My daughter did not want to finish her Sprite. Then I read the label

How much caffeine is considered safe? Because of the way caffeine is processed by the body, an exact answer depends on your weight but, for adults, the generally accepted level is 400mg per day (3-4 cups of coffee). Kids are another matter entirely.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FANSZ) guidelines state that under-18s should not consume more than 3mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. That means a 30-kilogram kid (say your average 10-year-old) should have no more than 90mg of caffeine – which is almost exactly what’s in a 600ml bottle of Sprite Lemon+.

Yet “safe” is obviously a relative concept, especially when a FSANZ Expert Working Group analysis of scientific literature concluded there’s evidence of children experiencing increased anxiety after that same amount of caffeine, even when consumed across an entire day.

I know some children drink Coke, tea or coffee but – as everyone knows these drinks contain caffeine – that’s an overt decision to be made by each family. My point is that, thanks to the tiny labelling of Sprite Lemon+, even a coke-tolerant kid might get an anxiety-spike because of the increased caffeine levels, or from unintentionally consuming more than one caffeinated drink during a day.

The tagline for this new drink — Refresh Your Mind — plays on an outdated understanding of caffeine being some sort of magical brain enhancer. In reality, as outlined in a recent The Conversation article, caffeine doesn’t create new energy, it simply borrows from later capacity. And, of course, caffeine creates a dependence that chemically begs you to consume it again and again.

Unsurprisingly, Sprite Lemon+ also contains a big hit of sugar: a whopping 39 grams or nearly 8 teaspoons worth in a 600ml bottle. Most people know soft drink contains sugar (there is a zero-sugar version of Sprite Lemon+ if you don’t mind artificial sweeteners) but, when a kid is addicted to drinking it because of the caffeine it contains, that’s also bad news for their sugar intake.

It’s also bad for your wallet and your sanity when your caffeine-withdrawal-fuelled kid hassles you to buy them yet another Sprite Lemon+. And, as caffeine has a half-life of around five hours, it’s bad news for your night’s sleep if your equivalent of our bakery lunch happens at dinner-time.

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Our kids are already experiencing high levels of anxiety, sugar intake, dental health problems and poor sleep. Do we really need a new soft drink to make things even worse?

Coca-Cola (the company that makes Sprite) is not alone in this minimalistic approach to labelling. PepsiCo sells Mountain Dew, a similarly caffeinated lemon drink. It’s front-facing label includes the word “energised” but you need to get to the fine print on the back to discover what this means.

Coca-Cola’s inclusion of caffeine in their rebranding of Sprite is, at best, sneaky. At worst, it’s a deliberately devious ploy designed to addict a new generation to their products. Parents and anyone wanting to avoid caffeine, be warned.

Vivienne Pearson is a freelance writer whose writing lives at viviennepearson.com