Caffeinated Sports Drinks Should Require Age Verification

I see it doesn't take much!

You also don't live in Maine where most bottled water comes from.

Ain't never seen Maine water on the plains, Jack, but you just keep dancin', and we'll watch...

It is bottled under the name Poland Springs.

That is Poland Maine.

Not as common as ya think. Done a bit o travellin. Most water around the middle comes outta misery.

ADD

I usually slip a little valium into my kids morning coffee to take the edge off and then send them to school with just a TEENY bump of coke to get them through that mid afternoon slump.

My cubs love their dad.

This is only the first article of many soon to be published on how energy drinks have ruined the health of people. Well I hate to say I told you all so. This should have been a no-brianer. We are paying billions on the war on drugs as we addict our children to speed. Speed is an addiction that had no real cure other than a lifetime on methadone. How do victims of this scourge get retribution after the fact! How do we punish these lawmakers who are now long gone and absconded with the lobbyists money? How do we punish lawmakers who allowed these energy drinks to be sold at eye level to children a every convenience and supermarket in the country? I went to Spencers gifts at the mall a couple years ago and they had an energy drink cooler and there were about ten teens hanging around the cooler as if it were a bar or some alter of worship. It is not enough that Spencers pedals filth to youths but drugs are ok too? CAFFEINE IS A DRUG PEOPLE!

This caffeine thing happened on the republican watch. So as they destroy the middle class by taking away their bargaining rights they destroy the poor and middle class children by feeding them speed and addicting them on a "gateway drug" to other even more health costly drugs then they fight healthcare reform... Is something wrong with this picture?

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/health/article/156123/8/portland.highschoolsports.net

Another socially vital thread voted down to zero by the idiots of a2k.

drink up!

http://walking.about.com/od/fluids/a/caffeineenergy.htm

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/739233

there are many more to post...

Caffeinated Concerns for Kids

A new study in the journal Pediatrics highlights caffeinated energy drink concerns for children with specific medical conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, diabetes, and cardiac conditions. It also points out concerns about the link between caffeine and reduced bone mineralization.

...Billion Dollar Business

But this phenomenon is not limited to college campuses. Non-college going adults are drinking these beverages too. Energy drinks are big business.[5] In 2006, at least $5.4 billion worth was sold in the United States alone.[1] Sales for 2011 are predicted to exceed 9 billion dollars.[3]

Fortunately, the FDA has put the kibosh on premixed alcoholic energy drinks. On November 17, 2010, the FDA warned 4 companies that caffeine added to malt alcohols is an "unsafe food additive." The companies that got warning letters include Charge Beverages Corporations (makers of Core High Gravity®), New Century Brewing Company (maker of Moon shot®), Phusion Products (maker of Four Loko®), and United Brands Company (maker of Joose® and Max®).[7]

So how do they get around that?

They mix alcohol in tea...


"Final Thoughts

The FDA limit for caffeine in cola drinks is set at two hundredths of a per cent (0.02%), a max of 71 mg per 12 ounce serving.[1] Scientists and many parents, including me, wonder why this doesn't also to apply to energy drinks. The JAMA report ends with a plea:

"Scientists and health professionals cannot wait for further FDA action; available scientific evidence indicates that action is needed -- now."[1]

Warn your patients; tell your kids and their friends about the dangers of mixing alcohol with energy drinks. I told mine."

http://energydrinks.factexpert.com/897-energy-drink-overdose.php

THURSDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- The debate over the dangers of alcoholic energy drinks, popular among the young because they are inexpensive and carry the added punch of caffeine, has intensified after students at colleges in New Jersey and Washington state became so intoxicated they wound up in the hospital.

If you care to read here is the link to this "non issue" (sarcasm).

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/645008.html




THAT IS A LIE!

http://www.dragracingheaven.com/monster-energy-c-658_630.html?cPath=616

look kid sizes!

Why not just sell crack cocaine clothing apparel to kids?

Liberals are confused between their dreams of total anarchy and basic child protective philosophies.

You might notice that this thread was posted against Bush's decision to allow energy drinks to be sold. And back then I was a republican! Yet still I did not have purely partisan leanings in posting this thread against his decision. I guess it is against the main stream liberals on this forum also.

Look who is on the wrong side of history.

http://www.themedicineman.com/Are-Energy-Drinks-Dangerous.html

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12029256

http://uwire.com/2011/02/16/23211/

It's about time!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44818270/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/#.To-O2_5Co8k

Maybe that crap will fly with Canadians, but I think we Americans have had about enough of the federal government insisting upon Micro-managing our lives...The Government can **** off with that, and should endeavour to get back to its day job. Throwing off the corporate class corruption which now pervades it would be a good place to start. It is very sad that a federal government which can not even come close to the minimum reguirements of looking after its own affairs as decided that it needs to come and run the lives of the citizens.

I hope they do the same in the U.S.
My daughter was handed one of these energy drinks at school when she
was 13 years old. She never even drinks a cup of coffee, so this drink had a major impact on her - kept her up all night long and her heart was racing.

She hasn't touched that stuff since, but it's unbelievable how many kids
drink these caffeine loaded crap.

I missed the part where you presented the evidence that highly caffeinated sports drinks cause harm to children when they drink them. Could you please repeat it?

Caffeine is a drug. Bad toxic drugs can always be spotted because they nearly always reside within living organisms. Theses organisms (plants, in this case the coffee bean) that have developed a barrage of antioxidants to combat the poisonous effects of the toxic nature of the caffeine it contains. The coffee plant itself would not be able to survive had it only the caffeine and not developed these antioxidants over millions of years to help it cope with these toxins.

Just as fructose is a toxin within fruit and over millions of years the fruit has developed its antioxidants to help it survive due to the ill effects of the toxin fructose.

So a cup of coffee has an anti oxidant punch that nature created to combat the ill effects of the caffeine. Nature knows what is it doing.

In other word... toxins without these beneficial antioxidants mean the death and destruction of healthy cells.

The coffee bean has 250 antioxidants! That is more than any known fruit.
This bean developed these antioxidants and survived millions of years carrying this toxin within its body. Its survival is due to these antioxidants alone.

Nature thinks caffeine is a much more powerful toxin than fructose. Ot it would not have given coffee nearly 180 more antioxidants than the highest fruit content of antioxidants?

And how many anti oxidants are in a triple dose of monster, redbull or rockstar energy drink?

It is comm0n sense I researched this and easily found this info LONG AGO by tracing the dots.

Caffeine depletes the body of many muscle, bone and other types of vital nutrients. The antioxidants in coffee attach themselves to this caffeine and help the body excrete it. This is why every time I drink even small doses of caffeine I get body cramps really bad. And caffeine is also a diuretic. And, how vital is water to our cells, organs and b0dies?

Thomas perhaps your question was slightly cynical and that is perhaps the reason why the actual science of caffeine and the body seem to elude yours and the understanding of many others.

You can't understand what you refuse to even consider.

Where are the antioxidants in these energy drinks? Fruits and coffee beans are smarter than we are. We extract the toxin, consume it in heavy strength and leave our bodies defenseless over time.

Why did coffee not hurt us so bad? Again the answer is quite obvious. ANTIOXIDANTS? But energy drinks do no compensate for this as nature has.

excerpt from wiki

Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, cause oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.

Comment:
Evidence enough Thomas?? or do you need to see a dead child to believe?

Children, and youths, their cells are even more delicate and needing of nutrition and diet because they are growing.

This is why crackheads usually grow into a thin lifeless shell of a human. Lack of antioxidants surrounding a toxin...

Freebase caffeine anyone?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6c7_1232290490

Notice the company caffeine keeps!
http://www.counselingseattle.com/drugs/stimulants.htm

Eating or drinking a large amount of caffeine can make you feel jittery, nervous, or energetic. That is because caffeine -- like any stimulant -- changes the way your brain works.

Comment: Hope that answers your question Thomas...

the question alluded to was "how are kids harmed by caffeine?" and your response is that caffeine is a drug which changes people, which is exactly the point of mainlining it, but you point to no harm. You also allege that caffeine is a toxin but you dont prove it, and you seem to be unaware that many things are toxic at high doses so much of what we consume could be considered toxins, so even if you were to prove that caffeine is toxic you would further need to prove that it is toxic in the dose higher than a cup of coffee to justify criminalizing providing higher doses to kids.

I seriously doubt there exists anything approaching justification for removing the freedom to consume high doses of caffeine from youth and children....that what we are seeing here is another example of the nanny state taking freedom away from the citizens with little to no regard for the right of the citizens to be free from Government oppression.

No and no. I had hoped for a study where 100 kids were raised drinking caffeinated drinks, 100 otherwise-comparable kids were raised without drinking them, and systematic studies of their health were conducted before and after. Before we discuss why caffeine is bad, we should first have clear and convincing evidence that it is bad. And you haven't provided any such evidence.