--- title: Caffeine Inhalers: America Has Reached Peak Energy Obsession description: Forget energy drinks, now you can now inhale your caffeine. canonical: https://time.com/3969509/caffeine-inhalers/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-23T20:11:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:26.852Z article:section: Health og:title: You Can Now Inhale Caffeine Instead of Drink It og:description: Forget energy drinks, now you can now inhale your caffeine. og:url: https://time.com/3969509/caffeine-inhalers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76eb7048aa142b95/69885c3a5f570f9c95b1c95c/eagle-energy-cigarette.jpg?branch=production&width=638&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 638 og:image:height: 359 og:image:alt: Eagle Energy Vapor og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Can Now Inhale Caffeine Instead of Drink It twitter:description: Forget energy drinks, now you can now inhale your caffeine. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76eb7048aa142b95/69885c3a5f570f9c95b1c95c/eagle-energy-cigarette.jpg?branch=production&width=638&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You Can Now Inhale Caffeine Instead of Drink It > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=1f74429c-994e-4870-937c-043113e204fd&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Should I Drink Smoothies? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Drink Smoothies?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yaJvnmtl.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2015-04-01. Are fruit smoothies good for you? Here's why 3 out of 5 experts said yes._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 23, 2015 8:11 PM UTC  Eagle Energy Vapor Eagle Energy Vapor Matt Lang—Eagle Energy by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 23, 2015 8:11 PM UTC Forget coffee and energy drinks—now you can inhale your caffeine. Perhaps taking a cue from increasingly popular e-cigarettes, marketers have now created a way for people to vape their energy. [The _New York Times_ reported](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/style/caffeine-inhalers-rush-to-serve-the-energy-challenged.html) on Wednesday that products like [Eagle Energy Vapor](http://www.eagleenergyvapor.com/) allow people to forgo their morning cup o’ joe and puff their caffeine instead. Each inhaler boasts a pretty small amount of caffeine, which the company says comes from natural sources like guarana, taurine, and ginseng (stimulants that are also common among energy drinks). As the _Times_ describes it: “Think of it as a Red Bull for the lungs.” No surprise, some experts in the medical community find this trend problematic. America is, evidently, a nation in need of a pick-me-up, at least if you consider the boom of products that contain caffeine, like energy drinks, caffeinated water and snacks and powdered caffeine. [As I recently reported in TIME](http://time.com/3935287/energy-drinks-have-doctors-worried/), the U.S. energy drink business is estimated to grow more than 11% by 2019 to an estimated $26.6 billion in yearly revenue. So what’s the big deal? From a health perspective, caffeine is tricky business. Many experts are concerned about some caffeinated products—particularly energy drinks. One of the primary arguments is that unlike coffee or soda, many energy drinks (and the new caffeine inhalers) contain multiple stimulants aside from synthetic caffeine. How these ingredients interact in combination is largely unknown. In addition, many doctors and health watchdogs are dissatisfied with the way these products are regulated. Manufacturers can choose to market their products as dietary supplements or as beverages, neither of which require pre-market safety approval by the FDA or any other public-health agency. According to the _Times_, the FDA has not reviewed the new caffeine inhalers for safety, either. The effects of inhaling caffeine are also a gray area. “The way our bodies handle caffeine that is inhaled can be very different from when caffeine is in our food or drink,” says Mary M. Sweeney, a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Even if an inhaled product delivers the same dose of caffeine as a cup of coffee, it may have different subjective effects for people because the time-course might be different.” In 2013, the FDA [announced](http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm350570.htm) that amid a growing trend of manufacturers adding caffeine to food products (like gum, for example), the agency was launching a safety investigation into the matter. It’s now 2015, and that information is still not available to consumers. The FDA says it is continuing to look into it. The Eagle Energy Vapor inhaler’s aesthetic similarities to e-cigarettes are undeniable. And while the jury is still out in regards to the overall danger of e-cigarettes, recent [federal data](http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0416-e-cigarette-use.html) has shown use tripled among middle and high school students in just one year. Could caffeine inhalers attract young people in a similar way? Are they as dangerous as medical experts believe other caffeinated products are? We don’t know. But what Americans should know is that just because a new caffeinated product is on the market doesn’t mean that it’s undergone a rigorous safety testing or approval process, or that doctors think it’s safe. “What troubles me most about this particular product is that the flavor composition appears to be similar to candy; thus, it could be attractive to children and adolescents,” says Steven Meredith, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. “The long-term effects of caffeine on the developing brains of children and adolescents are still relatively unknown. But, caffeine consumption interferes with sleep, and sleep is necessary for learning. Thus, long-term cognitive effects of excessive caffeine consumption at a young age is certainly plausible.” While the FDA says it’s continuing to investigate caffeinated products, it may be in your best interest to stick to stimulants that most medical experts can get behind: coffee. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Should you drink smoothies? Three out of five of our experts say yes. They're one of the easiest ways to add fruit to your diet, says Joseph Price. His study found that only 4 % of kids ate a serving of fruit when they ate breakfast at school. But with smoothies on the menu, that number jumped to 45 %. Calories from fruit can add up quickly, says Laura Jeffers. So aim for a glass that's 70 % veggies and 30 % fruits. Still, smoothies just aren't that satisfying. People ate 12 % more calories when they drank their food instead of eating it, found a study by Richard Mattes. [ MUSIC ] Two of our experts think fruit smoothies in particular can do some real damage. Blender blades destroy the insoluble fiber in produce, says Robert Lustig. Which means that there's nothing keeping the sugar from being rapidly absorbed. That overwhelms the liver he says. And all that extra sugar might put us on a path to metabolic syndrome and other health problems. Vegetables have far less sugar, so green smoothies are far less of a risk he says. Even though they're insoluble fiber still takes a beating. Smoothies are so new, there's no research on there long term impacts points out Barry Popkin, but he thinks they might be the new fruit juice. Seemingly healthy, but a sugar bomb in disguise. Is contributing to diseases like diabetes. So go ahead and whip up a smoothie. 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