Energy drinks are extremely popular. But some have got a bad rap for potential side-effects, particularly in kids and young adults, eg agitation, heart throbbing and hypertension.

Which has opened the door to relaxation drinks, some of that may trigger their own set of health issues.

Such drinks contain herbs like valerian root and the hormone melatonin, which can produce feelings of relaxation — and will even prompt sleep.

That is the problem.

Some health mavens stress about folk grabbing a drink off the store shelf and then driving an auto, attending a session or operating machinery while beginning to get increasingly unfocused or maybe groggy.

The drinks generally have alert labels, but clients may not notice.

Chillout, a new “natural relaxing drink,” made its debut at the Expo. The 8.4-ounce canned drink contains chamomile, valerian, lemon relief and vitamins.

The drink doesn’t come with an alert label. Chillout isn’t to be confused with Just Chill, another new drink that does not contain valerian or melatonin of kava. Just Chill, the product of a grouping of Southern California surfers, has selected to circumvent the arguable ingredients, asserted Caleb Davidge, the L. A. representative of the Chill Group Inc.

The drink contains the amino acid L-theanine as the important ingredient for relaxation. “We see our drink as more for stress relief,” he announced.

“it doesn’t cause drowsiness.”

In total, two thirds of the world’s population will be faced with this problem.

Over the past century, the growth rate of water consumption is almost twice faster than population growth.

Researchers tell that today 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water, 2 billion are constantly faced with scarcity of supply and another 2.6 billion do not have at their disposal necessary sanitary facilities (e.g. water supply).

70% of water consumed by mankind is used in agriculture.

In some developing countries agriculture’s zone reaches 90%.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), today four out of every ten people in the world do not have access to common toilets with dump wells and two out of ten are forced to constantly use contaminated water.

WHO operates the following statistics: 1.8 million people die each year from diarrhea diseases (including cholera), 90% of whom are children under 5 years old.

These diseases in 88% of cases are caused by using contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.

Improved water supply reduces diarrhea morbidity by 6-25%. Improving the quality of drinking water may reduce the incidence of diarrhea by 35-39%.

Improving access to safe water sources and hygiene practices can reduce trachoma morbidity by 27%.

In particular, Alzheimer’s disease – a progressive brain disease whose symptoms include reduced intelligence, memory loss, disorientation.

“Natural antioxidants reduce the vulnerability of cells to disease and aging – said Alan Crozier, professor of plant biochemistry and nutrition at Glasgow University (UK). – In addition, they improve health and protect against chronic diseases.”

The richest in antioxidants is dark grape juice.

For its medicinal properties the researchers liken it to red wine.

Unclarified apple juice is on the second place, and on the third – cranberry juice.

Doctors also advise to drink grapefruit juice regularly.

In a rapidly changing and aging world more and more people suffer from age-related decline of intelligence or dementia.

Scientists are looking for more new methods to combat it, because this illness dramatically reduces the quality of life of the patient and often leads to the necessity of reconsidering the ways of living of all family members.

Flavonoids and antioxidants that are found in cocoa beans may be good sources of medicine in this situation.

Ian MacDonald, the scientist from Nottingham, United Kingdom, describes an experiment in which young women were drinking a cup of cocoa before performing complex tasks and performed them under control of a magnetic resonance imaging procedure.

The device showed a significant acceleration of cerebral blood flow in the group.

The next step was to study the impact of cocoa on the brains of people who have initially reduced cerebral blood flow.

According to the researchers, the benefits that cocoa brings were discovered during the investigation of health of the tribes of South America who drink this beverage in very large quantities.

However, the problem lies in the fact that cocoa powder which is delivered to the shops is poor with flavonoids. They are artificially extracted from raw materials, as flavonoids give this drink a bitter taste.

The researchers also fear that patients will “look” the same substance in chocolate that will lead to problems with obesity. Chocolate is food for pleasure and it will never improve health as opposed to cocoa in anticipation of bright future, scientists say.

Many of the problems that are associated with age-related changes or alcohol abuse, such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson’s disease can be caused by usual soft drinks.

After spending a huge amount of time on experiments in his laboratory, Professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, P. Piper came to the conclusion that sodium benzoate (E211), a widespread preservative in food industry being accepted by relevant authorities in different countries, can be very dangerous for your health.

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern, but at that time it dealt with its carcinogenic effect.

The fact is that in conjunction with vitamin C in soft drinks, sodium benzoate produces benzene – a carcinogenic substance. There are even cases of withdrawing of some brands of drinks from the sale due to increased benzene content.

However, in general E211 is considered a safe additive, of course, with respect to current regulations at its maximum content in products.

Peter Piper has checked the effect of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells and found that this agent affects an important area of DNA in the mitochondria. He reported that these chemicals cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria and completely inactivate it.

Mitochondria give you energy and if you hurt them in large quantities, the cells start to malfunction. There are many diseases that are associated specifically with defect of this part of DNA: Parkinson’s disease and several neurodegenerative diseases; and yet it is associated with aging.

As a result of his experiments, the scientist proposes to revise standards of levels of E211 in food.

He believes that the existing methods for determining the damage from sodium benzoate are not quite true. Piper is particularly concerned of children who consume carbonated drinks in large quantities.

But soda isn’t just water, corn syrup and carbonation — a can of Coke or Pepsi also contains chemical additives for coloring and flavoring. And according to one public health group, those additives could increase your chance of getting cancer.

That’s the message from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a Washington-based consumer watchdog group. CSPI has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the “caramel coloring” that is used in Coke, Pepsi and other sodas, on the grounds that the chemicals are carcinogenic.

CSPI says the artificial brown coloring — which doesn’t have much to do with actual caramel, despite the name — is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia and sulfites under high pressures and at high temperatures. (Just like Mom used to do it!) Those reactions produce the chemicals 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole — chemicals that government studies have found to cause lung, liver or thyroid cancer in lab rats or mice. “It’s a small but significant risk, and it’s the kind of thing that government agencies should deal with,” says Michael Jacobson, the executive director of CSPI.

Is Jacobson right? A 2007 study by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) found “clear evidence of carcinogenic activity of 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI) in male and
female B6C3F1 mice based on increased incidences of alveolar/bronchiolar neoplasms,” otherwise known as lung tumors. The state of California has also concluded that 4-MEI is a carcinogen, and is in the process of crafting regulations that may require food and drinks containing significant levels of the chemical to bear cancer warnings.

According to California’s regulators, a level of more than 16 micrograms per day would pose a significant risk — meaning it could result in at least one excess case of cancer per 100,000 exposed people. Given that there are roughly 130 micrograms of 4-MI per 12-ounce can of soda — and given that the average American drinks 14 ounces of soda a day, with young men drinking far more — that would mean that most of us would be at some risk.

As a result, CSPI has been petitioning the FDA to change the name or ban the use of the chemicals in soda and other foods, or at least force manufacturers to put warning labels on their packaging. “We think industry can solve this problem,” says Jacobson. “They don’t want to put warning labels on their products.”

The soda industry, however, is fighting back. In a statement the American Beverage Association — an industry group that includes soda makers — denied that 4-MEI posed any danger to human health:

4-MEI is not a threat to human health. There is no evidence that 4-MEI causes cancer in humans. No health regulatory agency around the globe, including the Food and Drug Administration, has said that 4-MEI is a human carcinogen. This petition is nothing more than another attempt to scare consumers by an advocacy group long-dedicated to attacking the food and beverage industry.

In California a number of industry groups — including the American Beverage Association — have filed a lawsuit against state regulators to block efforts to list 4-MEI as a carcinogen:

The state agency’s decision does not reflect sound science and failed to follow its own regulations. Also, it did not take into account all the data available on the subject in this process.

Source: http://healthland.time.com

The finding was based on a review of the literature on energy drinks, researchers at the University of Miami said in the study appearing in the journal Pediatrics.

Many of the energy drinks reviewed contain three times the caffeine of a cola and some of which have five times more, said the study.

The study showed that caffeine in the drinks can exacerbate cardiac conditions, especially in children with eating disorders, and interfere with calcium absorption and bone mineralization in young adolescents.

Energy drinks produce extra calories which can contribute to diabetes, high body mass index and dental problems, according to the study.

Also, energy drinks contain additional ingredients which may boost caffeine levels, said the study.

The study also found that many children and young adults in the United States have tried energy drinks, and some consume them heavily.

A survey of college students reported that 51 percent regularly consumed one or more of the drinks per month, and a majority of those students drank them several times a week.

Insufficient sleep and a desire for more energy were cited as reasons for such consumption, said the study.

The drinks are unregulated in the United States, and the number of overdoses of caffeine from drinking them remains unknown, the study said.

But in Germany, Ireland and New Zealand, officials have reported cases of liver damage, kidney failure, seizures, confusion and arrhythmias associated with energy drink use, according to the study.

Most drinks do a good job of hydrating, but the components of some common drinks sharply reduce their hydrating ability.

Which drinks are the best hydrators, and which the worst? Here are the three most hydrating and the four least hydrating drinks.

Drinks That Are Strong Hydrators

Water
Water is the preeminent beverage for correctly hydrating the body.

Herbal Teas (Infusions)
The leaves from plants such as mint, verbena, linden, balm, and so on give a pleasant aroma and flavor to the water in which they are steeped, which makes infusions a satisfying alternative to people who don’t enjoy drinking plain water.

The medicinal properties of the plants do not have a negative effect on the body’s assimilation of the water.

Note: The benefit does not extend to sweetened infusions, or if the tea is made with plants that have diuretic properties, such as dandelion.

Fruit and Vegetable Juices
The water in fruits and vegetables–their juice–is one of the liquids nature has provided for hydrating our bodies. Juice is water bound to a substance. To maintain our harmonic balance with nature and avoid taking in too high a concentration of nutrients and sugars, we should consider juice a secondary resource to be used in moderation.

Drinks that Are Weak Hydrators

Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa
Drinks that have a base of coffee, black tea, or cocoa are quite high in purins, toxins that must be eliminated from the body by urine or sweat in the form of uric acid. Purines need to be diluted in large quantities of liquid to be evacuated without irritation. A good portion of the water consumed with these drinks is used to eliminate the toxins.

Milk
Milk is a food, not a drink, and its digestion by adults is frequently incomplete.

Whey, on the other hand, is very easily digested, but its diuretic properties are an impediment to its consumption as a daily beverage.

Soft Drinks
Soft drinks often have a high caffeine base, a diuretic, which makes a body lose water before it has time to make its way into the intracellular environment. The other problem comes from the high sugar content of most sodas. The body has a hard time properly metabolizing refined sugar. To correct the reaction to this, the body has to surrender water from the extracellular fluid. Because that makes a person thirsty, a vicious circle is created, as the thirst is being maintained by the very beverage that is drink with the intention of getting rid of it.

Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol itself has dehydrating properties, removing water from the tissues it contacts and drying them out and increasing the need for water.

Adapted from The Water Prescription, by Christopher Vasey, N.D.

A study that was recently published has determined that it would help American lose weight should the tax was large enough.

However, even then the benefits would primarily be accrued by the middle class and be modest at best.

If the United Stated added a 40% tax to the price of sugary drinks such as sports drinks and sodas that were purchased in a retail store, it would reduce approximately 12 calories from the daily intake of beverages for the average person in the United States. This would translate into a person losing approximately 1 1/4 pounds.

Without doing all of the calculations, it turns out that a 20 % tax wouldn’t work as well as a 40% tax for discouraging the drinking of sugary drinks. Also, should the tax cover more kinds of sugary drinks, the reduction in caloric intake would be somewhat increased which would reduce the options for a substitution of a lower tax.

However, if such a tax could become politically palatable, the benefits from such a tax wouldn’t be advantageous for everybody. The study also determined that increasing the taxes on sugary drinks wouldn’t reduce the weight of the poorest of the wealthiest people in the United States significantly.

The idea of taxing junk food and sugary beverages is gaining some support in some political circles. However, it might be impossible to get public support for such taxes. Recently, a survey was conducted in which people in the United States were ask for their opinion a tax increase directed at sugary drinks.

Over 3,000 people or 51% if the people surveyed either opposed or strongly opposed such tax increases. Only about 1/3 of those surveyed were in favor of a tax increase.

However, there is the deficit to consider and one factor might be how much money the increased taxes might raise. It has been estimated that a tax of 40% on a variety of sugary drinks might gather over $2,500,000,000.

This green practice makes this the world’s first coffee that offsets the negative effects of carbon. The roasting and shipping of one pound of coffee adds about 4 pounds of the equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) in the atmosphere.

However, the planting of trees which grow fast in the Ecuadorian cloud forest removes 54 pounds of CO2e. According to Tiny Footprint Coffee, that for every pound of coffee sold, there is 50 pounds of negative carbon goodness.

However, the trees that are planted have to suck up CO2 for 20 years in order to reach that figure of 54 pounds. Also there is much more to consider about the coffee’s carbon footprint than simply the roasting and shipping.

For instance, in your home the process of brewing the beverage and the grinding of coffee beans creates somewhere between 0.04 and 0.7 pounds of CO2e, depending on what you add to the coffee and how you heat your water. Because each pound of coffee is good for approximately fifty cups of coffee there is somewhere between 2.3 and 35 additional pounds of emission of CO2e for each pound of coffee that you purchase.

Although Tiny Footprint Coffee is 90% fair trade certified and all organic, the other 10% of coffees that are fair trade and are non certified that come from family farms that are small and aren’t eligible for certification of fair trade since they aren’t a part of a large growing cooperative.

However, they do grow sustainable, premium, and beautiful coffees that people pay above fair trade price to get. Also those numbers don’t include the widely varying farming practices that can affect the carbon footprint of growing a cup of coffee. People always buy organic coffees that are sustainably grown but aren’t limited to only reach certified fair trade coffees.

As far as the claims of the carbon negative, the CO2e calculations made by Tiny Footprint should be taken with a grain of salt. In addition, they are hard to compare with other coffee companies that are planting trees.