And Old Friends Must ‘Face’ Facts

Not long ago, I succumbed to the Facebook phenomenon: I’m now an official Facebooker.

If you’re at all familiar with the social networking site, then you know there’s an updatable feature that allows a user to let his or her friends know what they’re doing or thinking at that present moment. Most of the time, these “updates” of long lost friends are hardly original or noteworthy, most of them saying they’re “at work,” or “relaxing” or “watching television.”

Occasionally, though, a friend’s status update will catch my eye and draw my ire.

Take a recent status update for a friend of mine as an example. Here’s what it said: “Rich is wondering if it is a good or bad thing that he looks forward to his afternoon Sugar-free Red Bull everyday.”

You can imagine my dismay when I read this, and as tempted as I was to type up a tirade about energy drinks’ enervating health effects, I begrudgingly held back. Barely.

Something even more disturbing came when I found out – again, through Facebook – that a friend I’ve known since kindergarten now works for Red Bull in Colorado.

Doesn’t say much for my for my friends of yesteryear, does it?

I love my friends, and don’t want to sound critical, but they’re really traipsing through some serious health landmines by cozying up to Red Bull, through work or through sustenance. Unfortunately, they’re not alone, as people whose days aren’t full without a Red Bull will eventually – if they haven’t already – be hit hard by these ticking time bombs.

I call them “ticking time bombs” because Red Bulls provide quick shots of energy that increase the heart rapidly, but the energy effects are short-term with long-term side effects that explode in the form of diagnosed hypertension, insomnia, heart palpitations and – eventually – a diminished energy supply.

They can also lead to a diminished supply of teeth. A 2007 study published in the journal General Dentistry indicated that sports and energy drinks’ pH levels are such that they are the most devastating drinks for the teeth, promoting decay and erosion. What’s more, the damage is oftentimes irreversible!

The negative health effects associated with energy drinks are rampant and span the globe. Reports from Ghana in Western Africa suggest that the country’s high rate of diabetes may be linked to the country’s equally high consumption rate of energy drinks (according to researchers from the country’s Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital).

With companies of every ilk liquidating at the drop of hat these days, energy drink companies like Red Bull aren’t going anywhere – not when nearly 1.5 billion Red Bulls are being sold by the year (in the U.S. alone)!

Not that I want my old friends to lose their jobs, or their mid-day libations, but I think they’d both find new forms of refreshment (and employment) if they were more attuned to its enervating effects. I have no doubt they’ll come to this realization soon. Let’s just hope my Facebook friends face the facts frankly…before it’s too late!