slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
If you're like many Americans, you probably consume at least one caffeinated beverage each day, starting with that morning jolt in a cup of coffee.
I used to look forward to my morning visit to Starbucks almost as a ritual. But no more. My doctor made the morning pilgrimage off limits because it was causing some health issues.
It had never occurred to me that caffeine -- which is in coffee, soft drinks and energy drinks -- is an unregulated drug. And I certainly had no idea that too much of it can make you sick.
Energy drinks have been getting an especially bad rap lately -- including an FDA investigation -- because they contain large amounts of caffeine. Yes, they give you a burst of energy, but there's also a chance they can send you straight to the emergency room if you drink too much.
Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Medicine knows a lot about the dangers. He's been studying caffeine for much of his career -- especially things like how much of it is enough to cause a reaction (yes, one can of soda will do the trick) and why habitual coffee drinking doesn't just alleviate that groggy feeling in the morning, it can actually help create it.
That research has also informed his belief about how concerned parents should be about caffeinated beverages, including energy drinks. Griffiths spoke with me earlier this week about some of the risks. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Dr. Griffiths, thank you so much for joining us. Caffeinated beverages have been around for many, many years, but lately there's been particular concern about adverse effects. What's new here?
ROLAND GRIFFITHS: What's new here -- and this has been building for a number of years -- is that these caffeine-containing beverages have been re-branded and are now being aggressively marketed mostly to young people, with the message that they're useful for enhancing athletic performance, extreme sports and mental performance. The marketing of energy drinks is markedly different from the way soft drinks have been marketed historically.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: How so?
ROLAND GRIFFITHS: This goes back many years. In the early 1900s, there was a famous suit against the Coca-Cola company, with the claim being that Coca-Cola was adding caffeine to its beverage -- which it was -- and that it was putting children at risk. And as a consequence of that and some regulatory measures that were taken in the 1950s, the soft drink companies became very sensitized to the fact that they were actively marketing a product to children that contained a drug.
But the FDA included caffeine under the GRAS category -- or "Generally Recognized as Safe -- and they did so on the basis that the soft drink industry claimed that they were adding caffeine to their products only because it was a flavor enhancer. And so the industry essentially disavowed any central nervous system drug properties. For years, if you looked at product descriptions written by the major soft drink manufacturers, they would refer to caffeine as simply a flavor enhancer. If the industry had acknowledged that caffeine was a drug, then that could have changed the regulatory basis under which caffeine had been approved by the FDA for marketing.
Then in the '80s, Red Bull came on the market. And for reasons that still remain puzzling to me, FDA did not object to Red Bull marketing its product even though Red Bull exceeded the 200 parts per million GRAS caffeine limit, and it advertised its product directly as performance enhancement. And that really broke the mold. Up until that point, the soda companies were not advertising their drinks as a stimulant.
From where I sit as a psychopharamcologist who does research with caffeine, it is important to recognize that caffeine is indeed a mood-altering and behavior-changing drug that produces reliable effects. This whole new series of products -- and there are now hundreds of them -- are being marketed for energy and performance enhancement.
cont at
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/01/should-parents-worry-about-energy-drinks.html
I used to look forward to my morning visit to Starbucks almost as a ritual. But no more. My doctor made the morning pilgrimage off limits because it was causing some health issues.
It had never occurred to me that caffeine -- which is in coffee, soft drinks and energy drinks -- is an unregulated drug. And I certainly had no idea that too much of it can make you sick.
Energy drinks have been getting an especially bad rap lately -- including an FDA investigation -- because they contain large amounts of caffeine. Yes, they give you a burst of energy, but there's also a chance they can send you straight to the emergency room if you drink too much.
Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Medicine knows a lot about the dangers. He's been studying caffeine for much of his career -- especially things like how much of it is enough to cause a reaction (yes, one can of soda will do the trick) and why habitual coffee drinking doesn't just alleviate that groggy feeling in the morning, it can actually help create it.
That research has also informed his belief about how concerned parents should be about caffeinated beverages, including energy drinks. Griffiths spoke with me earlier this week about some of the risks. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Dr. Griffiths, thank you so much for joining us. Caffeinated beverages have been around for many, many years, but lately there's been particular concern about adverse effects. What's new here?
ROLAND GRIFFITHS: What's new here -- and this has been building for a number of years -- is that these caffeine-containing beverages have been re-branded and are now being aggressively marketed mostly to young people, with the message that they're useful for enhancing athletic performance, extreme sports and mental performance. The marketing of energy drinks is markedly different from the way soft drinks have been marketed historically.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: How so?
ROLAND GRIFFITHS: This goes back many years. In the early 1900s, there was a famous suit against the Coca-Cola company, with the claim being that Coca-Cola was adding caffeine to its beverage -- which it was -- and that it was putting children at risk. And as a consequence of that and some regulatory measures that were taken in the 1950s, the soft drink companies became very sensitized to the fact that they were actively marketing a product to children that contained a drug.
But the FDA included caffeine under the GRAS category -- or "Generally Recognized as Safe -- and they did so on the basis that the soft drink industry claimed that they were adding caffeine to their products only because it was a flavor enhancer. And so the industry essentially disavowed any central nervous system drug properties. For years, if you looked at product descriptions written by the major soft drink manufacturers, they would refer to caffeine as simply a flavor enhancer. If the industry had acknowledged that caffeine was a drug, then that could have changed the regulatory basis under which caffeine had been approved by the FDA for marketing.
Then in the '80s, Red Bull came on the market. And for reasons that still remain puzzling to me, FDA did not object to Red Bull marketing its product even though Red Bull exceeded the 200 parts per million GRAS caffeine limit, and it advertised its product directly as performance enhancement. And that really broke the mold. Up until that point, the soda companies were not advertising their drinks as a stimulant.
From where I sit as a psychopharamcologist who does research with caffeine, it is important to recognize that caffeine is indeed a mood-altering and behavior-changing drug that produces reliable effects. This whole new series of products -- and there are now hundreds of them -- are being marketed for energy and performance enhancement.
cont at
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/01/should-parents-worry-about-energy-drinks.html
