Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Thirsty?

I admit the Wired heading intrigured me: "What's Inside Red Bull: Meat Sugar, Caffeine, and Bile!" Yum. But it's not really that bad: the "meat sugar" is actually Inositol - and while it is a carbohydrate found in animal muscle, it is by no means the main ingredient in Red Bull. That would be glucose (non-technically: sugar water). You'll also find caffeine (which could have something to do with the "wings") and some other stuff including Taurine (aka 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) which was originally isolated from bull bile in 1827 but is now made synthetically.
But back to Inositol which could stand to be a starring ingredient given research which suggests it's a wonder drug that significantly reduces depression, panic attacks, agoraphobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Of course to get that affect now, says Wired, you'd need to drink 360 cans of Red Bull (with current inositol levels) a day - and it would probably only be available at pharmacies!

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