Thomas wrote:I voted no. You can have my nephew's espresso when you pry it from my cold, dead hands -- or his.
That may not be a long wait then...
Come now Rex, you can't expect us to believe an ad for a caffeine free coffee, now can you?
Bella Dea wrote:Come now Rex, you can't expect us to believe an ad for a caffeine free coffee, now can you?
Most of that info was take from medical reports... and a New York Times article that seems to have vanished.
Thomas wrote:RexRed wrote:Thomas wrote:I voted no. You can have my nephew's espresso when you pry it from my cold, dead hands -- or his.
That may not be a long wait then...
You wish.
You are not gonna blame this on me, this is your own death wish...
I am not forcing you to drink the poison.
In all fairness to Rex, here is an article I found this morning on MSN.
Energy Drinks and Kids
Mind you this is not coffee, but energy drinks only. The ones with mega hyped up caffeine coming from multiple sources.
The other problem with kids drinking these drinks - aside from the caffeine, sugar and calories (for an increasingly obese population of children) is that they're not drinking milk anymore because they've substituted soda, gatoraide and now red bull.
Kids also don't play outside as much anymore, so that combination of no milk and no sunshine cuts down dramatically on the amount of vitamin D they're getting. Their bone density is being negatively effected and doctors are seeing the early signs of osteoporosis earlier and earlier in kids - especially girls.
And then there's the issue of earlier and earlier type 2 diabetes onset - these drinks are full of sugars. Not to mention earlier and earlier onset of heart disease due to unhealthy lifestyle, and caffeine can induce heart palpitations and irregular rhythms because of it's niccotanic effect on nicotine receptors in the heart, actually inducing heart attack if enough is ingested.
I don't think you've overstated it Rex. I make my kids drink a glass of milk before I let them have anything else to drink at each meal they eat with me. And alot of times, once the initial thirst is quenched - they don't want anything else to drink- so they bypass the soda, etc.
Unfortunately, I can't control what they buy to drink at school, and I think my son is pretty much hooked on soda and those stupid sugary sports drinks. I wish they would remove those vending machines. If we cared about our kids enough - we would.
Nice post Aidan...
This issue has made me lose faith in two things.
The elected officials who are supposed to guard our most precious natural resource, our children, and I have lost faith in capitalism.
What the heck is government for it they can just be bought off by such vile capitalists?
This is nothing short of the rape of our youths.
When capitalists can peddle their poison in public schools something is really WRONG.
I thought schools were supposed to be a "drug free zone"?
CAFFEINE IS A DRUG! On this alone the caffeinated drinks should be 100% prohibited. Only a doctor should be able to approve caffeine for children. Even parents should not have that right without a doctors ok.
I see the monster energy drinks people have painted up their vans and are driving around the city selling their drugs with big old adds on their distribution vans targeted toward teens. Giant florescent green MONSTER adds. Why don't they also put up neon signs blinking and hell they could just peddle the poison from the vans right outside of the schools! Why use a 7/11 at all?
I see the cans littering the streets not one here and one there but three here and three there.
Someone needs to pay big time for allowing this to happen. I want someone's neck for this one! Let's start with the attorney general! A silly warning on the label is not enough this should be a "controlled" substance. All chocolate should be decaffeinated also, or sold in a separate part of the store with alcohol and tobacco.
I don't care how much revenue this has added to our economy! This revenue is being taken directly from our kids health and well being!
We don't need any studies to know that caffeine not good for kids!
This is just big money buying off our elected "government".
Time to start writing some REALLY nasty letters here.
Where is the ACLU when there are REAL civil liberties that actually need protecting? They are out protecting pedophiles! Like the liberty to not have advertisements trying to sell kids drugs before they are even able to make an informed decision?
I have lately not even been able to stand modern music. Why? Well I never realized that it is all permeated with hidden drug messages. I knew this was the case but I never really internalized how extensive it is.
What has this world come to? I don't think I like America anymore.
People just want to follow Jim Morrison into some graveyard in France!
Or maybe you're just a sissy when it comes to caffeine, begrudgig other people for the pleasure they get out of it and you can't.
Is this the legacy of Jack Abramoff?
And the dems are deeper into the dung than the repubs are... Though it appears the repubs are not that far behind.
Thomas wrote:Or maybe you're just a sissy when it comes to caffeine, begrudgig other people for the pleasure they get out of it and you can't.
Or maybe you are an enabler in denial?
At least I'm not calling for Big Brother policing the diets of other people's children.
Thomas wrote:At least I'm not calling for Big Brother policing the diets of other people's children.
You call pumping kids with speed a diet?
Are you on crack?
Caffeine is an addictive drug. Among its many actions,
it operates using the same mechanisms that amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin use to stimulate the brain. On a spectrum, caffeine's effects are more mild than amphetamines, cocaine and heroin, but it is manipulating the same channels, and that is one of the things that gives caffeine its addictive qualities. If you feel like you cannot function without it and must consume it every day, then you are addicted to caffeine.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/caffeine1.htm
I'm not really into a big brother society either Thomas- and I realize it's not feasible to mandate what people do or don't feed their children in their own homes, but public schools, which are about education after all, should set an example.
The PTA's or school administrations put these vending machines in schools as money makers, and they usually are their biggest source of revenue for the year-but it's just so stupid. Why doesn't each parent just give money directly to the school, as opposed to giving it to their child to then give to the school when he or she puts it in the vending machine? That way they'd cut out all the unhealthy **** their kids are putting into their bodies, and still fund school functions, supplies and programs.
You wouldn't believe what these kids eat for breakfast - from these machines- chips, candy, soda, etc. starting at 8:00 in the morning. They continue at lunch and go to the machines again after school for their snacks. Most of the "healthy" food - although school lunches are another whole topic- is bypassed and ignored. If you were a kid and you had a choice, would you eat an apple or a candy bar?
In terms of beverages, it wouldn't be abusive for shcools to offer milk and only milk. It would be the right thing to do. And if a kid doesn't like milk, there's the water fountain (or alright- bottled water :wink: ). I mean, I don't know how old you guys are, but that's the way it was all the way through my school years, and I managed to live.
Why does everyone think that limiting choice is abusive in some way? Particularly when we're talking about children who don't have the skills or discipline to make the right decision. It's more abusive to give them access to the wrong choice that will hurt them than it is to teach them by only providing what will help them be healthy in the long run.
Anyway - we're robbing Peter to pay Paul here. We're making money for the schools, but who will end up funding the health care of these same children when they hit twenty or thirty and present us with an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease? And don't fool yourself. It's already begun. Most (non-smokers) who are forty are in better cardiovascular shape than these kids are by the time they reach their teens. Two generations with totally different childhood diets and lifestyles-it has made a glaring and tangible difference.
*Sorry to get carried away - this is something I feel strongly about.
No wonder why kids are shooting up their schools...
It is a cry for help...
The schools are pumping them full of sugar (chocolate/caffeine), soda (caffeine), artificial coloring and preservatives that aren't fit for any life form.
Maybe these kids who shoot up their schools should be called activists instead of murders? (cynical)
It (school shooting) isn't a cry for help. It's gone past that.
It's a statement that they don't believe there is anything or anyone who can help (when done by a child)- and they want out of it.
And if you want to call them activists, that's your call. They certainly have effected change in our society - isn't that what an activist tries to do?
But I don't think it's all about food though Rex. Although I happen to believe that there is a kernel of truth in what you're saying - all the crap these kids have been ingesting since birth practically (I mean I've seen mothers who put coke and kool-aid in their babies' bottles for god's sake) have had an effect. Rotten teeth, sallow skin, clogged arteries, overwhelmed pancreases, no physical energy to do anything but sit in front of the computer or tv playing games, emotional apathy, deadened curiousity and intellect, etc...sad isn't it? I might want to check out of it too if I only had more of that to look forward to for the rest of my life.
But their diet is only one thing that they need to have overhauled for them. And in terms of logic, it'd probably be a good place to start because it's probably the most concrete and easiest thing to change. Unfortunately, we just don't really give enough of a crap to even make that simple change, much less work on an overhaul of what we feed their souls and brains. And what do you think that tells our kids?
And I'm not being cynical - I'm being dead serious- so I voted yes on your poll.
