Energy Drinks & Vitamin A

About a week ago, we stopped by a new local bakery / deli. They sold all sorts of funky energy drinks. I grabbed a can of the Airforce Nutrisoda Immune tangerine + lime. Due to the size (250ml) and the good taste, it was gone before I knew it. I could have easily downed a couple more of them. A reading of the supplement facts revealed the ~8 oz drink contains (at least) 100% RDA of fat-soluble vitamins A and E. This is the first time I've noticed significant quantities in an energy drink.



The thing is, Vitamin A accumulates in a person's body, these little drinks are tasty and that seems like a quite a bit of vitamin A in a relatively small package (250 ml / 8.45 oz). Lacking a concern for cost, it would be very easy to go through several of them in a day. Each can has claims to have 5,000 IU of retinol-based Vitamin A (palmitate).

According to NIH, here are the daily recommended allowances:

Age (years)	Children (mcg RAE)	Males (mcg RAE)	Females (mcg RAE)	Pregnancy (mcg RAE)	Lactation (mcg RAE)
1-3	300 (1,000 IU)
4-8	400 (1,320 IU)
9-13	600 (2,000 IU)
14-18		900 (3,000 IU)	700 (2,310 IU)	750 (2,500 IU)	1,200 (4,000 IU)
19+		900 (3,000 IU)	700 (2,310 IU)	770 (2,565 IU)	1,300 (4,300 IU)

For most people, I doubt there's any cause for concern, but if your kids are consuming them daily or you are and you're pregnant, you may want to do more research or ask your doctor. Some of the studies cited have connected birth defects with consumption rates above 10,000 IU per day.