Who Cares When It Tastes Good?

I’m not one of those people who read nutritional labels to check if it has poisonous artificial sweetners, and the effects. However, following my post on my coffee consumption, I did take a quick look at the stats of some of the bottles and cans that littter my litter can. Somehow. So anyways, a rundown of the danger I’ve put myself in over the year or so:

Demon, 440mL a can. Max Recommended intake is 1 can daily.
Per 100mL there is:

• 192kJ of Energy
•  0.3863g of Protein
• Fat, both Total and Saturated, is simply listed as “less than 1g”
• 10.9g of Carbohydrates; 10.8g of which is sugars.
• Sodium, like Fat, is listed only as “less than 5mg”
• 32mg of Caffeine
• 7.8mg of Niacin
• 2.0mg of Vitamin B6
• 2.0ug of Vitamin B12
• 2.0mg of Pantothenic Acid
• 400mg of Taurine
• 235mg of Glucuronolactone
• 19mg of Inositol

Before I continue onwards with the listing, some things here confuse me – mainly the vagueness of Fat and Sodium. Why is it for these two they assure us they are at such a low level (less than a gram) that we need not worry about specifics, but they do inform us later on that there is exactly 2micrograms of Vitamin 12, or 0.000002 grams. Something smells off, and I wonder what the last 7 are, bar Taurine.

Niacin is actually Vitamin B3, and is plays a vital role in metabolism.
Vitamin B6, or Pyridoxal phosphate, is helpful for people with autism, but does little to people who are well.
Vitamin B12 is known to cause Diarrhea. D:
Pantothenic Acid is actually Vitamin B5, and has be known to help acne.
Glucuronolactone is a naturally occuring detoxicant, and it not only reduces fatigue but also provides a sense of well-being.
Inositol intake has shown promising results for people suffering from problems such as bulimia, panic disorder and bipolar depression (none of which I suffer).

Now, moving onto Redbull. 250mL bottle/can. Max Recommended intake is 2 cans/bottles a day.
Per 100mL there is:

•  192kJ of Energy
• ZERO grams of Protein and Fat (both total and saturated) WTF?
• 11.3g of Carbohydrate, 10.7g of which are sugars
• 800mg of Sodium
• 400mg of Taurine
• 240mg of Glucuronolactone
• 32mg of Caffeine
• 20mg of Inositol
• 8mg of Niacinamide (a nicer version of Niacin)
• 2mg of Pantothenic Acid
• 2mg of Vitamin B6
• 2ug of Vitamin B12

Okay, quick question Red Bull: if there is no Protein or Fats in this product, why the hell list them? At least in Demon they acknowledge they’re there.

Lastly, Black V. The bottle is 350mL, and the Max Recommended intake is a perplexing 1.5 Bottles daily.
100mL of the stuff gives you:

• 192kJ of Energy (who doesn’t these days)
• Again Zero grams of Protein and Fat.
• 10.4g of Carbs, 10.4g of which is sugars.
• 110mg of Sodium
• 120mg of V’s selling point and as the bottle informs me is it’s “Wooh-hoo”, Guarana Extract
• 31mg of Caffeine
• 0.49mg of Vitamin B2
• 2.9mg of B3
• 0.46mg of B6
• 0.57ug of B12
• 0.7mg of Pantothenic Acid
• 400mg of Taurine
• 25mg of Glucuronolactone
• 20mg of Inositol

There it is. With the exception of V which has Guarana, by looking at all these stats, give or take a few mg shifted around, it is essentially the same crap. The only difference really is in the flavourings, so if you have to drink these things find the cheapest one and forget all the others. So buy a case of Demon and a case of toilet paper.

Want Some Coffee With Your Sugar?

I’ve begun to notice something in my drinking habits, not of the alcoholic kind, but of the caffeinated kind. Before I elaborate on this I first need to fill you in with the back story.

I, like many of fellow man, first had caffeine from Coca-Cola. It was sugary, it fizzed and like the little 4 year-old I was I found this entertaining to max. As I grew older I grew to have a sort of addiction to it, it was my drink of choice, however it was very hard to get hold of as I couldn’t afford the $3 for a bottle. This however changed in Year 7 when I discovered that at the Woolworths across the street from FDMC was selling 1 Litre bottles of budget cola for $1. It wasn’t as fine and precise as the actual Coca-Cola but it filled in quite comfortably. Every lunchtime someone would have bought some at the Tuckshop or someone in the morning had one, always prepared to share a “Maori cup” of the stuff.

I have never been a fan of tea, but I think this previous exposure in my early years lead me to be a coffee-only person. I remember my first cup of coffee, a short black bought for me by a 49-year old retired policeman, Mike, who was with me and two others in Mcfarlenes trying to write our NaNoWriMo novels in November 2006. I fell in love instantly (With the coffee not Mike you douche), and from then on I would always have it black, moving eventually onto long black, with one sugar.

It’s also at this time I discovered energy drinks, and this is where the weird thing comes in – as I have progressed through the energy drinks, moving onto harder and stronger things (I started with Lift+, then went onto V, then V Black and now, Demon), my normal coffee consumption has moved onto weaker and weaker stuff. I found myself the other day having a Cinnamon Chai Latte. I suppose it’s just my body trying to balance out the consumption levels but I still think it’s weird.