JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Monday, September 29, 2008

Caffeine drinks: a warning

from today's Times ... we're talking Red Bull (80mg caffeine per can*), Relentless (160mg), Cocaine (240mg per can) ... also Coke (35mg), and to some extent coffee (although you sip that because it's hot, whereas these cooled drinks are gulped, often several times a day):

Scott Willoughby, of the Cardiovascular Research Centre in Adelaide, Australia, recently showed how the sugar-free version of Red Bull can cause the blood to thicken, raising the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In his study, Willoughby assessed the cardiovascular systems of 30 young adults one hour before and one hour after they had drunk a 250ml can of sugar-free Red Bull. He describes the results as "remarkable". Sixty minutes after drinking the Red Bull, the subjects displayed the kind of cardiovascular abnormalities that might be expected in a patient with heart disease, including an increased stickiness of blood.

"If you add in other risk factors for cardiovascular disease - stress or high blood pressure - this could be potentially deadly," Willoughby says. "The can comes with a warning of its own. But if you have any predisposition to cardiovascular disease, I'd think twice about drinking it."


*Caffeine stats from Professor Roland Griffiths, of The Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, USA. He found 505mg of caffeine in an American canned drink called Whoop Ass.

There's not much official UK guidance on this - according to The Times, just two pointers: any drink containing more than 150mg of caffeine per litre has to say so on UK labels; & the FSA advises pregnant women not to consume more than 300mg/caffeine per day.

7 comments:

Nan said...

I can't help but think that all those other ingredients (inches long sometimes) contribute to the problem too. It drives me wild to see kids drinking this stuff and soda in general. Almost always the 'diet' stuff too - get your fries and burgers, and a diet drink. Crazy, crazy. I've sent this on to my kids. People have drunk coffee for ages and been fine, but then they come up with more speedier drinks. Just inject the meth. :<)

Mallika said...

I saw some Red Bull ad claiming it was made from all natural ingredients. Are these marketers out of their minds? It defies belief...

Anonymous said...

Billionaire now I think the guy who set up Red Bull and with their marketing power spread tenfold all around the globe I can't see people stopping drinking it.

I don't drink it but I do remember having one or two with vodka (quite a few years ago). I couldn't get to sleep until gone 3am, possibly later and then woke at 7am unable to go back to sleep. I was totally wired, it was such a horrible feeling!

Amanda (Little Foodies) x

Alex said...

Perhaps it shouldn't be 'caffeine drinks: a warning' but 'sugar free drinks', since the study looked at the sugar free version.

Why eat or drink food packed full of artificial versions of natural products?!

Joanna said...

I posted this mainly so that my young would read it - and so that I'd be able to find the stats later.

Alex, I wonder whether the sugar-free version is better or worse? Or just as bad either way ...

Amanda SO depressing to think of the guy being a billionaire on the back of something so horrible - and I've heard other people talk about experiences like yours :(

Joanna

Joanna said...

I posted this mainly so that my young would read it - and so that I'd be able to find the stats later.

Alex, I wonder whether the sugar-free version is better or worse? Or just as bad either way ...

Amanda SO depressing to think of the guy being a billionaire on the back of something so horrible - and I've heard other people talk about experiences like yours :(

Joanna

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

I saw this article, too. Scary beyond belief. I've hardly touched caffeine for ten years now, but I fear for those who do, particularly the children...