I recently saw a headline stating, “FDA To Look Into Safety of Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages.” Honestly, I didn’t even know such a creature existed. I haven’t watched major TV networks in years, and no TV at all since I met Jerry.
But the headline piqued my interest, mainly because the idea that putting two drugs together in a drink didn’t exactly strike me as a good idea. So I did some research.
Bud Extra (one of the caffeinated beers), I discovered, came out on the market five years ago.
Five years ago.
Leave it to the FDA to allow the public access to a potentially dangerous product for several years before deciding that maybe, just maybe, the product may not be the healthiest thing to put in your body. Even worse, the government organization did not even decide to do this investigation of its own accord. Instead, it had to first receive letters from eighteen Attorneys General and one city attorney expressing concern about the safety of caffeinated alcoholic beverages.
On the other hand, maybe I’m not cutting the FDA enough slack. After all, I can think of five reasons to drink caffeinated alcoholic beverages right off the top of my head. They should be a regular part of your diet if you want to…
1. sabotage your weight loss.
Both alcohol and caffeine trigger cortisol, a hormone that causes fat to congregate around your abdomen. In addition, alcohol triggers the production of insulin, which hinders fat burning.
2. accelerate how fast you age.
Even when you drink small amounts of alcohol, it is a severe strain on your liver to clear out the toxins. So that one red glass of wine per day that is supposed to be so healthy is actually debilitating proper liver function. According to Eric Berg, D.C., author of The 7 Principles of Fat Burning: Get Healthy, Lose Weight and Keep It Off!
Drink any larger amounts of alcohol on a regular basis, and your liver will eventually stop functioning altogether.
Caffeine also weakens the liver, and overstimulates the adrenal glands, hindering their optimal function (in case you weren’t aware, the function of the adrenal glands affects the function of all your other organs and systems).
3. lose brains cells.
Consuming alcohol on a regular basis causes a deficiency in thiamine, required for brain health. You have surely heard that people who drink heavily and go on drinking binges destroy brain cells. My not-so-humble opinion is that alcohol can damage the brain cells–although to a lesser extent–of even light drinkers. But you’ll never hear about that from the media because then the beer and wine manufacturers will go broke, and the media will lose some of its biggest sponsors.
4. have a deficiency of calcium and B vitamins.
As mentioned above, drinking alcohol depletes the body’s store of thiamin, one of the B vitamins. Caffeine consumption causes a deficiency in all of the B vitamins, as well as calcium.
And calcium is necessary for more than just bone health. Without enough calcium, the immune system cannot function properly, certain other nutrients cannot be absorbed, and organ function deteriorates. (For more information, see the book The Calcium Factor: The Scientific Secret of Health and Youth
5. increase your risk of developing degenerative disease.
If you have
- a deficiency in any nutrients,
- excessive fat around your abdomen,
- a liver whose function is below par,
- weakened adrenal glands, and/or
- a depressed immune system
don’t blame God or your genes when you develop cancer, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, or etc., etc., etc.
There you have it. The top five reasons to drink caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Bottoms up!
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