ABC Brisbane transcript: Prime energy drink use among children

LORETTA RYAN:    Dr Nick Yim is the Vice President of AMA Queensland and he’s on the line to get some official word on this. Hello, Dr Yim. 

DR NICK YIM: Good morning, Craig and Loretta.

LORETTA RYAN:    How concerned are you about this drink and the kids? 

DR NICK YIM:    Absolutely, I echo the thoughts of both you and also the listeners calling in. I think it's something where the amount of caffeine, especially drinks like Prime, it's highly concerning. It's something where caffeine in young children and teenagers does have potentially short-term and long-term side effects.

LORETTA RYAN:    There are other caffeinated drinks on the market as well. Are you concerned about all of them, or is this one particularly high? 

DR NICK YIM:    The recommendations in Australia is 32 milligrams per 100 mLs. In a can of Prime, it's actually double that limit, it's 56 milligrams per 100 mLs. This is significantly higher than the other products. At the same time, as you both rightfully said, we would be rightly concerned if a 10-year-old or a 12-year-old would be having two cans of Red Bull or V every day. That's the same kind of thing. 

LORETTA RYAN:    What effect can it have on a kid? 

DR NICK YIM:    Caffeine, especially at these high doses, can cause poor sleep, restlessness, maybe a bit of agitation, increased breathing, and increased heart rate. These are tough things that we don't want in our young children and teenagers. 

LORETTA RYAN:    Would you want it to be banned, or would you be pushing for some sort of regulation of this? 

DR NICK YIM:    Definitely, we do need some higher regulation, but I think it's one of the key things, that we do have a lot of challenges in our community, obviously, with social media influencers marketing these drinks.

I did a bit of research early this morning, and they highly targeted the younger demographic with the fancy labels, and high colourings, and the TikToks, et cetera, et cetera. I think it comes down to, I guess, a proactive approach. I've seen that a lot of Queensland schools are banning them. At the same of time, it comes down to that conversation at the dinner table, between the parents and the children, or the, I guess, grandparents, just to say why are the children accessing, and is there something else that can be offered, such as a glass of water or coconut juice? 

CRAIG ZONCA:    Yeah. Well, as we talk about the hydration version of it, it's pretty much coconut water or something like that. Reach for a glass of water. I was hardly ever allowed soft drink as a kid. It was only on birthdays that I was allowed to have fizzy drink, and how exciting that would be. This takes things to a whole new level, doesn't it?

LORETTA RYAN:    It's different today. The kids are influenced by these people, and they want to have the next big thing, so water's not going to cut it for them. 

CRAIG ZONCA:    Yeah. Dr Yim, have you seen cases of this, yourself? You're a GP based around Hervey Bay, aren't you, in Queensland? 

DR NICK YIM:    Yeah. I'm a GP in Hervey Bay. It's still probably relatively new, but I saw it with the craze, I guess, when Mother and Red Bull came out. Obviously, we saw that a lot in schools, teenagers, even people under the age of 12. I guess it does come down, back to that education, isn't it? We can't stop peer pressure. We can't stop social media. We can't stop influencers, but I guess it comes down to the education as to addressing the reasons why we shouldn't be accessing these products at that young age. 

CRAIG ZONCA:    Dr Nick Yim, thanks so much for joining us this morning.