{"id":19010,"date":"2020-06-05T18:15:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T09:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2020\/jun\/05\/i-know-they-arent-healthy-the-energy-drink-craze-sweeping-afghanistan"},"modified":"2020-06-05T18:15:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T09:15:10","slug":"i-know-they-arent-healthy-the-energy-drink-craze-sweeping-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=19010","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I know they aren&#8217;t healthy&#8217;: the energy drink craze sweeping Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From children in Kabul to Taliban chiefs, the sweet, caffeine-heavy drinks are wildly popular, defying fears on nutrition <\/p>\n<p>They are sold outside schools, in hospital lobbies, on street corners and in every supermarket; served at wedding receptions and ministerial meetings, while television adverts and billboards praise their qualities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Energy drinks have taken over Afghanistan, and the high-caffeine sweet beverages are enjoyed by all ages \u2013 including toddlers and pregnant mothers \u2013 without much attention being paid to potential health risks.<\/p>\n<p>In a busy Kabul neighbourhood, Salim Wahidi, 22, has dozens of different brands stacked up next to his small roadside stand. The supplies run out fast.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sell a couple of hundred each day, but that\u2019s not even much because there are so many vendors like me,\u201d he says, sharing one of the drinks with his 13-year-old cousin, Mustafa, who works with him.&nbsp;\u201cPeople love energy drinks, it\u2019s often their first choice. Every child drinks them, every adult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Awareness of potential health hazards is low<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2020\/jun\/05\/i-know-they-arent-healthy-the-energy-drink-craze-sweeping-afghanistan\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From children in Kabul to Taliban chiefs, the sweet, caffeine-heavy drinks are wildly popular, defying fears on nutrition They are sold outside schools, in hospital lobbies, on street corners and in every supermarket; served at wedding receptions and m&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,59,566,344,347,61,345,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-global-development","category-global-health","category-nutrition","category-nutrition-and-development","category-south-and-central-asia","category-sugar","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19011,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19010\/revisions\/19011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}