On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to four companies, saying that the caffeine added to their malt beverages is an “unsafe food additive” and that further action, including seizure of their products, is possible under federal law.

In its investigation, the FDA concluded that caffeine was not “generally recognized as safe,” which is the technical benchmark for safe food additives.

The FDA is labeling the drinks unsafe because the combination of caffeine and alcohol may “mask some of the sensory cues individuals might normally rely on to determine their level of intoxication.” The Thursday afternoon press release from the regulatory body continues by stating that “peer-reviewed studies suggest that the consumption of beverages containing added caffeine and alcohol is associated with risky behaviors that may lead to hazardous and life-threatening situations.”

Our take:

We find it intriguing that the ruling of the FDA is based on behavior, not chemical safety. The language in the press release suggests that the agency is deeming the drinks unsafe not because they are inherently dangerous when consumed in moderation, but because people consistently use them in unsafe ways.

One can of Four Loko contains the same amount of caffeine as a tall Starbucks coffee and the same amount of alcohol as four beers. Clearly, when more than one can of Four Loko is consumed, this combination is dangerous.

But any substance, used excessively, can be problematic and dangerous—for example, alcohol. Does that mandate that alcohol itself be banned? Should people simply be informed of the risks of Four Loko—as they are for cigarettes—and allowed to carry on as they see fit?

We would also like to point out that, for better or for worse, drinking Four Loko is no different than mixing Red Bull and vodka, both of which are still freely available to anyone over 21.

Moving forward:

We believe that the FDA’s ruling sets an interesting precedent for policies surrounding the consumption of alcohol and energy drinks. Will vodka and Red Bull no longer be a legal combination for service in bars? And while we’re at it, what about rum and Coke?

We believe that Four Loko’s popularity spoke to a culture of binge drinking that will continue to pervade our college experience unless there is a significant culture shift. The problem does not lie with any one drink or combination of drinks; the problem is that we as a society have a desire to drink to the point of blacking out in the first place.

Alcohol-related incidents of dangerous behavior have increased in the past few years at Wash. U. and at college campuses across America. We think that it is foolish to deem this Four Loko’s fault. To ban Four Loko is not to ban the blackout, and calling such a ban effective avoids the real issue.

Josh Goldman | Student Life

Four Loko is noticeably absent from the shelves of Schnucks in Richmond Heights, MO. Prior to its recall by manufacturer Phusion Projects in response to an FDA review, Schnucks sold 14 cases of the popular malt liquor bevarage on Nov. 12.

Four Loko has noticeably disappeared from local shelves, after its manufacturer announced plans to remove caffeine from the alcoholic malt beverage in the wake of scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration.

“People have been asking about it quite a bit,” said Sean Cole, the liquor clerk at the Schnucks on Clayton Road in Richmond Heights, MO.

Four Loko’s manufacturer, Phusion Projects, issued a recall on the drink late Tuesday evening in anticipation of the results of an FDA review.

On Wednesday afternoon, the FDA sent warning letters to four companies, including Phusion Projects, saying that caffeine is an “unsafe food additive” to malt beverages, and that further action—including product seizures—is possible under federal law. The FDA’s action effectively bans manufacturers from mixing caffeine and alcohol.

In its investigation, the FDA concluded that caffeine was not considered “generally recognized as safe,” the technical benchmark for safety in food additives. The study cited concerns from experts who say that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is associated with risky behaviors that may lead to dangerous situations.

Students stocked up before the recall as talk of a ban stirred up Congress. According to Cole, the store sold 14 cases in a single day last Friday.

At Washington University, some students said they feel the ban is appropriate, given recent events—including an incident at Central Washington University where nine students ended up in the hospital after drinking Four Loko.

“I think the combination can definitely be dangerous, especially when you see all of this stuff in the news about teenagers having heart attacks and things like that—I definitely have heard of serious side effects,” senior John Andreae said.

Others, however, said they feel the ban is inappropriate.

“I think it was a wrong call,” junior Corey Donahue said. “I think they should have just put a warning label on it….I think as long as people are aware that it’s unsafe, they shouldn’t restrict people’s access to it.”

Andreae added that the ban won’t keep students from mixing caffeine and alcohol.

“It’s not that big of a deal because you can still make a caffeinated alcoholic beverage of your own. You can have it regardless—people drink vodka and Red Bull for the same reason,” he said.

Phusion Products plans to reformulate Four Loko without caffeine, guarana and taurine.

Bill Hogan | Chicago Tribune | MCT

The drink has become increasingly popular among young adults, and, as a result, it has led to recent hospitalizations among college consumers.

The drink contains 135 milligrams of caffeine per 23.5-ounce can and 6 to 12 percent alcohol by volume according to the Mayo Clinic.

Four Loko, which has been nicknamed “blackout in a can,” has been linked with an incident at Central Washington University, where dozens of students were found sick after a party. Nine students who passed out were rushed to the hospital.

Students at Washington University do consume Four Loko, but none were willing to talk about it on the record.

Nonetheless, students who consume the drink don’t think it’s so bad.

“Four Loko isn’t particularly special as far as alcohol content is concerned,” said one student who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s essentially Red Bull and vodka, which is a really common drink.”

The New York Times reports that the drink is popular among college students. Four Loko has accumulated a cult following on the Internet, with many YouTube users posting videos of themselves chugging the drink in front of the camera.

Since the incident at Central Washington University, Phusion Projects LLC, the producer of Four Loko, has been under intense scrutiny from college campuses and health groups. The drink has been banned on a growing list of campuses. Central Washington University enacted a temporary ban as a result of the incident on their campus.

Phusion Projects has been quick to defend its product, saying that Four Loko is as safe as any other alcoholic beverage. Furthermore, the company says that mixtures of caffeine and alcohol, such as Red Bull and vodka, have been popular for some time and have been consumed safely in the past.

Students agree with the company that the drink is as safe as any other.

“It seems like people get drunker, where in reality they get drunk more quickly, not more drunk,” the anonymous student said.

Not everybody agrees with the company. According to ABC News, the combination of caffeine and alcohol found in Four Loko is potentially dangerous: “The caffeine may make you feel like you’re not getting drunk as quickly, so you may ingest more,” said Harris Stratyner, vice president of the Caron Center and an addiction specialist.

The FDA is currently investigating different brands of caffeinated alcoholic drinks on the market in order to determine whether these products are reasonably safe for consumption. Phusion Projects claims that their product is safe and that they’ve been cooperating with the FDA.

Regardless of whether the FDA takes action in banning Four Loko or not, Stratyner believes that nobody should be consuming the beverage.

“Quite frankly, I think adults that are legal shouldn’t drink [Four Loko] either,” Stratyner said.

Students think that the beverage should be consumed only when necessary.

“Most people wouldn’t drink it; it tastes like garbage,” the anonymous student said. “You should only drink it if you only have $4 or you need to get drunk quickly.”

The gist of the bill deals with various requirements for tobacco companies regarding regulation of cigarettes, notification of the public about their ingredients and various other restrictions and requirements for them. However, about a quarter of the way through the bill, a “Special Rule” is thrown in, stating “a cigarette or any of its constituent parts…shall not contain…an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice.” Note two things: first, the elimination of flavorings; second, the special exception of menthol cigarettes. The rest of the bill is largely commendable, but this special rule is a cause for concern.

The ban on flavorings is ostensibly designed to discourage teens and younger adults from smoking. The widely-held belief is that cloves (also called kreteks), which are one of the most prevalent forms of flavored cigarettes, are most popular among young smokers. In addition, these cigarettes are supposedly unhealthier than normal ones. This is wrong on both counts. In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that kretek usage among teens had been declining since 1997, as are all other forms of tobacco except smokeless. And despite allegations that kreteks are more unhealthy than the average cigarette, a 1990 study in the journal “Archives of Toxicology” comparing American brand regular cigarettes and kreteks found that rats suffered no more ill effects from kreteks than from cigarettes. Presumably Congress knew about this before they wrote the bill—after all, if a freshman in college with a search engine and a large amount of free time on his hands could find numerous references to this, Congress definitely can. Therefore, one must question the motivations behind the special rule if it is not for the safety of young smokers.

Questioning the motivations behind this legislation brings me to my second point: the menthol cigarettes exception. The exception of menthol cigarettes is contingent to the banning of all other natural and artificial flavors and additives. Menthol cigarettes—the most popular of all flavored tobacco, with 25 percent of the overall cigarette market share—are predominantly produced by Phillip Morris USA, which supported the bill in its final form. By supporting a bill that both eliminates its competitors in the flavored cigarettes market and appears to look like an excellent piece of legislation, Phillip Morris comes across as a responsible, regulation-accepting member of the tobacco industry. In reality, Philip Morris has used Congress to establish a monopoly in the flavored cigarettes market, so much so that the bill is sometimes referred to as the “Marlboro Monopoly Act of 2009” alluding to the corporation’s “Marlboro” brand.

The speculative nature of the bill aside, not banning menthol cigarettes has serious health complications. They are widely believed to be by far the most addictive of all cigarettes, as consumers take in more nicotine—the active addictive ingredient in tobacco—when they smoke them.

Overall, H.R. 1256 has good intentions in endowing the FDA with the power to regulate cigarettes but falls short of this goal. Banning flavorings while excepting menthol has prevented this legislation from becoming complete and demonstrates the sway that industry giants like Philip Morris continue to hold over tobacco regulation. Because it does not prohibit menthol cigarettes, the law is weakened, and the most dangerous cigarettes will continue to lack much-needed policing.

Diet pills are not very effective in promoting long-term weight loss because they act on immediate sources of weight gain instead of focusing on fat loss. Additionally, the energy-increasing ingredients such as ephedra and caffeine cause several harmful side effects, including mild to severe anxiety, bloating, stomach cramps, headaches, nausea, light-headedness, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, blurred vision and insomnia.

So why do people keep using these products? Initially, they seem to work. Diet pills promote quick weight loss, fooling the consumer into thinking that they will continue to lose weight if they continue with the product, and instilling a fear that the consumer will gain weight if he or she stops taking the pills.

So how do the products work? First, they make you lose water weight. Several pills include diuretics that they promote as “cleansing” or “flushing out” the body. Reduced water weight will make someone appear smaller and may even accentuate muscle tones, but that is only because the individual is on the verge of dehydration. Upon rehydrating, none of this weight loss is maintained.

Secondly, diet pills increase energy, reducing the need to eat. When you have tons of energy and can accomplish anything, you don’t pause for food to refuel. This energy usually comes in the form of high dosages of caffeine, ephedra or guarana, all of which increase heartbeat and blood pressure and lead to anxiety, lightheadedness and headaches as well as a large variety of other uncomfortable symptoms. As college students, it is important to note that stimulants of any type may initially increase focus but when consumed in such great quantities can reduce the brain’s ability to remember or process information effectively.

Thirdly, the pills suppress appetite. Diet pills fool your body into thinking you don’t need to eat, so you avoid food and lose weight. The problem with this is that it alters the body’s natural hunger symptoms. Once the pill regimen is stopped, hunger can come back even more ravenous than before, causing weight gain. Altering the body’s ability to regulate food intake can also lead to other eating disturbances and possibly eating disorders.

Still, stores like General Nutrition Center (GNC) promote the sale of these products and claim that they are completely safe. Curious about what a sales person might say about the pills, I visited the GNC in the Galleria this past Sunday and spoke with a salesperson there.

The two most popular weight-loss pills among men and women are the Vitapak Energy supplements and Hydroxycut pills; the salesman said he assumed they are the most effective, as they are the two products that both men and women consistently come back to buy.

The Vitapak Energy packets are individual packets of approximately six vitamins, a few of which are designed to “promote fat burning” and “increase metabolism.” Due to their harmless effects, and packaged with other recognizable vitamins, the ginseng and other energy boosting ingredients are well-hidden in an earthy and natural-looking way, promoting them as “safe” for the body.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hydroxycut Products look like they are right out of a commercial, with pictures of svelte men and women on the cover and promises of reducing weight by a certain poundage in a said number of weeks. Hydroxycut contains loads of caffeine (300 mg per serving), and the salesman warned of possible dehydration but claimed that otherwise they were entirely safe.

The problem with claiming supplements are safe is that no higher power regulates what is sold and consumed, since dietary supplements do not need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

There is one exception to the rule: Alli. Alli is the only diet pill currently on the market that has been approved for usage by the FDA. Alli was approved because it works only in the digestive system, avoiding many of the dangerous health side effects of other pills. Instead of speeding up metabolism, Alli prevents the digestion and absorption of dietary fat (approximately ¼ of what is consumed) so that this does not affect body composition but instead bypasses digestion and heads straight for elimination.

While this may seem like a free pass to eat all the fries and burritos you want, it is extremely important to realize that while on the Alli regimen, strict adherence to a healthy diet is essential. In fact, the pills come with manuals on healthy eating, exercise tips and lifestyle changes that promote weight loss.

Those using Alli as a quick fix will be disappointed, as it is not intended as such. Failure to adhere to a healthy diet while on the pills will result (according to the Alli Web site) in loose stools, frequent stools/diarrhea and excess gas with oily residue. This is a product that should only be taken with your doctor’s advice or recommendation and is typically used by severely overweight patients, not college students looking to drop five pounds by formal season.

When it comes to weight loss, there is no quick fix. No shake, bar or pill is going to shed pounds the way a healthy diet and increased exercise will. Weight loss is all about decreasing calorie intake and increasing energy output, i.e. burning more calories than you eat.

In order to effectively lose pounds of fat, most health professionals recommend combining daily aerobic and weight training exercise with healthy diets of around 500 fewer calories than usual; this should amount to one to two pounds of healthy weight loss per week. As always, please seek professional advice from a doctor and nutritionist if considering embarking on a new workout or diet plan to promote weight loss.

Sources:

http://www.teenwire.com/infocus/2003/if-20030429p222-diet.php

http://herbalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/natural_diet_pills

http://www.myalli.com/