Attention coffee lovers: don’t worry, your need for caffeine isn’t your fault. A team of esteemed biological scientists recently published a study in PLoS Genetics that links caffeine addiction to one’s genetic makeup. The study found that people who carry a specific version of two genes involved with the breakdown of chemicals in the liver, (CYP1A2 and AHR,) will crave and consume more caffeine than those who do not posses the genes. (more)
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski is on an endless crusade against the food industry for the ingredients it uses in products, a cause she is not shy about promoting during her live morning broadcast co-hosted with Joe Scarborough. (more)
Next time you have a high-pressure meeting at work, keep an eye on what goes into your colleagues’ cups. (more)
In New York State, 18-year-olds need to show ID to buy cigarettes, get married, and vote. Now one lawmaker wants to make them show ID to purchase … energy drinks. (more)
Teenage deaths caused by drug and alcohol abuse are bound to be covered by local papers, and usually ignored by the national media, unless that notoriously fruity beverage Four Loko is somehow involved. (more)
This Sunday, December 5, many people will raise their glasses and celebrate Repeal Day — the anniversary of the end of Prohibition, a day when Americans regained a measure of individual freedom. However, some recent actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggest that aspects of Prohibition linger on nearly 80 years after the passage of the 21st Amendment. As a result, consumers are witnessing a dwindling variety of products and entrepreneurs are seeing their dreams and businesses washed down the drain. (more)
In a crowded Washington DC bar one recent Friday night, a patron carrying a nefarious-looking black plastic bag pushes his way past bearded hipsters and preppy Capitol Hill staffers, stopping at a table packed with weekend revelers. (more)
The nanny state has won again. Adult beverages containing caffeine and alcohol have come under increasing attack as people drinking underage, overdrinking, or otherwise abusing the product have suffered the obvious consequences. Certainly this nasty little endgame is cause for concern. But blaming a product, and once again, ignoring the personal responsibility aspect, is the latest example of counterproductive government overreach. (more)
Since Americans have been mixing rum with caffeinated cola beverages for over a century, and in recent years, voraciously downing Red Bull vodkas, you’d think the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in breathlessly moving to ban Four Loko and other alcoholic energy drinks this week, would have distinguished the two. (more)
The company that produces the Four Loko beverage said it will remove the caffeine and two other ingredients from its products after facing a cascade of criticism and regulatory scrutiny for producing the energy drinks, which combine high levels of the stimulant with alcohol. (more)
A year after it began reviewing whether energy drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine are safe or legal, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take a stand on the drinks as soon as Wednesday, according to law enforcement officials in several states. (more)
The Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission yesterday moved to restrict sales of caffeine-loaded alcoholic drinks such as Four Loko, which has been blamed for deaths and serious illness and is already banned in four states. (more)
The state Liquor Control Board on Wednesday approved an emergency ban of caffeinated alcohol drinks, the type of beverage that sickened nine Central Washington University students last month during an off-campus party. (more)
After nearly a dozen party-going students were hospitalized in Washington state and authorities put some of the blame on a drink that mixes alcohol with caffeine, a popular version of the beverage called Four Loko has taken a lot of heat. But they are not the only drink that’s under scrutiny. (more)
A highly caffeinated, but legal alcoholic drink was responsible for sickening dozens and sent nine Central Washington students to the hospital, prompting initial police fears that the party-goers had been drugged, police said today. (more)
Three beers, a can of Red Bull and a large espresso: no big deal, many college students might say. Three beers, a can of Red Bull and a large espresso times three or four, and they still might tell you they’re not intoxicated. (more)
Freedom might cost a buck-o-five, but you need a little more to look P-I-M-P at a Tea Party rally. (more)
Most parents wouldn’t want their children or teens drinking several cups of coffee a day, much less in one sitting, but energy drinks that are now popular with young Utahns often contain several times the caffeine found in a standard cup of Joe. (more)
Today, we’re announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before. (more)
I was watching one of those vacuous cable shows this last weekend, the kind the media foist on the populace as cutting-edge informative journalism. You know them: everyone on the panel carefully reflective and poised, silly close-up grins at the introduction, panelists projecting those rehearsed almost constipated expressions that are meant to convince viewers that they are not really constipated, but deeply concerned. And the interaction is always accompanied with mild, challenging, but polite debate; followed by gratuitous moments of spontaneous levity, usually initiated by the host to ease the seriousness of the segment’s world-shattering discourse. And all of this is carefully choreographed in the studio: images of D.C.’s monuments floating and flying dramatically across the screen in sparkling 3D, while pulsating news-sounding music echoes the start or finish of each segment, providing a necessary cue for viewers and panelists alike to answer nature’s call or grab a snack before the next “riveting” sequence resumes. (more)
