l to the point where she can get first place, like on her own. And like, I'm just like, oh my god, like at four. That's crazy. But she gets so into it where it's just like it winds her up, and like when after she plays Mario Kart, she can't calm down. So like we realized we can't do that during the week because it's too much like stimulation for her brain to calm down. But my son, he's one almost spot to be two this week. Yeah, she's like, we can't do it during the week because she's you know, she gets too overstimulated. And then um my son, like he can he can watch YouTube all day and long, and like it doesn't affect him the same way. So, like what you said is it's kind of based on you know a kid-to-kid basis. And like I just wanted to get into um, you know, before we end here, uh like, is there a natural biochemical defense system to help kids resist the daily onslaught of this stress and

Car Conversations & 10:30 PM Teen Chat Windows

SPEAKER_00 16:44

anxiety?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I don't know if I have the answer to that. I think a lot of it is teaching and emotional regulation and emotional awareness of yourself. So an emotional awareness is also like you were just saying about how she's reactive after Mario Kart. There's a both an emotional and a physical. Like your body feels a certain way when there is that emotional dysregulation. And so I like to have those conversations about how does your body physically feel? Because I don't think they always have the words to put together what they're mentally feeling. We know that the mental impact is the brain's tapped out, it's overstimulated, all like from energy drinks or screens or whatever, but there is this biological physical feeling that they're able to say does not feel good. And I think having those conversations of saying, what are the things that make you feel better after this? Is it a warm bath? Is it a walk? Is it cooking, you know, exercise or cooking with me in the kitchen or a puzzle, a lot of different things. It's a little harder as they get older in their teens and they want to be alone. You have more space to start having those conversations when they're little, when they're smaller kids and even preteen. My other favorite place to do a lot of this work, and you probably have heard this before, is either in the car when you're side by side or going for a walk. So not straight on having those conversations because you're just in this like movement flow. You're not directly looking at the kid. And so you have some of the best conversations in the car or walking coming out of that. And that's when I've been able to hear, oh, this feels good or this doesn't feel good. And then then the last part of this, I'll also say if you notice teens, they're like, don't want anything to do with you all day. And then 10 o'clock, 10:30 at night, when I'm ready to go to bed, is when they come in and they want to sit and they want to chat. And I'm like, I'm so exhausted. And the last thing I want to do is do this. But that's when they're ready to like unwind and unload, and they're like almost in this like malleable, calm space and they want to share. And so trying to be open to those times and places when they're ready is is when a lot of that work will happen. But I think there's no like magic pill or or or technique that's gonna work in all kids right now. And I I I look forward to more research coming out that we can

Sam+Leo Clean Teen Vitamins

SPEAKER_01 18:46

look at it.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, no, totally. And I think that um you brought up a lot of great points there. And I want to get into the SanPlus Leo is I I'm assuming that's your your children, right? Okay. Yeah. So so tell us about the SanPlus Leo vegan gummy vitamins and all about it. I was looking at the website, it looks it looks promising, but yeah, tell us more about it and where people can actually purchase it and find more about you.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah, it's where if you walk down any vitamin aisle, you'll see kid vitamins and adult vitamins, and nothing really in the teen space or functional space, and nothing my kids wanted to take. And so I was like, I wonder if we can just make something taste better and be clean and offer awareness as a tool also for teens. So when I ended up making these, they're vegan, gluten-free, low sugar, and they also don't stick to your teeth, which dentists are loving. But it's something that kids can reach for. The pouch, there are pouches that are really inviting, so they can sit on the counter, you can have conversations about it as well. I had started with the energy one, it's a caffeine-free energy because I didn't want my kids doing energy drinks, or for sports, or kind of an alertness. A lot of kids with ADHD as well. And my kids just didn't like the taste and texture of other gummies. They were colored in sugar, or they didn't they had an aftertaste. I was like, let's just see if we can make a better tasting gummy that they can reach for, and then they serve the market of this preteen teen space. So I have five SKUs. I have the energy, I have one for eye health, then I have one for immunity, which is general, just a general wellness, so you don't get sick. I have a relax, which is like a stress-fee, stress-reducing, no melatonin. It's valerian chamomile lemon balm. And then I have a sleep one that does have a little bit of melatonin in it and pasture flour. It really helps with kids with ADHD who can't settle. And they are all available regionally in Whole Foods Markets, 50 Whole Foods Markets. They're in on Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, my own website, like you found, shopsalmonleo.com. And we're onboarding to Thrive Market in the next month or so, and also some airports just because they're really great and on the go. And so, really, I, you know, I come from a place of impact. We give back to teen mental health organizations, oh, and they're safe for ages four and older. So they're safe for this whole age demographic, and I take them as well. So they serve a lot of purposes. It's one, it's a clean gummy, it tastes really great, but it's something that teens will actually want, want to take. And the other part of this is 85% of teens don't take any supplement. So just getting them something that's gonna either help with their stress or energy or sleep is a win in my book.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Big thanks to Daryl Wax for giving us an honest look at the drink market, screen fatigue, and why supporting our kids always works better than trying to fix them. You can explore her clean functional gummy line built specifically for kids and teens at shopstamandleo.com or find them on Amazon and Whole Foods. If this episode opened your eyes to the hidden caffeine or helped you rethink screen boundaries, hit that subscribe button on YouTube and follow the parents app on Instagram and TikTok. Drop a comment below sharing how you handle screen time fatigue and energy drinks in your own home.