Energy Drinks for Kids?

 

 

According to a recent article in Forbes, energy drinks are the largest growing segment in the beverage industry.  Most of this growth can be attributed to popularity with teens and preteens.  Despite a warning label for consumers under 18, the beverages are marketed via sponsorship of sporting events and other campaigns which create a caffeinated buzz among kids.

 

Energy drinks have been on the front page since the parents of 14-year old Maryland teen Anais Fournier have sued Monster Beverage after their daughter died from a heart attack caused by caffeine toxicity after drinking just two cans of the beverage.

 

Last week, my 12-year old daughter attended a bar mitzvah where she said kids were drinking two or three cans of Red Bull.  While bartenders wouldn't serve a 12 or 13-year old beer or a cocktail, they seem to have no problem serving the equivalent of five cans of Diet Coke to tweens or teens.

 

Are energy drinks safe for kids? 

 

According to The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (February 2011), "pediatric healthcare providers need to be aware of energy drink consumption by children, adolescents, and young adults and the potential dangers caused by inappropriate use."  The Journal recommends physicians screen for use, especially in athletes, children with high-risk behavior and with certain health conditions including diabetes, hypertension, ADHD, cardiac problems, anxiety, poor nutrition and sleep disturbances.  Unless longterm studies prove energy drinks are safe for children and adolescents, the Academy advocates regulation similar to tobacco, alcohol, and prescription medications.

 

How are energy drink manufacturers given the green light to include mega-doses of caffeine and how are the manufacturers able to evade including caffeine content in labeling? 

 

Since energy drinks have been on the shelves and in mini-mart refrigerator cases, the FDA has allowed manufacturers to sell as supplements rather than foods, a category that requires less regulation with regards to caffeine content and labeling. For reference, one 16-oz. can of Diet Coke contains approximately 45 g of caffeine.  A 24-oz. can of Monster contains 240 mg of caffeine. 

 

A recent NY Times article states FDA officials did not find enough evidence about caffeine's safety to prompt further action.  The burden of proof is left to the energy drink manufacturers who are motivated to sell more drinks. 

 

How much caffeine is safe for healthy adults?  Many physicians and medical professionals suggest no more than 300 mg per day or the equivalent of  three 'short" coffees.  How much caffeine is safe for children or adolescents?  The verdict is still out.

 

Most parents wouldn't dream of giving a 12-year old four No-Doz tablets chased by a double espresso.  Yet, post-soccer game or at a party, kids can be found chugging 240 mg or more of caffeine in an energy beverage.

 

Just say no!

GMO Foods: Getting Them Off Your Plate and Out of Your Shopping Cart

In my last blog, I shared the details of how crops from genetically modified seeds have grown to play such a significant part of our food supply.  In less than two weeks, California voters will go to the polls to decide the outcome of Prop 37. Should food processing companies be required to label foods containing ingredients derived from genetically modified seeds?  Do we have the right to know what we feed our families?

As I write this blog, I am listening to a No on Prop 37 ad paid for by the Council for Biotechnology Information whose members include Monsanto, Dupont and other GMO companies, warn voters of  "millions of government dollars wasted" and rising prices at the cart if GMO foods are labeled.  Both claims have been invalidated by third parties including Emory law professor Joanna Shepherd-Bailey who has testified before the US House of Representatives.

Companies change labels all the time to reflect New and Improved. It's doubtful the cents per person will be passed on by the grocery companies who will aim to keep customers buying GMO products. 

If California voters believe Monsanto or if you live in a state where labeling is not required, how can you avoid these bioengineered foods that have never been safety-tested before being released into our environment and in our grocery carts?

1. Purchase Organic-Certified foods which may not intentionally use GMO-derived ingredients.

2. Look for the "Non-GMO Project" label, third-party verified non-GMO foods.

3. Download the "Non-GMO Shopping Guide" or app on your i Phone or smart phone.

4. Avoid Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), an artificial sweetener in process of being rebranded as "AminoSweet," a genetically modified sweetener.

5. Be aware of the following foods, ingredients or derivatives.

Corn: Conventional corn, derivatives including high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, maltodextrin, corn meal.  Conventional popcorn is not currently a GMO crop.

Soy: Non-organic soy, tofu, soy sauce, soy derivatives including soy flour, soy protein, soy lechitin, texturized vegetable protein.

Oils: Cottonseed, corn, canola oil.

Sugar Beets: Non-cane sugar, processed from Roundup Ready sugar beets.

Hawaiian and Chinese Papaya

Some conventional zucchini and crookneck squash

6. Focus your diet on the outside aisles.  Fill your cart with organic fruits and vegetables.  Avoid processed foods.  According to reknowned journalist and author Michael Pollan, over 45,000 foods containing corn or corn derivatives line the grocery shelves.

7. Buy only non rbST or organic dairy.  Bovine growth hormone or rbST has been connected with rising rates of breast and prostate cancer as well as tumors, infertility and other significant problems in lab animals 

8. Purchase organic and free-range poultry, beef, pork and dairy products.  Livestock fed GMO feed may pass on the DNA and genetic manipulations to those who consume their meat and milk.

Avoiding GMO-derived groceries can be challenging, especially without labels.  But, as long as food companies play this dangerous game of polluting our food supply with GMO foods associated with a myriad of health problems, we will need to be responsible for our own education and health, a worthy goal for all of us.

GMOs: A Horror Story

What if a multinational biochem company started inserting foreign genes derived from bacteria or viruses into DNA and cloned these cells into new genetically modified organisms? What if that same company created entirely new plants, unfound in nature, resistant to the same company's weed killer Roundup, allowing farmers to use drastically increased amounts of that company's pesticides on their crops?  What if that "trusted" company had a long history of selling such toxins as DDT, PCBs, and Agent Orange?  What if former attorneys and officers in that company became stakeholders in government agencies and branches including the FDA, EPA and US Supreme Court?

What if the company acquired seed companies and licensed genetic modification technology to other large chemical companies?  What if by 2015, genetically modified crops were expected to dominate the market with new non-commodity GMOs introduced into our food supply?

What if 94% of conventional soy, 86 % of conventional canola (grapeseed) pressed into oil, 75 % of conventional corn and most sugar beet crops were grown from the company's GMO seeds?  What if no human clinical trials had ever been done to prove safety of these genetically altered crops in our food supply?  What if the only published independent study of the GMOs showed the transfer of the altered DNA into the intestinal lining of subjects, potentially creating super strains of antibiotic-resistant diseases?

What if the rates of allergies, autism, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other inflammation-related diseases have escalated since the introduction of genetically modified plants into our food supply?

What if after one week in 1999, the majority of European food manufacturers committed to non-use of GMOs?  What if forty countries worldwide, including Russia and China, required labeling of GMOs while our own FDA does not?

What if the same biotech company introduced a synthetic hormone that increased milk production in dairy cows along with mastitis, an increase of antibiotics found in milk, a 7% spike in ductile breast cancer and a 4% spike in prostate cancer?  What if the biotech company and a biotech lobbying group aimed to stop labeling in rBST dairy products because that might cause Americans to question its safety?  What if after consumers stopped buying milk and dairy products with bovine growth hormone, corporations including Walmart and Yoplait stopped buying dairy from farmers who used rBST?

What if voters in California had the opportunity to vote to require labeling of GMOs so consumers could make an educated choice when grocery shopping for their families?  What if the biotech company, grocers' lobbying group and huge food corporations donated millions of dollars to fight consumer knowledge and awareness?  What if ads inflated the costs of labeling to consumers just to sell more seeds and control the food supply?

This sounds like a political thriller but it's the story of Monsanto. 

If you are a California voter, support labeling of GMO foods by voting for Prop 37. 

In the meantime, purchase organic foods which cannot be derived from GMOs.  Avoid conventional corn and soy as well as any derivatives including oil, high fructose corn syrup, guar gum, texturized vegetable protein. Exchange corn, soy, vegetable and canola oil for olive oil.  Purchase pure cane sugar instead of sugar made from sugar beets. 

In my next few blogs, I will provide links to non-GMO grocery shopping lists and apps and more information on GMOs.

We deserve to know what we feed ourselves and our families.  We need to be educated consumers and eaters.

Clean Your Plate

Clean Your Plate!

For many of us, this mere comment brings us back to the childhood dinner table. Maybe you were the kid who shoved the peas under the placemat or furtively tossed a slice of steak to the family dog. Or maybe your experience was more like mine. "Do you think you really need to eat that?"

Food is more than calories, fat grams, fiber, vitamins, minerals. It's your mom's apple pie, grandma's kasha varnishkes, the lasagna your friend always brings to potlucks. It's a slice of pizza or bag of chestnuts eaten on a New York street. A salad and gossip shared with a friend or guacamole and chips and a margarita with rocks, salt enjoyed at an after work happy hour. It's a Thanksgiving table groaning with an 18-pound turkey and all the fixings. It's rolling out cookie dough and decorating Christmas cookies with your kids. It's a chef's famed recipe enjoyed at a candlelight dinner with a handsome first date or to celebrate an anniversary. It's french fries at the beach or macaroons eaten on the Champs Elysees.

Food is also nourishment. Finding the way of eating that brings you more energy and wellness. As Hippocrates said thousands of years ago, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food." When we fill our bodies and satiate our appetites with clean, unprocessed food, we experience increased energy and vitality. We look and feel better.

I'm glad you're joining me on this blog journey. Food, like life, is about balance. I'm not going to suggest some quick fix bikini diet where you're toting celery sticks in ziplocks to a holiday party because you "can't eat the food." I'm going to give you information on integrating clean foods into your life and to your family table. I'll bring you tips on how to encourage kids or even significant others to make healthier choices, one step at a time. I'll show you how to navigate the grocery or health food store, the farmers market and a restaurant menu or two.

Newstands, bookstores, the Internet are all filled with confusing and contradictory messages about what we should eat. Eat more eggs. Don't eat eggs. Ditch the carbs. Count your fat grams. Join a diet program. I recently saw an ad advocating a feeding tube diet.

I'll help navigate you through this minefield of information so you can make healthy choices. And, of course, I'm a girl so I know you also want to know about how to look good in a bikini or turn heads in that cocktail dress!

And because I believe we can change the world one plate at a time, I'll bring you the latest news in nutrition, the environment as it relates to nutrition and food, and other global issues with my take on them.

Clean Your Plate! is a community of people who want to learn to make healthier food and lifestyle choices. I welcome comments and interaction. I want to know your challenges and victories. We are here to support each other!

So, Clean Your Plate!

Beth