Lets talk a bit about taurine. Why, because today’s drink is the Massive helping of Wired x5000, giving you a full 5 grams of taurine in one can. Mind you, the can is almost 24 ounces, but without a way to recap the can, you are forced to drink it all up in one sitting. Taurine is a non-essential amino acid, an important component of bile acids, which are used to absorb fats and fat-soluble vitamins. It regulates heartbeat, maintains the stability of cell membranes, transports calcium in and out of cells, and regulates the activity of brain cells. It is also a potent antioxidant.
Normally our bodies manufacture taurine at a normal level, but if not we can get it from our diet.
Taurine is found in eggs, dairy products, fish and red meat.Vegetarians or Vegans might have a harder time getting taurine in their diet, so people who are under a lot of physical or mental stress might be actually deficient in taurine. Most of us have taurine in abundant supply. IF we don’t need it, our kidneys remove any excess taurine that is consumed.
Wired X5000 has way more Taurine than any of the leading energy drinks. comes in a 23.5 ounce can. Is 5 grams too much taurine for your body to handle? According to emedtv.com “Not much is known about the possible effects of a taurine overdose, or if an overdose is even possible. There has been one report of a bodybuilder who experienced encephalopathy (extensive brain disease) after taking a large dose of taurine (14 grams) in combination with insulin and steroids, but it is not clear if the brain disease was caused by taurine, the other medications, or other factors.”
In other studies, rats given huge doses of taurine caused anxiety, irritability, high sensitivity to noise, and self-mutilations. SO if you start seeing bugs in your skin after slamming this can you know what the cause is. Not that 5 grams of taurine would do anything to you, but if you drank a dozen of these cans you might get some fun effects (but that would probably happen if you drank 1 1/2 gallons of any energy drink).
So why not take 5000mg of taurine in your energy drink? Why not! It makes just as much sense at getting a vitamin C pill with 500 times your daily RDA, or energy drinks that contain over 1000 times your daily intake of vitamin B. This is just another cheap energy drink nutrient to toss into the mix to make a new flavor.
Nutrition:6
Other than the massive taurine amount, the ingredients in here are pretty normal. It is full of high fructose corn syrup and lots of preservatives, also packed with more Inositol and Vitamin B Complex than you would ever need. There is only 145mg of caffeine in the whole can, which does give you energy, even if it is in the form of needing to get up all the time to go to the bathroom. 24 ounces is a lot of drink to have all at one time – and requires the bladder able enough to handle it!
Not to mention not caring about the calories, which are pretty high when thought of as 1 whole drink. The HFCS brings this right up to about 330 calories – about as much as a Dollar Menu sized cheeseburger from McDonalds.
Taste:6
Most of the wired regular flavors ( the ones that do not say “Tropical” or “Berry” end up tasting like Red Bull Clone. The difference is all the gumminess I taste. Could it be all that taurine? Overall this was a nice enough taste, although nothing I would go out of my way for. I was hoping for a an easier and less bitter drink to get down, seeing as it was so much in one sitting. If you have had any wired drinks, you would know what to expect from this one.
Packaging:8
I really like the colors of this can – as the flames look most awesome when they are the orange to yellow gradient. This is offset well by the blue – and still the logo and all the important information is easily read. With all the missteps and things that could have gone wrong with this design, they almost got it perfectly. There is still the problem with the huge size and no way to save for later. This is really one can that would benefit from a resealable cap, like the ones on Monster and Jolt cans. This can would also benefit from listing the caffeine content, as on something this big it would be important to know.