While some students have the need to speed up to get themselves through the day, others are exploring the option of slowing down.
Relaxation drinks, which bring down stress levels, are emerging on the beverage market. Brands like Slow Cow, Mini Chill, Drank Beverage and Dream Water state that their “natural health product” reduces stress and anxiety, improves concentration and increases alertness.
Alexis Tedford, a spokesperson for Drank Beverage, said their market is growing steadily.
“Drank is constantly adding distributors and readily available all across the US [. . . ] in total, they are available in over 2,000 stores in Canada,” Tedford said.
Relaxation beverages are being regulated as a natural health product (NHP) due to their ingredients and intended use, according to Gary Scott, a spokesperson for Health Canada.
Mary Bamford, a dietician from Toronto, said that NHPs should be “used as judiciously as prescription medications or over-the-counter medications, which are used to treat problems diagnosed by a regulated health professional.”
These relaxation drinks, designed to look like dietary supplements, usually only have a very small dosage of active medicinal ingredients, Bamford said.
“You are unlikely to have either side effects or medicinal effects, except for a placebo effect. They are just chemicals for your kidneys and liver to remove from your body . . . and often empty calories from any added sugar too.”
Joanna Welfeld, a certified counsellor in Ottawa, said individuals need to evaluate why they’re choosing to drinks these beverages.
“People could use them to help them to cope with stress that might be caused by both external — peer or financial pressures, for example — or internal, low self esteem or self-worth, loneliness, emotional pain, unresolved past or current issues factors,” Welfeld said.
“While it might help them release stress temporarily, by not addressing their own individual issues, they [risk] facing even more serious problems in [the] future.”