The FDA is a joke.

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

IceBergSLiM

Lifer
Jul 11, 2000
29,932
3
81
Sparks was half the alchol. Joose is banned/being banned along with 4 Loco.

four loko will not be banned. They made a press release yesterday they are voluntarily reformulating all their beverages without caffeine. The loko will still be available and exactly what I suggested in another thread will happen. Kids will by those energy shots and just dump them in the caffeine free loko. Its an extra step and an extra expense but the same conclusion.
 

IceBergSLiM

Lifer
Jul 11, 2000
29,932
3
81
And I've never seen Red Bull really go out of their way to offer package deals with vodka. Local bars might offer that as a drink special but I'm sure that Red Bull wants nothing to do with it a sponsored endorsement. Sure they are happy for the sales, but they wouldn't touch that legally with a 10 foot pole.

Again it's not about the individual ingredients. It's about the cheap and convenient packaging combined with the price.

you mean besides giving away those costly redbull themed mini fridges to hold the cans that are place prominently at the end of almost every single bar in existence. :eek:
 

Cerpin Taxt

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
11,940
542
126
Obviously the answer is to abolish the FDA and cease all regulation on the manufacture, distribution and sale of foods and drugs. Let the free market solve this problem. :rolleyes:
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,316
14,723
146
Worked so well before the FDA existed

:rolleyes:

Yep, let's go back to the traveling snake oil salesmen...

anderson_wagon-with-banners.jpg


and let folks sell things that actually work...

cocaine_card.jpg


heroincough.jpg
 

IceBergSLiM

Lifer
Jul 11, 2000
29,932
3
81
:rolleyes:

Yep, let's go back to the traveling snake oil salesmen...

anderson_wagon-with-banners.jpg


and let folks sell things that actually work...

cocaine_card.jpg


heroincough.jpg

If you think GMO's are killing americans any less than cocaine candy then you should really do some more research on the matter. There is a reason is banned outright in europe already
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,316
14,723
146
If you think GMO's are killing americans any less than cocaine candy then you should really do some more research on the matter. There is a reason is banned outright in europe already

I'm not a supporter of GMO's. I can see where they have their uses, (most corn hybrids are already genetically modified in some way) but I still remain leery of their overall benefits to mankind...as compared to the benefit of the huge agribusinesses who develop them for their own profit margins.
 

CottonRabbit

Golden Member
Apr 28, 2005
1,026
0
0
If you think GMO's are killing americans any less than cocaine candy then you should really do some more research on the matter. There is a reason is banned outright in europe already

Please cite an example of a genetically engineered food product that has been directly responsible for mass amounts of killing Americans because of its genetic modifications.
 

IceBergSLiM

Lifer
Jul 11, 2000
29,932
3
81
Please cite an example of a genetically engineered food product that has been directly responsible for mass amounts of killing Americans because of its genetic modifications.

First before I labor myself with citing links and such of the terrible health consequences of eating GMO's are you able to articulate a basic understanding of what a GMO food means?
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
There's a lot of drugs which can cause weight loss but they either are effective only short term or have toxic side effects. That's why it's so hard to get FDA approval. If it were a matter of bribing them then they could get approval and would be much harder to sue. They don't though and that's my point.
Why would short term be a problem? Every other FDA approved drug is short term. ADD medication works until you stop taking it, birth control works until you stop taking it, etc. That's probably a good thing. I don't think I would want a drug that causes permanent weight loss :p

My guess is that they can't get approval because it's hard to describe fat people as a group. For example, I've met fat people who were very energetic and loud and outgoing. Giving them something like Adderall is probably a really bad idea. Giving Adderall to a fat guy who has low energy all the time would be a great idea. The same drug that could help one fat guy could very easily kill the other fat guy.

From a medical POV we don't have a medication which causes the brain to say "You aren't hungry".
We somewhat do. Stimulants like nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, and amphetamine all raise blood sugar and reduce appetite. People who stop smoking tend to gain weight because they start eating more. Conversely, some dopamine antagonist drugs and serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs prevent people from feeling satisfied from food, so they just keep eating. It's very common for people to lose a considerable amount of weight when they start ADD medication, and it's also common for people to gain a considerable amount of weight when they take antidepressants.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
:rolleyes:

Yep, let's go back to the traveling snake oil salesmen...

anderson_wagon-with-banners.jpg
what country are you from? The US still allows this stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
formulated by Hahnemann, which he called the law of similars, preparations which cause certain symptoms in healthy individuals are given in diluted form to patients exhibiting similar symptoms. Homeopathic remedies are prepared by serial dilution with shaking by forceful striking, which homeopaths term succussion, after each dilution under the assumption that this increases the effect. Homeopaths call this process potentization. Dilution often continues until none of the original substance remains.[6]
I wish I were joking. That really is what people buy, and there's no law against it. The idea is that you extinguish fire with gasoline, but you dilute the gasoline until there is no gasoline. An example of a homeopathic sleep aid would be caffeine or amphetamine diluted so much that there's only a slight chance that even 1 molecule is present in the solution. That's homeopathy in a nutshell - believing that 1 molecule of caffeine will make you sleep. It's legal because it's not dangerous. It's just stupid.


and let folks sell things that actually work...

cocaine_card.jpg

This actually would work. Cocaine is a local anesthetic :D
 
Last edited:

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
126
Why would short term be a problem? Every other FDA approved drug is short term. ADD medication works until you stop taking it, birth control works until you stop taking it, etc. That's probably a good thing. I don't think I would want a drug that causes permanent weight loss

Well, what if you were taking ADD meds and they stopped working while you were taking them, or a medicine for epilepsy which stopped working while you were taking it? Amphetamine derivatives stop working for most people while they are on them.

So some people lose some weight and then the medicine stops working but then they have hypertension which in some cases doesn't go away. What it comes down to is risk vs. benefit and current meds fail.

Even though in some people methamphetamine and their derivatives cause profound weight loss it's mostly seen in addictive personalities.

BTW, the nicotine weight gain isn't just increased appetite, but an actual alteration of metabolism which will cause people to get fatter if fed the same food. Been done in controlled studies so it's not anecdotal.

But getting back to the hunger issue, many people don't get the message that they are full and continue to eat beyond their physical needs. Unfortunately that seems to happen more with sedate lifestyles which we almost all live. Cubicles aren't conducive to good health or eating habits. That Grail I mentioned suppresses appetite and doesn't fade while the patient is on therapy and also has a metabolic enhancing effect. The ideal drug would make people who overeat and have lower metabolisms like those who can eat and not gain weight.

Going back to the earlier "big pharma owns the FDA", if a drug worked half assed, but caused some weight loss they could buy them and market the med to death and make billions. They don't because they can't and they can't because the FDA won't let them.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
146
lol at GMO foods. you rail and rail against these hippies banning your fun time caffeine drinks, but get all up-in-arms on this pseudo-whacko-enviro-anti-GMO food hogwash.

lol
 
Dec 26, 2007
11,782
2
76
banning without testing...is the problem. Also I'm pretty sure red bull and vodka and jager bombs have been served millions upon millions of times in the last decade. Yet there is no public outcry over safety issues.

There have been stories in the news where people die from 4 Lokos. There have been multiple stories. I don't see many stories talking about somebody dying due to red bull and vodka (although I'm sure it's happened). It's been tested, in the market by college kids who think it's basically equal to one beer. People will drink 3 or 4 cans of it which is where the problem is. The added energy crap (caffeine and such) fools people into thinking they haven't had as much as they have.

Let me put it to you this way:
1 can of 4 Lokos is 23.5 oz and 12% alcohol by volume
1 bottle of wine is 750 ml which is just over 25 oz and averages around 12% alcohol by volume

So, each can is almost the same as drinking a bottle of wine PLUS 1 cup of coffee (per manufacturer). The caffeine masks the effects of the alcohol which gives people the perception that they aren't as drunk as they really are, which then causes them to drink more. Also, it's cheap ($2/can) and extremely easy to just open and drink so college kids are more likely to buy it than say vodka and redbull.

This entire discussion is irrelevant though as the company is voluntarily pulling it, and is going to no longer sell it with the energy aspect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/16/four-loko-ban_n_784236.html
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
But getting back to the hunger issue, many people don't get the message that they are full and continue to eat beyond their physical needs. Unfortunately that seems to happen more with sedate lifestyles which we almost all live. Cubicles aren't conducive to good health or eating habits. That Grail I mentioned suppresses appetite and doesn't fade while the patient is on therapy and also has a metabolic enhancing effect. The ideal drug would make people who overeat and have lower metabolisms like those who can eat and not gain weight.
Caffeine! :biggrin:

A few weeks ago I started a thread asking if people got free coffee at their work and whether or not the people there were overweight. I started the thread because I work a desk job and none of the people here are overweight. The results were that "mostly skinny people" offices outnumbered "mostly fat people" offices by 2:1 in the offices that had unlimited free coffee. For the people who did not have free coffee at work, mostly skinny and mostly fat poll options were about equal. It's just anecdotal poll data from ATOT, but I don't doubt the truthiness of the results. Caffeine (and other drugs) fit the criteria you listed. It makes you eat less, have more energy, higher metabolism, less efficient digestion (caffeine shits), and it's effective over the long term. The only downside is that it causes hypertension and heart attacks and it's habit forming.
 

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
Poor babies - what will they do without a cheap high? Go huff inhalants or something? Most of them or losers anyway. :)

You are a disgrace to be a Texan and an American..

Its not about the damn drink.. its about the FDA being heavy handed and basically telling people what they can and cant do..

There is NOTHING wrong with the combination of Caffeine and Alcohol the FDA and some parents would like you to believe so.. because they cant parent their kids or enforce the laws already on the books.

The WORST that should have happened to these drinks is yet another warning label stuck on them like cigarettes and for colleges to take action (ban if they want on campus) underage drinking which seems to me is what all the ruckus is about.

Education would have gone a lot further than to just take the liberty away and messing with these companies that were selling a legitimate product.

But for the states and the FDA to ban and tell us you cannot have that becasue you cant tell yourself how much is too much is fucking retarded.. and NOT the country I signed up to defend..

People drink themselves to death every day in this country without 4 loco.. are we going to ban alcohol again? What about cigarettes? not only do they kill you but those around you as well..
guess those need to go too..

hypocrites..

No Ive never even tried one of these.. and I'm 40 years old with a career.. but as an Ex Military man of 10 years I cannot stand to see my(or anyone elses) liberties taken away.
 

IcePickFreak

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2007
2,428
9
81
You mean the tip-off to them being a joke isn't that they're part of the federal government?
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
4
76
uh isn't the FDA supposed to keep the "really really really bad " drugs out from the market.

At least they're trying.


:)
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,852
146
First before I labor myself with citing links and such of the terrible health consequences of eating GMO's are you able to articulate a basic understanding of what a GMO food means?

Get to work linking. We'll see if your argument is as laughable as the one you used in that one 9/11 thread.

Also, I'm confused. You're talking about the health consequences of GMOs, but then have no problem with the health consequences and deaths caused by this drink?
 

Ronstang

Lifer
Jul 8, 2000
12,493
18
81
Our entire government is turning into a joke...it is what happens with progressives. There is no other logical outcome with their philosophy.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
uh isn't the FDA supposed to keep the "really really really bad " drugs out from the market.
At least they're trying.
:)


Not trying very hard.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/suspects_in_meth-smuggling_ring_indicted_98479189.html
A California man, his daughter and two women in Austin have been arrested as part of a national crackdown on a ring suspected of smuggling large quantities of high-purity methamphetamine to the San Antonio area and beyond.

Adan Montalvo, 56, was arrested Tuesday after ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desoxyn
Methamphetamine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and exogenous obesity, marketed in the USA and Canada under the trademark name Desoxyn.[4]


So one division of the gubment says meth is the worst evil in the history of the world because it makes people way too attentive and sketchy and paranoid while causing weight loss and skinny ass prostitutes who are ugly as shit.
A different part of the gubment says meth is the best thing ever in the history of the world because it fixes attention problems, makes you smarter, and it's an effective treatment for the obesity problem plaguing modern America.

Only the government could fuck it up this bad. Pick one side and stick with it. Why is that so hard?