On Friday, the newly reinvigorated FDA sent a letter to 30 beverage manufacturers, giving them one month to show that caffeine in alcoholic beverages is indeed safe for consumption.

“Today the FDA has listed caffeine only as an ingredient for use in soft drinks,” said Deputy Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. “The agency has not approved caffeine for use in alcoholic beverages.”

What started a decade ago with youngsters mixing red-bull into vodka at parties, has become a national “epidemic”. College students are now spared the mixing and can get caffeinated booz directly from one one bottle or can. The market for caffeinated alcoholic drinks is about 1% of the total beer industry, or about $1 billion.

What you need to know:

Some young people mistakenly believe that the caffeine will cancel the effect of the alcohol. In fact, they become alert drunks.

Studies have shown that mixing alcohol, a depressant, and caffeine, a stimulant, can cause people to feel less drunk than they actually are. As a result, simultaneously wired and inebriated college kids are more prone to accidents and over time, alcoholism.

Last year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer watchdog organization, warned both MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch of its intent to sue them over the caffeination of alcoholic beverages. Several state attorneys had also sent inquiries to manufacturers.

Those actions helped Anheuser-Busch decide to take caffeine and other unapproved additives out of its two alcoholic energy drinks, Bud Extra and Tilt in June 2008. In December 2008, Miller Coors, the giant beer conglomerate, cut the caffeine out of its popular Sparks beverage.

Now that the FDA is weighing in on the issue, hopefully the rest of the industry will follow suit. Unfortunately, collegiate party animals will still be left with the original option of mixing energy drinks and alcohol, a choice that hopefully less of them will make.

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The December Edition of Consumer Reports, already out, is bringing BPA, a controversial chemical, back to the headlines. The non-profit publisher, Consumers Union, tested various canned foods for BPA and found alarmingly high values in daily staples such as tuna, beans and soups. You can read more about it here.

This is a good opportunity to get reacquainted with a chemical we  all consume in some form, whether we know it, like it, or not.

What you need to know:
1. Bisphenol-A  is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container or a can.

2. The chemical has been sold since the 1940’s and starting in the 1960’s has been lining the insides of cans in order to extend shelf life.

3. 7 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually, for use in food packaging, PVC water pipes, electronics, and more.

4. In 2008, more than 22 billion cans for food and more than 100 billion cans for beer and soft drinks were produced with BPA.

5. BPA behaves like the hormone estrogen once it enters the body and disturbs the normal working of certain genes. Estrogen mimicking chemicals like BPA are potentially harmful even at very low doses, such as those found in plastic bottles and cans.

6. Toxicity questions have been around for decades, raising safety issue, especially for babies who ingest a proportionally larger amount due to their small size. Potential problems include hyperactivity, learning disabilities, brain damage, and immune deficiencies.

7. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated that people consume 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight every day over the course of a lifetime. Over 40 studies have found adverse health effects in rats given less than one hundredth of that amount!

8. Over 200 animal studies that have linked BPA consumption in tiny amounts to a host of reproductive problems, brain damage, immune deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, and behavioral oddities like hyperactivity, learning deficits and reduced maternal willingness to nurse offspring.

9. In 2008, Canada added BPA to its list of toxic substances and plans are to ban BPA from all baby bottles.

10. The FDA has zigzagged on BPA safety. In August 2008 it deemed BPA safe. However, in December 2008, the FDA’s own advisory board accused the FDA of weighing 2 industry-backed studies much more heavily than the hundreds of other independent studies. The FDA’s excuse: all the other studies did not meet the FDA’s guidelines for determining safety for human consumption, did not provide raw data, and a host of other “reasons”.

11. In March 2009, six manufacturers announced that they would voluntarily stop manufacturing bottles with BPA. Playtex Products, Gerber, Evenflo, Avent America, Dr. Brown and Disney First Years decided to so in order to preempt legal action being considered at the time by several state attorney generals.

12. In May 2009, Chicago became the first city to ban sales of baby bottles and sippy cups with BPA. Denmark became the first European country to do the same.

13. Many other European countries conducted reviews in the past 2 years but decided to maintain BPA’s safe status for now.

14. If you think you’re safe, 93% of the population has BPA in their bodies, according to urine sampling conducted by the Center for Disease Control, CDC.

15. There’s hope – Many Japanese manufacturers voluntarily stopped using BPA in 1997. In a 2003 study, BPA levels in people’s urine had dropped by 50%.

What to do at the supermarket:
Here are some tips on how to reduce your family’s  BPA intake:
1. if you have a baby or toddler, purchase BPA free plastic bottles.
2. If microwaving formula, do so in a glass bottle.
3. Opt for fresh or frozen products less than canned.
4. Drink tap water instead of bottled water

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Each year, 18,000 new products are introduced to supermarkets across the country.

With temperatures rising and summer almost here, beverage manufacturers are in high gear, promoting their new drinks. (Our local waterworks are not so industrious. Same old tap water, again.)

So we weren’t surprised when, a few weeks ago, we got an email from juice company R.W. Knudsen informing us of a new product line launching this month called Sparkling Essence.

We had our loyal reader Brook from Eugene, Oregon try out the drinks with his family and friends. In the meantime we analyzed the nutrition info.

Click on to learn what Brook had to say,  what his mother-in-law thought, and how this drink stacks up nutritionally… Read more…

flickr photo: Symic

Miller Coors, the giant beer conglomerate, announced last week that it will cut the caffeine out of its popular Sparks alcoholic beverage:

MillerCoors today said it has reached an agreement with a coalition of state attorneys general to voluntarily reformulate Sparks to remove caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng from the product. The brewer also agreed not to produce caffeinated alcohol beverages in the future.

Read MillerCoors Press Release

The “voluntary” move is of course a preemptive decision designed to stop further investigation by over 25 state attorney generals who have

criticized the brewing company for its Sparks beverages, saying high caffeine levels in those high-alcohol brews can mask intoxication.

Energy-alcohol drinks “look and taste like popular non-alcoholic energy drinks,” Maine Atty. Gen. Steve Rowe said in a press release. “They’re popular with young people who wrongly believe that the stimulating effects of caffeine will counteract the intoxicating effects of alcohol.”

The attorneys general have also slammed MillerCoors for aggressive Sparks marketing campaigns that they say target youth.

Read the entire Chicago Tribune article…

What you need to know:

Energy drinks such as Red Bull have been mixed by drinkers with alcohol for almost as long as Red Bull has been around, as a means to “party on” while still getting “buzzed”. The Sparks drink took it one step further and saved consumers the chore of mixing. And by consumers, we mean college campus youth. However, studies have shown that mixing alcohol, a depressant, and caffeine, a stimulant, can cause people to feel less drunk than they actually are. As a result, these wired, inebriated youngsters are more prone to accidents and over time, alcoholism.

Earlier this year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer watchdog organization, warned both MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch of its intent to sue them over the caffeination of alcoholic beverages. This helped Anheuser-Busch decide to take caffeine and other unapproved additives out of its two alcoholic energy drinks, Bud Extra and Tilt in June 2008.

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Ever wonder how many calories you’re chugging down, drinking that can of Bud? And what is the exact serving size of the Pinot Noir you’re having with your tofu burger?

Today,  you’ll have to ask a dietitian or go online, because this information is not available on the can or bottle. However, a petition by several consumer groups may be changing that. From the International Business Times:

the organizations reported overwhelming public support for a standardized “Alcohol Facts” panel on all beer, wine and distilled spirits products listing such basic information as the serving size, calories per serving, alcohol content per serving, and the definition of a “standard drink.” Additionally, the petition sought the inclusion of the Dietary Guidelines’ definition of moderate, or low-risk, alcohol consumption on product labels. Today, alcoholic beverages are the only major category of consumable products not required to carry label information summarizing these basic characteristics of the product.

Read more…

What you need to know:

Alcohol is not under the jurisdiction of the FDA or USDA. Instead it is regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) which is part of the US Treasury Department. It’s comforting to know the government is taking tax revenue collection seriously, but it would also be great to provide the taxpayer with minimal information about the product being purchased or consumed.

In the meantime you can download a one pager with sample values here [PDF]. Thanks to the Consumer Federation of America.

By the way, beer has 150-200 calories. Light beer has approximately 100 calories.

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