Posts Tagged ‘caffeine’

On November 13, 2009 the FDA issued notification to 30 manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages that it intends to look into the safety and legality of their products. “The increasing popularity of consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages by college students and reports of potential health and safety issues necessitates that we look seriously at the scientific evidence as soon as possible,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs. The problem is that caffeine has not been approved by the FDA to be added to alcoholic beverages. However, some substances which are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), or have been subject to prior sanction, are legality able to be used as food additives. For a substance to be GRAS, there must be evidence of its safety at the levels used and a basis to conclude that this evidence is generally known and accepted by qualified experts. Thus, the FDA is giving these companies 30 days to produce data to support that the use of caffeine in their products is GRAS or have been previously sanctioned. Click here for a full list of companies and products affected. [via FDA]

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Energy drinks, such as Red Bull, have been increasing in popularity among adolescents and young adults in recent years. The most common reasons for consumption of these sugar and caffeine-laden drinks are to improve concentration and athletic performance. Just like coffee, however, energy drinks cannot properly hydrate the body because sugar and caffeine promote excretion of water. As well, studies have demonstrated that strong doses of caffeine can increase hypertension, cause heart palpitations, irritability, anxiety, headaches and insomnia. Approximately 1.5 billion cans of Red Bull were sold in the US alone in 2004.

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One of the largest studies about the health affects of coffee was published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study found that regular coffee consumption is not associated with increased mortality. Rather, consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was found to be associated with lower rates of death from heart disease. So should everyone be drinking coffee? Well, that is a complicated question. Although the recent study demonstrated a benefit from drinking coffee on a population level, it is difficult to make individual recommendations for safe coffee consumption. According to Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy of the University of Toronto, safe daily caffeine intake is different from one person to the next due to our bodies’ varying abilities to process caffeine. “That’s why numerous studies have associated coffee consumption with both an increased and a decreased risk for many chronic diseases,” he said. So, again, it appears now that the jury is still out…for coffee. Full story.

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