To the MSM and Liberal whiners: Life is dangerous. Get over it. Enjoy it while you can. Live and let live.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." --Thomas Jefferson

First breakfast cereals get blacklisted, and now this...just give me a Dew!!!

If conservatives are RIGHT, then liberals must be WRONG.
Thompson/Rice

I knew a guy in the Navy who drank two 2 liter bottles of Mt. Dew everyday. He had to retake an urinalysis because it registered as Dew. He was kind of famous because of it.

I wonder how long he lives.

Mother nature is a bitch - Ninth Corollary of Murphy's Law

This report falls on the heels of another recent soda report about how even diet sodas may be linked to obesity.  The original report I heard, and then read about, said that people who drank diet colas figured they could eat more calories in the day, misjudged the total amount ingested, and ended up gaining weight.  So it was not the diet cola per se that caused weight gain but the perception of being able to eat more since the diet drink did not add to daily caloric intake.

In the past we have had media (and sometimes medical communities) attacks on colas for their sugar - obesity, diabetes, behaviour issues and cavities; for their caffeine - stroke and heart dysrhythmias; for their sugar substitutes - cancer (mostly media hyped fear) and phynelketonurics (real danger), for their sodium content - hypertension and edema; and even for their effect on body/blood pH - rotting teeth/tissue and kidney troubles (can be real).

Now we have an amorphous, unscientific, unclear report about outlier cases for which the media wants to generalize to the entire population.  Once again, the mythical three headed beast Cerberus (Hello to fellow Lost fans) of  "pop" science, media hype and consumer fear rears its ugly head(s).  (pun intended) 

I believe that diet sodas cause metablic syndrome as much as Global Warming is caused by Mankind.  The science is just as poor on this.  Metabolic syndrome , formerly known as Syndrome X, is a group of signs which if present are thought to be predictive of developing diabetes and vascular disease (atherosclerotic heart disease, blocked arteries to the heart muscle that can result in heart attack, for instance). 

The following is from http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/3000/3057.asp?index=10783:

You are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome if you have three or more of the following:

• A waistline of 40 inches or more for men and 35 inches or more for women (measured across the belly)
• A blood pressure of 130/85 mm Hg or higher or are on blood pressure medications
• A triglyceride level above 150 mg/dl
• A fasting blood glucose (sugar) level greater than 100 mg/dl or are on glucose lowering medications
• A high density lipoprotein level (HDL) less than 40 mg/dl (men) or under 50 mg/dl (women) 

Stress in and of itself can cause inflammation in the body.  That inflammation can trigger a cascade of events leading to cholesterol and calcium deposition in blood vessels leading to blockage of the arteries.  Caffeine can cause stress in the body.  BUT, multiple studies and recent expert opinion suggest that caffeine in beverages is not a risk factor per se in atherosclerosis. (Smoking, bad genetics and high fat diet are the big culprits)

To put it another way, a wise old doctor was asked by a highly caffeinated medical student on how much coffee was too much.  The elder physician inquired how many cups a day the student drank to which the student replied "Four".  The sage physician then answered "Five is too many". 

If you have no physiological, biochemical, anatomical or psychological issues with caffeine use, and there are a number of issues, then caffeinated colas are not an direct factor concerning metabolic syndrome.  Same goes for all other components of diet colas as well.

While plain old water is the preferrable beverage in general, don't let this unsubstantiated kneejerk pop science media hyped story prevent you from enjoying a cola in moderation... as long as your doctor agrees!  :-)

Killing them with kindness isn't working.  Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.