By Bobby DeMuro
In the past seven days, two new soda-related studies have been published, both detailing some significant problems associated with overconsumption of sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and caffeine in beverages ranging from Coca-Cola and Pepsi products, to energy drinks from various companies including Red Bull and Monster.
In the first study, performed at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and published online in Pediatrics on Valentine’s Day, found through surveys that 30% to 50% of teens and young adults consume energy drinks, although “we didn’t see evidence that drinks have beneficial effects in improving energy, weight loss, stamina, athletic performance and concentration,” said the study director, noting that most companies who sell energy drinks make claims of improved stamina, energy, and concentration in athletic performance, among other activities.
And the research shows that children and teens — especially those with cardiovascular, renal or liver disease, seizures, diabetes, mood and behavior disorders and hyperthyroidism — are at a higher risk for health complications from these drinks.
In countries that track adverse events from energy drinks (the United States, unfortunately, does not), cases of agitation, liver damage, kidney failure, psychosis and a heart attack in a 23-year-old have been consistently reported. Nearly half of the 5,448 caffeine overdoses reported in the United States in 2007 occurred in people under the age of 19, the study noted although these were not all directly tied to energy drinks.
Caffeine can affect young people more than adults, because they may not have developed tolerance for it and their bodies may be smaller, said Bruce Goldberger, director of toxicology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, who has studied energy drinks.
Currently, the FDA limits caffeine drinks to 71 mg per 12-ounce serving, but energy drink makers get around the rule by labeling their products “natural,” and as a dietary supplement rather than as a food or drink.
In the second study, Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition Wednesday asking that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban two types of carcinogenic chemicals often labeled as “caramel coloring,” most often on products like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other dark-colored colas.
According to CSPI, from a study by the University of California, Davis, the artificial brown/caramel coloring is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures.
Those reactions, in the words of the letter to the FDA, “result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole and 4 methylimidazole, which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver, or thyroid cancer or leukemia in laboratory mice or rats.”
