FDA claims caffeine is unsafe additive in drinks

[Bill Godshall]

Instead of concluding that excessive alcohol consumption poses health and safety risks, the FDA has concluded (and has informed four alcohol beverage companies) that caffeine is not a safe additive.
FDA Warning Letters issued to four makers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages

Although this is somewhat off topic, FDA's decision and action regarding caffeine and alcohol indicate that the agency is more interested in policy activism than in objectively analyzing scientific evidence and truthfully communicating the evidence.

 

[WHITEKNIGHT]

Thats the way the world turns. Lies and money. And never doing things the right way.

 

[mle]

Well - caffeinated alcoholic drinks probably AREN'T the best things for you, but once again - CIGARETTES ARE STILL LEGAL. Makes you wonder...

 

[Sdh]

Alcohol is a neurotoxin...my two cents....if one wants to drink this type of beverage....it should be their right? On a personal level consumption of the two do not make any sense? FDA where were you back in 2000 when my mom had a stroke from your approval of a precription drug? Oh I forgot you (entity of us fda) obtained funding from that particular drug manufacturer for approval? Yes...I know the politics!

 

[BradSmith]

Just plain rediculous. What good it this going to do? Is it going to stop a college kid from doing yagger bombs till he drops? Is going to stop anyone from having a jack and coke. Unless they make booze or caffinated drinks illegal I'm pretty darn sure people will put them together.

 

[mle]

Ah, pharmaceutical companies - sorry to hear about your mom Sdh. You might be interested in a book called "Our Daily Meds" by Melody Peterson.

 

[Sdh]

Ah, pharmaceutical companies - sorry to hear about your mom Sdh. You might be interested in a book called "Our Daily Meds" by Melody Peterson.

I went to nursing school after that. Thanks. Will have to check out the book tho.

 

[potholerepairman]

Total Wine this last weekend was giving out samples of "Veil" espresso vodka and iced tea vodka too.I guess they didn't get the memo.
FDA= funds dictate angle.
That Fourloco is a bums dream for sure, back in my day all they had was the old Cisco winecoolers that had more booze in half the size container of those Fourloco's.They(Cisco) did not last long either till the gov stepped in and got them off the market.Maybe they will get all involved in that and leave us alone, I know fat chance.

 

[Vocalek]

No caffeine mixed with alcohol? Does this mean I will get arrested if I order a cup of coffee and a shot of Baily's Irish Creme and pour some of the Baily's into the coffee?

 

[malyden]

No caffeine mixed with alcohol? Does this mean I will get arrested if I order a cup of coffee and a shot of Baily's Irish Creme and pour some of the Baily's into the coffee?

No it'll just mean that you can't take your Baily's and add coffee to it

 

[JerryRM]

No caffeine mixed with alcohol? Does this mean I will get arrested if I order a cup of coffee and a shot of Baily's Irish Creme and pour some of the Baily's into the coffee?

Only if you are vaping at the same time, Elaine.

 

[Timothy Cullen]

well i mean its just about ridiculous how ignorant modern society is of whats going on. id wager more than half of america doesnt know that the government which broke its own word during the alcohol prohibition repeal (gasp) by saying " the Goverment has no right to tell the american body what it can and cannot put into themselves." seriously though im all for somebody doing the research for me but not for profits or incentives.
on a side note my psychology teacher was having a discussion on drugs and swore up and down he has never partaken of any. i promptly raised my hand and corrected him. i said what is in the soda you are drinking right now? what is in the e liquid you vape(me and him are buddys so i didnt get in trouble and he actually makes a good batch of homebrew diy peppermint e liquid) anyways caffeine and nicotine i mean really everybody has done a drug or something harmful but the human body is a resilient machine and in moderation can overcome just about anything.

 

[rothenbj]

Since we have a thread going that's OT, but also topic related

Obesity and junk food: Taking a cue from tobacco control - mcall.com

The answer seems obvious: If we want to protect ourselves from a deadly epidemic of heart disease, diabetes and other ailments, just as we've taken steps to protect ourselves from an epidemic of lung cancer, we need to act.

And that means strict — some might say draconian — measures to reduce consumption of what's bad for us, and aggressive campaigns to get us to eat and behave in a healthier fashion.

"It doesn't seem at all draconian to me," said Toni Yancey, a professor of health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. "We need to change social norms to make certain foods less appealing, just as we made it less appealing to smoke."

We're already removing sugary sodas and junk food from schools, and we're doing it to help kids be healthier. Surely the same rationale applies to the rest of society.

I'm not saying we close down all McDonald's and Burger King outlets. I'm saying we significantly limit advertising and sponsorship by companies selling, as Goldstein put it, high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar products.

This has worked for tobacco. It's worked (on a largely volunteer basis) for alcohol. It can work for junk food.

Yancey said a good place to start would be government buildings — eliminate all bad-for-you foods and beverages. Instead, make healthful alternatives available. Gradually, if the political will can be found, expand the junk food ban to all workplaces, just as smoking bans spread from the public to the private sector.

Meanwhile, we need to step up wellness efforts to get people to make healthier choices and exercise more. These programs should be funded by levies on the foods that contribute most to obesity, and the obvious place to start is soda.

Starts sounding a lot like the social engineering that has gotten from anti-smoking to anti-tobacco/nicotine unless, of course provided to you my BP. Wait until they start getting serious about tackling the problem with excise taxes and BMI testing at work and companies refusing to hire based on weight. Who will sit quite on the sidelines then?

I wonder if BP can develop a drug based on low levels of trans fats, salt and sugar that can work as replacement therapy and make millions with abysmal results?

 

[Slea]

Fourloco doesn't quite compare to a Jack and Coke or a Bailey's coffee.

 

[rothenbj]

Fourloco doesn't quite compare to a Jack and Coke or a Bailey's coffee.

From a conversation I had with a fellow that has seen use first hand, the younger folks, or children as they love to use in the health world, don't find the alcohol level high enough straight so they've been boosting it with vodka. That, somehow, has not been mentioned in the news snippets.

 

[JupiterV]

LOL LOL LOL.....they should be embarrassed. This is where our taxes go? omg.

 

[potholerepairman]

they went too far this time
FDA Criticized for Ban on Alcoholic Energy Drinks - Yahoo! News

They are messing with peoples choices in the majority and its going to bite them where it hurts the most.

 

[PlanetScribbles]

Funny that aspartame has been shown to possibly cause blindness, hearing impairment, epileptic seizures and severe depression, as well as numerous other side effects. Yet that is a perfectly acceptable, and FDA approved, additive in drinks.
The FDA are unfit for purpose, utterly incompetent and completely incoherent.

 

[JustMeAgain]

No caffeine mixed with alcohol? Does this mean I will get arrested if I order a cup of coffee and a shot of Baily's Irish Creme and pour some of the Baily's into the coffee?

Not to mention the popularity among college students of adding vodka to Red Bull.

My grandma used to have a saying ' gag on a gnat, swallow a camel'

 

[kristin]

The negative claims about aspartame have not been scientifically proven as far as I can tell. Twenty-some countries have done numerous studies of it over the past 20 years and all concluded it was safe to consume. (I did some research when someone posted that people shouldn't soak their attys with diet cola because of aspartame. While diet cola isn't the best cleaner anyhow, I would surmise that after a thorough rinsing with hot water there wouldn't be any aspartame left on the atty.) Just one source: Is aspartame safe? – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

The scare tactics used in the comments section of that link are downright ridiculous. For example, claims that aspartame creates formaldehyde (sounds scary, right?) are along the same lines as "e-cigarettes contain antifreeze." From a 2002 study: "With regards to formaldehyde, it is rapidly converted in the body, and the amounts of formaldehyde from the metabolism of aspartame is trivial when compared to the amounts produced routinely by the human body and from other foods and drugs. Ingesting aspartame at the 90th percentile of intake would produce 25 times less methanol than would be considered toxic."

It does seem that aspartame has been anecdotally linked to cause migraines and depression in SOME people, but any product - including natural products like eggs, nuts, milk and seafood - cause adverse reactions in some people. But there is no scientific evidence (and they've looked) to support the claim that aspartame causes brain lesions, cancer, seizures, blindness or any other major disease.

Funny that aspartame has been shown to possibly cause blindness, hearing impairment, epileptic seizures and severe depression, as well as numerous other side effects. Yet that is a perfectly acceptable, and FDA approved, additive in drinks.
The FDA are unfit for purpose, utterly incompetent and completely incoherent.