Alcohol and caffeine: FDA fatheads strike again!

Is this really the FDA's biggest concern?

Alcohol and caffeine: FDA fatheads strike again! With all the serious health issues facing the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has come through with another in a long line of eyebrow raising and perplexing rulings, sending a letter to a group of producers of alcohol-infused-energy-drinks questioning whether the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe or even legal.

Why is the ruling or inquiry so perplexing? The timing. There have been massive shortages of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine, which many attribute to the slowness of the FDA to approve the vaccines. And now that vaccines have been approved, many are questioning their safety. Others are wondering if the FDA shares responsibility with the states for Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup being distributed the vaccine even before hospitals.

This continues a disturbing trend of the agency appearing to be more committed to the bottom lines of big business than they are to the health of American citizens. This is the agency that declared High Fructose Corn Syrup to be "natural" and was accused of twiddling its thumbs when an EPA investigator discovered mercury contamination at some plants that produced HFCS.

Others point to the FDA's own EAFUS (Everything Added to Food in the United States) as evidence that the agency seems to have its priorities in serious disarray.  EAFUS now contains over 3000 chemicals and additives now approved for use by the FDA. Compare this with 200 in 1958, when the agency began acitvely monitoring additives. In 1958, the US was one of the fittest and healthiest nations on the planet, despite the fact that smoking was rampant. Obesity incidence was well below 5% of the adult population. Now we have 3000 additives, and more than one third of all adults in the US are now considered to be medically obese. Another third is considered to be overweight, but not yet obese.

Among the additives listed in EAFUS are more than 700 which are categorized as EAF, which means "There is reported use of the substance, but it has not yet been assigned for toxicology literature search."

Critics point out that the FDA should be demanding toxicology research before an additive is allowed to be put into the food supply. More damning, still, is when an additive has been determined to be bad by the rest of the world and our own FDA seems not to notice. Azodicarbonamide is one such additive. It is banned throughout much of the world not only as an additive, but in food packaging, with very serious penalties for its use. It's primary use is as an additive to plastic.

What is the FDA's take on Azo? Their EAFUS database categorizes the chemical as NIL, which means "Although listed as added to food, there is no current reported use of the substance, and, therefore, although toxicology information may be available in PAFA, it is not beng updated."

Azodicarbonamide is in ALMOST ALL commercial bread in the United States.

How can the agency that is charged with protecting the food supply not know about an ingredient that is used in more than 95% of commercial bread in America. Do they even care when other countries ban chemicals because of the danger to human health?

Drinking Alcohol, or Ethanol, and caffeine, however, are everywhere in world culture. Alcohol is not only in beverages, but in food products, medicines, and even mouthwashes. Humans have been drinking alchohol for thousands of years. It is pretty safe to say that people know what alcohol does. It is the thing that makes it so popular.

Caffeine is also very popular. It is in coffee and tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, many over the counter medications, diet pills, etc. It is a stimulant and people consume it for that property because they like the effect. It is also safe to say that people know what caffeine does.

The combination of alcohol and caffeine is not new. Rum and Coke has long been one of the most popular mixed drinks in the United States. The mixture of Red Bull and vodka is now one of the most popular mixed drinks at many clubs. Irish coffee, which combines fresh brewed coffee with Irish whiskey and cream, is also popular, as is adding Irish Cream to coffee. Sunday brunch for many people includes both coffee and a bloody mary. It is pretty safe to conclude that if the consumption of alcohol and caffeine at the same time posed a serious risk, people would have figured it out by now, even without the insight of the FDA.

The FDA took the step after a number of state attorneys general caved in to pressure from the anti-alcohol Marin Institute. The basis for the pressure is the idea that alcohol consumption is "way up" even though federal statistics prove otherwise.  The reality is that young adults are the ones who drink these alcohol infused energy drinks, and that is the problem for these folks. They stress the fact that some of the alcohol energy drinks contain 10% alcohol, completely glossing over the fact that the product may contain only 2 ounces. That means that one would have to drink five to ten of the energy shots to get a full 2 ounce shot of ethanol. The amount of alcohol in these products is no more than might be found in some common cold medications.

The Marin Institute works in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health's Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention, which has a history of being caught using taxpayer money to lobby congress to further a "prohibition-style" agenda. All this is being done despite the relatively static level of alcohol consumption in the United States. The NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has data on alcohol consumption going back more than 150 years.

• In 1860, consumption of alcohol per person was 2.53 gallons of ethanol per year.
• From 1906-1910, consumption was 2.6 gallons per year.
• 1980 saw per person consumption at 2.76 gallons of ethanol.
• The most recent year for data was 2007, with 2.31 gallons per person

This data obviously shows that alcohol consumption has not taken a recent or unprecented jump upward. Despite this, the media is awash in stories about college age drinking. Anyone who attended college 25 years or so ago knows that drinking has always been a college issue.

The point of this article is NOT to promote the consumption of alcohol or caffeine The point is to show that issues such as a nationwide obesity epidemic, and flu pandemics, corruption of the food supply and medications that seem to have worse side effects than the conditions they are supposed to address, and a myriad of other outrages should be the issues that the FDA is focused on.

The FDA likes to claim that they are massively underfunded. But it seems to many critics that the FDA wastes time, people and resources on some dumb things, while the things that are really important fall by the wayside. Like a little kid who blows his whole allowance on candy, the FDA seems to have their priorities all screwed up. They need to budget more wisely before asking for more.

PHOTO NOTES: All photos courtesy of USA.gov

 For more info: It's your body. It's your life. It's your health. Only you can watch out for what you expose your body to. Counting on the FDA or the government to protect you is not a wise choice. Be informed.