Sing Along With Sugar

I’ve been writing about sugar and all its variations for the last few weeks now, and today is the last of the series on it.

To close out, I leave you with a video I made set to some bubblegum music – how pertinent to sugar, eh?

So get ready to sing and clap your hands, all in honor of sugar.

Do you love sugar? I hate to break the bad news to you, but sugar doesn’t love you back, no matter what the song may tell you.

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Should Soft Drinks Be Taxed to Help Pay for Health Care Reform?

Over the last two days I’ve written articles about how bad for your health soda and Red Bull, the world’s top-selling “energy drink,” are.

Most public health advocates are in agreement on this. And some are now calling for creating a separate tax on soft drinks in order to help pay for health care reform and as a way to help promote preventative health measures.

Soft drinks are the only beverage or food that has been shown to increase the risk of obesity. And obesity, in turn, promotes heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other expensive-to-treat diseases. All told, Americans spend about $90 billion a year in direct medical costs related to obesity, of which half is paid with Medicare and Medicaid taxpayer dollars.

Studies of soda consumption have shown that teenage boys who drink soft drinks consume an average of three 12-ounce cans and girls an average of two 12-ounce cans per day.

Studies also show that one in 10 boys who drinks soft drinks consumes five-and-a-half 12-ounce cans a day, or about 800 calories worth. It’s not the only reason, but the increase in soda consumption since the 1970s certainly helps explain why obesity rates have tripled in teens.

Advocates have called for a federal excise tax on soft drinks of anywhere from one cent per 12-ounce can to one cent per ounce of soft drink.

The higher the tax, the advocates state, the more money it would raise and the greater incentive would there be for reduced consumption, which would in turn help to reverse the obesity problem and improve overall health, thus cutting health care costs.

It has been estimated that a tax of one cent per 12-ounce can would raise $1.5 billion per year, and reduce consumption by 1 percent. And a tax of one cent per ounce would raise about $16 billion a year and reduce consumption by more than 10 percent.

One article that appeared recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, written by the New York City Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, advocated for the one cent per ounce excise tax, and said that based on experience with tobacco taxes, a soda tax would be “highly effective” in reducing the $79 billion in annual health care costs associated with obesity and overweight across the country.

Dr. Frieden argued that an excise tax would be more effective than a traditional sales tax and provide an incentive to buy less soda. The article says that since the mid-1990s, children have been drinking more beverages containing sugar than they do milk.

“Diet-related diseases also cost society in terms of decreased work productivity, increased absenteeism, poorer school performance and reduced fitness on the part of military recruits,” he wrote.

In a recent interview in support of his article, Dr. Frieden said that the Bloomberg administration in New York City had tried to combat obesity through calorie labeling, banning trans fats and serving one percent milk in school cafeterias.

But, he said, “Soda is the big one.”

Predictably, the soda industry shot back with a defense of their products. Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association, issued a statement in response to the article:

“We agree that obesity is a serious and complex problem. It defies both science and common sense, however, to think singling out one product as a unique contributor to obesity will make a dent in the problem.”

Gee, what a surprise her statement is.

Other critics argue that a soda tax is regressive, because it will disproportionally hurt lower income people more than higher income folks.

That’s true as far it goes, but if soda tax revenues are used to help pay for expanded health care coverage and for prevention, lower-income Americans will enjoy the biggest share of the benefit.

So what do you think about taxing soft drinks? Feel free to leave a comment below.

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Red Bull Has Cocaine In It!

I told you in yesterday’s article about the dangers of soda. Well, how about so-called “energy drinks,” and in particular, Red Bull, the best-selling energy drink in the world?

Red Bull is produced and sold by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. In 2006 there were three billion cans sold.

The motto for the drink is “It gives you Wings.”

What with its high sugar and caffeine content, it’s understandable that it will give you energy and “wings” – although it’s not a healthy type of energy that it gives you.

It contains 21.5 grams of sucrose, 5.25 grams of glucose, and 80 mg of caffeine. The caffeine in Red Bull is equal to the amount found in an average cup of coffee, although it’s twice the amount found in a can of Coke. A sugar-free version is available, sweetened with aspartame and sucralose, instead of sucrose and glucose.

Commonly reported adverse effects due to caffeine used in the quantities present in Red Bull are insomnia, nervousness, headache, and rapid heartbeat.

The results of a study conducted in 2008 showed that the ingestion of one can of Red Bull had an immediate detrimental effect on both endothelial function, and normal blood coagulation. This temporarily raised the cardiovascular risk in these individuals to a level comparable to that of an individual with established coronary artery disease.

Based on their results, researchers involved with the study cautioned against the consumption of Red Bull in individuals under stress, in those with high blood pressure, or in anyone with established atherosclerotic disease.

There has been at least one case report of Red Bull overdose causing death in a young athlete.

But regardless of all this, because of the way it is promoted, it is the world’s leading energy drink.

But the kind of energy boost it gives is one that will ramp up your adrenal system and put your body in hyperdrive. It’s the kind of boost that puts you in High Density Lifestyle mode.

And now, on top of all that Red Bull is, it was recently discovered that Red Bull has cocaine in it.

Maybe that’s why it is the world’s leading energy drink!

Because of the recent findings of cocaine in Red Bull, it has been banned in at least six German states.

The cocaine was discovered by a German food safety agency in the North Rhine-Westphalia (LIGA) state, which stated they found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

While Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection both said the level did not pose a threat to public safety, it was thought more German states may join the ban.

“The institute examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine,” said Bernhard Kuehnle, head of the food safety department at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection.

Officials also said that the presence of the cocaine residues violated the parameters of being classified a “food stuff.” Rather, it should be classified as a narcotic, and that classification needs a specific license.

The Red Bull company immediately issued a statement that said the problem had arisen out of its “use of a decocainised coca leaf extract in the product.”

The use of coca leaves is something that the beverage industry is understandably coy about given its links to cocaine, even if decocainised leaves are legal in most countries.

According to a story in Time magazine, Coca-Cola refused to confirm or deny whether it used either regular or decocainised coca leaves in its products.

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