SUBRAMANIAN: Do not drink Panera Bread's charged lemonade

As a commuting student who lives 30 minutes away from campus, caffeine often becomes necessary to get me through the day.

Last semester, I juggled an 18-credit course load while managing a job, an internship and membership in multiple clubs. Sometimes, my days would end at 2 a.m. This especially made caffeine a necessity.

My primary source of caffeine usually came from Monster Energy drinks. They were cheap and easily accessible through the many vending machines scattered across campus. The number of Monster Energy drinks I would consume each day ranged from two on a good day to as many as four when my days became busier. 

This caused me to develop several health problems, such as a lack of sleep and feeling chest pains. As a result, when the semester ended, I swore off energy drinks and sought a better solution.

This led me to Panera Bread's Charged Lemonade. Thanks to the restaurant's Unlimited Sip Club membership, I was content to visit the restaurant and have as many drinks as I wanted. When I saw Panera Bread's Charged Lemonade, I thought it was the silver bullet to my caffeine problems.

In my mind, I thought that it would just be lemonade that had a small amount of caffeine. At the start of this semester, I was a frequent drinker. I usually got a 30-fluid-ounce cup and filled it with the Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade.

This would happen two to three times per day. After all, it was only a tiny amount of caffeine. It could not possibly have any harmful effects.

A month into the semester, the same chest pains I felt back in the fall returned. This time, though, they were even worse. I thought I was on the verge of a heart attack multiple times. 

These pains lasted anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. I started to wonder what could be the cause of these pains. It could not just be the stress of being a Rutgers student because I was taking a lighter course load and was managing my classes well.

I started to suspect that all the caffeinated lemonades might be causing my health to decline. I conducted some research, and the truth about these Panera Bread drinks rattled me.      

The amount of caffeine in the Charged Lemonade is simply ludicrous. My 30-fluid-ounce Mango-Yuzu Charged Lemonade contained 390 milligrams of caffeine. For context, the Food and Drug Administration recommends that an average adult consume only 400 milligrams of caffeine daily.

The amount of caffeine in one 30-fluid-ounce Mango-Yuzu Charged Lemonade is the equivalent of drinking approximately two and a half Monster Energy drinks or four cups of coffee.

Unless one researches this, it is unlikely that one would realize how much caffeine is in these drinks. The Charged Lemonade's placement within the restaurant usually contributes to this.

For example, the Panera Bread on the College Avenue campus puts the Charged Lemonade options near the other fountain drinks and non-caffeinated lemonades rather than next to the hot coffee. This means that people could view the Charged Lemonade as having less caffeine without realizing the health consequences of choosing to consume it.

Furthermore, Panera Bread's environment is designed so one does not want to leave. Many Panera Bread restaurants offer amenities like free wifi, spaces that mimic living rooms and free refills. With all that, staying in the restaurant is certainly enticing.

The free refills only encourage customers to continue chugging the highly-caffeinated lemonade, maximizing the negative impacts that the drink can have.

Who are the people that are likely to be affected by this? The largest group is children. When a child and their parent enter a Panera Bread and get a cup for a drink, they are probably not reading the caffeine content on the drink and instead, they may see this drink that looks appealing to try.

Parents will also not catch this concerning fact because the label usually lists caffeine in small font. This can be detrimental to children as an excessive caffeine intake can cause higher blood pressure, headaches, increased anxiety levels and other dangerous health effects.

With this piece, I doubt that the Panera Bread on College Avenue or other locations will decide to drop the Charged Lemonade. At the same time, though, this means that as consumers, we must be extra vigilant about what we consume. 

Panera Bread is great at being quite transparent with its nutritional information. Other places could be more gracious. In a country where 40 to 50 percent of college students are not physically active, approximately 33 percent are obese and 26.4 percent suffer from insomnia, it is time that college students take more care of their health. 

But hey, whadda I know?      

Kiran Subramanian is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in economics and political science. His column, "Whadda I Know," runs on alternate Fridays.

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