Forums >Health and Nutrition>Sports Drink Additives--Hype or Danger?
sugnim
There is an article in the NYTimes today (link here) which discusses an additive found in Gatorade & other beverages: Brominated Vegetable Oil.
In part, the article reads:
"Brominated vegetable oil contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, used in things like upholstered furniture and children’s products. Research has found brominate flame retardants building up in the body and breast milk, and animal and some human studies have linked them to neurological impairment, reduced fertility, changes in thyroid hormones and puberty at an earlier age."
and
"While most people have limited exposure to brominated vegetable oil, an extensive article about it by Environmental Health News that ran in Scientific American last year found that video gamers and others who binge on sodas and other drinks containing the ingredient experience skin lesions, nerve disorders and memory loss."
What is your opinion on this additive? Should people be concerned? Is this article just inducing paranoia? Will you continue to drink sportsdrink products with this ingredient? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Simi Valley HS Hurdler
"While most people have limited exposure to brominated vegetable oil, an extensive article about it by Environmental Health News that ran in Scientific American last year found that video gamers and others who binge on sodas and other drinks containing the ingredient experience skin lesions, nerve disorders and memory loss." What is your opinion on this additive? Should people be concerned? Is this article just inducing paranoia? Will you continue to drink sportsdrink products with this ingredient? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The way I see it, is that (most) everything in moderation is fine. Those experiences these problems are the ones who consistently drink these drinks, and ones such as sodas and energy drinks have always been known to cause problems likes these. An athlete who drinks sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade would typically only drink these after a hard workout/race to replenish electrolytes and to give a little bit of energy through the sugars. I don't drink soda at all and only drink a small bottle of gatorade after a race, so I will not be stopping that as I already know of what it does and I do not binge on it. People already know of energy drinks/sodas having bad ingredients in them and the ones that are effected drink without moderation. /My two cents
Prs: Freshman Sophomore (Goals)
110mHH: 15.97 15.71 (14.4)
300miH: 46.97 46.18 (42)
HJ: 5'2 5'4 (5'8)
5k XC: 20:26 19:46
I think they may be over-sensationalizing things a little bit. It wouldn't surprise me at all if BVO were bad for you (especially in large quantities), but from a chemistry standpoint, other than the presence of a bromine atom, BVO doesn't have that much in common structurally with the brominated flame retardants (and it's not just the bromine in the flame retardants that makes them bad for you, it's the rest of the molecule too). So the link they're trying to get people to make between the health hazards of flame retardants and the health hazards of BVO is not necessarily a valid comparison, seems like they make that connection purposely to scare people. Sort of like saying that there are carbon and oxygen atoms in sugar, just like there are carbon & oxygen atoms in Agent Orange, so therefore sugar is just as dangerous as Agent Orange.
Your teeth are more likely to fall out before the Bromide gets to you.
What was I chasing again?
You are an absolute fortune teller! A psychic of the highest degree! My teeth did fall out! OK, not all of them. But when I came home from work on Wednesday, my dog was so excited to see me that she jumped up & bashed her head into my chin shattering 2 teeth. It hurt like hell, and it took me a few moments to open my clenched jaw & spit out the bits of my teeth. My dentist was able to fix them yesterday, but I'm still pretty sore & I have a nice bruise on my chin.
not bad for mile 25
Your dog must have been eating BVO.
Mmmmm...beer
In case anyone is wondering, BVO is only in Orange Gatorade (which I don't like, so I'm good).
http://www.pepsicobeveragefacts.com/infobycategory.php?pc=brand.1043.1002&t=1026&s=20&i=ntrtn
Yes, I'm bored.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
Spam
It's an ingredient in Squirt, FWIW.
"video gamers and others who binge on sodas and other drinks containing the ingredient experience skin lesions, nerve disorders and memory loss"
The world needs to make sure it is healthy to spend dozens of hours a week playing video games and chugging soda.
Feeling the growl again
There is an article in the NYTimes today (link here) which discusses an additive found in Gatorade & other beverages: Brominated Vegetable Oil. In part, the article reads: "Brominated vegetable oil contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, used in things like upholstered furniture and children’s products. Research has found brominate flame retardants building up in the body and breast milk, and animal and some human studies have linked them to neurological impairment, reduced fertility, changes in thyroid hormones and puberty at an earlier age."
There is another dangerous element called hydrogen. Two atoms of this lethal element are found in every molecule of water. This element is also found in cyanide, LDL cholesterol, and hydrogen bombs.
Stupidity knows no bounds...especially in journalism.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Labrat
There is another dangerous element called hydrogen. Two atoms of this lethal element are found in every molecule of water. This element is also found in cyanide, LDL cholesterol, and hydrogen bombs. Stupidity knows no bounds...especially in journalism.
[pedant]
The hydrogen in the H-bomb (fusion portion) is actually deuterium (plus some tritium to boost the primary fission deceive) in the form of lithium(6)deuteride
Hydrogen is present in the device , in the explosive lensing, in the wiring, the various polymeric fillers etc, but not in the actual H-bomb core.
[/pedant]
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Bromine is present in a 'typical' human at about 0.25g, usually in the form of bromide ions.
Input is from the diet, especially anything ocean based (fish or seaweed), but it is present in almost all animal and plant life that you would eat.
Excretion is through the kidneys (as expected).
I'm not overly concerned about BVO, its such a trace amount, unless you go crazy with it.
A quick check on pubmed, show cases of a guy drinking 8 liters of a soda getting an acute reaction, and 2-4 liters/day on an ongoing basis leading to chronic toxicity.
If you are drinking 2-4 liters of soda daily, I'd say you have many other potential health issues as well.
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15563659709001219
Strict WTF adherent
What were we talking about again?
What's the benefit of putting BVO in those drinks?