Posted on 09/06/2007 7:41:48 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
At bars across the country, people are regularly demanding a vodka or Jagermeister mixed with Red Bull.
Now some have the option of switching to alcohol already infused with energy.
Some do it for the taste, others for the jolt of energy. But experts say the trendy cocktails could be harmful, giving drinkers a false sense of alertness that could lead to disaster.
More than two dozen attorneys general across the nation recently announced that alcohol and energy drinks don't mix, and asked the federal government to take another look at what is in the drinks and how they are being marketed.
Lona Sandon, a registered dietitian and assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, agrees that the drinks are dangerous.
"All it does is make a wide-awake drunk," she said. "The person might also falsely believe they can drink more because they don't feel tired and woozy -- putting themselves and others at a greater risk."
Heightened demand
Bars everywhere are scrambling to keep Red Bull, Monster and other energy drinks on their shelves as mixers. To meet the demand, Anheuser-Busch and other alcohol manufacturers are now offering liquor and beer infused with caffeine and taurine -- ingredients of most energy drinks.
Anheuser-Busch markets Tilt, Miller Brewing Co. markets Sparks, and Charge Beverages markets Liquid Charge and Liquid Core. There's also the high-end spirit V2 vodka, which has energy-boosting ingredients.
"People want the energy," said V2 spokeswoman Diane Shader Smith.
The attorneys general say the packaging does not mention the potentially harmful consequences of mixing caffeine and other stimulants with alcohol, which is a depressant. They also contend that some of the less-expensive products are packaged to look like nonalcoholic energy drinks and are aimed at underage consumers.
In their letter to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the attorneys general singled out Miller Brewing Co., Anheuser-Busch and Charge Beverages as makers of the most popular products aimed at minors.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has not joined the campaign.
"Alcoholic energy drinks mimic nonalcoholic energy beverages that are very popular with youth," a news release from Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers states.
From 2003 to 2006, sales of Miller's energy brand Sparks more than doubled to 66,570,000 pints, according to a company news release.
A matter of taste
Mixing alcohol and energizing ingredients is not new -- rum and Coke and Kahlua have been favorites for generations.
V2 President James Goldstein said V2 is not marketed to minors but to sophisticated adults because it is packaged as a super-premium vodka.
"Spirits are meticulously reviewed by the government," he said. "The liquor industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries. I don't think the government would put something on the market that they consider unhealthy for people to consume."
The Pour House in Fort Worth has been stocking Red Bull as a mixer for years and it sells well, general manager David Bailey said. But his clientele has not yet developed a taste for Bud Extra, he said.
At 8.0 Bar in Fort Worth, energy cocktails have been enormously popular during the past 18 months, said general manager Curt Voirin. The bar does not carry the pre-mixed liquor but is keeping an eye on demand, Voirin said.
"I think the effects of the energy drink are psychosomatic," Voirin said. "It's trendy, which is important to kids ... but it's double-edged. You have a depressant on one end and a stimulant on the other. I'm not sure of the effect that could have on the body."
All it does is make a wide-awake drunk.
Energizing ingredients
Caffeine: A stimulant found in coffee, chocolate and tea. It excites the central nervous system and, in the right amounts, releases adrenaline and can enhance heart function.
Taurine: One of the most abundant amino acids in the body, it is thought to help regulate heartbeat, maintain cell membranes and affect the release of neurotransmitters in the brain.
Ginseng: A perennial herb believed to have many medicinal qualities, including as a stimulant.
Guarana: An herb from the Amazon rain forest with a long history of use as a stimulant in beverages. It has also been used to treat arthritis, diarrhea and headaches.
Source: Healthlibrary.com
Nonalcoholic energy drinks
Monster
Rockstar
Red Bull
No Name (formerly marketed as Cocaine)
Amp
Pink
Omega
Rush!
Alcoholic energy drinks
Sparks
Tilt
Bud Extra
V2 vodka
Liquid Charge
Liquid Core
FReegards, TigersEye
Don’t worry about it.
I’m gonna be sorry when this Larry Craig stuff dies down. It may be too easy but its too much fun.
Ungh!
but i guess some people need to be told what to do every second of the day.
Sadly, this guy appears to be trying to leverage the popular misconception that "if it's not illegal, it must be okay [read: endorsed]". I wonder how many people pickle their liver each year thinking this to be true.
i have had V2 vodka before. it's not the liquid crack that is red-bull. but if i have 2 V2 drinks, i switch to something else. or (GASP!) i intermix them with non-alcoholic drinks. the horror! but i do love to tie one on from time to time.
If you sit there drinking nothing but coffee for a couple of hours you’ll burn off a couple of drinks worth of the alcohol you drank before and while your BAC will still be the same as if you had switched to plain water the caffeine will actually counteract some of the depressant effect of the alcohol and be slightly less impaired than if you had just switched to plain water. I bet this would bear out in a controlled experiment where we took two control groups, had them all drink the same amount of alcohol and then had one group switch to water and the other to coffee. Stimulants do help counteract some of the impairment caused by depressants.
I stipulated that caffeine will counteract some of the drowsiness caused by alchohol, but I wouldn’t want to count on the stimulant effect to save my butt if I were driving drunk (or after being up for 24 hours for that matter).
That is a statement of fact, no doubt about it. I don’t think anyone disagrees.
Reminds me of the old Steven Wright standup comedy line about how he took amphetimines and Quailudes(sp)at the same time just to let them battle it out and see who would win.
OK, I guess we have a dissenter. What the heck do I know?
The biggest stimulant is the adrenaline that gets flowing if you are ever pulled over after having a few beers.
It happened to me once in 1992. Once you see flashing lights behind you, the adrenaline kick is the equivalent of stabbing someone in the heart with a needle full of adrenaline.
That’s why I don’t understand how anybody ever fails a field sobriety test. You have to be in really bad shape.
At that point I was so petrified and alert I could have walked a straight line on my hands and recited the Chinese alphabet backwards and forwards.
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