We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

pdrew — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:20:02 GMT

One more point about VOCs and fragrances. A few years ago, I discussed perfumes and colognes with a leading psychopharmacologist from Harvard. It's his job to know toxins. He told me that if he were king of the world, he would ban all fragrances from the workplace and public buildings. From the research he's seen on perfumes and colognes, the effects are signifcant. In the average office where fragrances are worn: There is a 10 percent drop in productivity. Lung capacity in healthy people is reduce up to 15 percent. In asthmatics, lung capacity can be reduced up to 50 percent. Fragrances are also designed to be distracting and to literally alter the way your brain functions, which leads to that 10 percent decline in productivity. Plus you're breathing in copious quantities of benzene, formaldehyde, and artificial scents (because the cost of the real extracts over the plant and animal extracts is becoming prohibitive). In other words, we create our own indoor air pollution by wearing perfume and colognes, which affects everyone, but especially children and adults with lung problems.

It's such a shame that something that can smells so good (in most cases) is actually very harmful to everyone's health. I don't hold out much hope for a quick behavior change because wearing a fragrance has become, through marketing and the media, a cultural imperative. "I'm not clean or dressed unless I'm wearing my fragrance." I don't know how many times I've heard that from people when I ask why they wear fragrances. Time to go get some fresh air...

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

pdrew — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:06:19 GMT

It's interesting that informed consumers are concerned about volatile organic compounds, e.g., benzene and formaldehyde are present in processed foods, including soft drinks, but very few people understand that the amounts of these VOCs in their diet is very small compared to the daily exposure they have to perfumes, colognes, and aftershaves. Since the early 1980s, fragrance manufacturers have been including VOCs in their products. Besides formaldehyde and benzene, researchers have discovered toluene and xylene in various fragrances. The VOCs help the fragrance "waft" from your body, spread more throughout a room, and assist in "leaving your scent behind." They also include other chemicals that actually increase the intensity of a fragrance. These include a plant extract called coumarin, from which the blood thinner Coumadin is produced, and a product from India called Fixol. Courmarin smells like vanilla. It was banned from use in foods, including vanilla extracts, back in the 1950s. Prior to the introduction of Charlie, Georgio, and the other "power perfumes" of the 1980s, perfumes and colognes were much subtler, were not overwhelming in their strength, and did not stick to every surface in a room. Fragrance companies are not required to list the ingredients in their products under the protection of the Trade Secrets Act. Researchers can test fragrances and release their results, but they cannot connect those results to any particular brand of perfume for fear of having the proverbial pants sued off of them.

Bottom line: Worrying about a minute amount of benzene in a Diet Coke seems much less consequential than the dose of benzene, formaldehyde, and other VOCs one gets by applying fragrance directly to the skin, which absorbs those VOCs right into the bloodstream. Now that's something to be upset about.

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

McPike — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:05:19 GMT

Someone once told me that formaldehyde is used to decaffeinate coffee, but I've never seen this elsewhere and I'm wondering if this is true. Most decaf coffee in the store says "naturally decaffeinated." I am not fooled by the word "natural" so I'm wondering what this means.

I was also told that coffee is a high-mold food because after the beans are picked they get rained on, and then mold grows, so people with a mold allergy should stay away from coffee (and tea).

Any thoughts on these things?

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

jeremyroos — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:42:00 GMT

Yes we are making progress. I know that I have told many of my friends and family how I quit drinking soda, store juices, ect.. I simply mentioned to them that there is no reason to drink this stuff. All the human body needs to drink is water and that other drinks can dehydrate them and cause aches and pains.

I set the example every day and a large number of them have followed suit.

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

mosskat — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:10:29 GMT

I barely drink soda anymore - once a week maybe and always Pepsi - I don't know I find the taste of Pepsi (well the one in Jamaica anyway) has a nicer taste and feeling to coco-cola which just tastes vile to me.

I really dislike getting soda at fast food resturants preferring iced tea if they have it.

Coffee is a joke on my system - I take one cup and I'm out like a light.

re: We Are Making Progress -- Soft Drink Users Are Down!

Russ Bianchi — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:35:31 GMT

As encouraged as I am to read consumers are modifying their BAD FOR YOU soda pop intake, which is full of LDL cholesterol inducing, body fat adding, cardio vascular disease triggering, diabetes & hypoglycemia inducing, some forms of cancer causing, and obesity linked High Fructose Corn Syrup; it has also been reported that the beverage switch is a result of more caffeinated beverages (like coffee) being consumed, as well as harmful discounted plastic bottled waters.

Nonetheless, it would appear the water, or coffee, or both, are lesser beverage evils, considering how bad HFCS intake really is to any human.