"drugs" news and stories

Pounding that six-pack of Diet Coke do nothing but bloat you? Does it feel like someone replaced your usual brew with decaf? You could try any number of energy drinks out there, but those don't seem to do much except make your stomach turn over. You need more! More caffeine! More energy! More attitude!

More of a drug-like effect?

Apparently, the latest energy drink to hit the fast and furious market already filled with the likes of Monster, Red Bull, and Rockstar boasts the ultimate high -- one that feels like a cocaine high. Cocaine Energy Drink doesn't contain any cocaine, but with 280 mg of caffeine, it promises the "highest energy content of ANY energy drink on the market today! 350 percent greater than The Bull!"

As you would expect, drug experts, nutritionists, and parents are alarmed. However, James Kirby, the inventor of the drink, says that it does not glamorize nor promote drugs. He said, "Maybe this can help by making parents and kids not afraid to talk about drugs."

Uh, excuse me, Mr. Kirby? He must have been on something when he said something as stupid as that.

It's no secret that certain prescription drugs definitely result in unwanted weight gain -- I put on 60 pounds in six weeks once. It came off easily once I demanded that my physician address the issue and take it seriously. Why treat a serious disease in such a way that one doesn't care about nutrition or longevity?

While we at Slashfood aren't here to give medical advice, we can speak from our own experiences. Based on the link above, the best ways to combat weight gain that is a side effect of a prescription medication are to: 1) drink lots of water, 2) try, try, try to avoid bad fats, and 3) go easy on carbohydrates that provide little nutritional value. As always, you are in charge of your body and what goes into it.

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A public toilet in Deepdale, Lancashire in the UK is probably not the best choice of buildings for a restaurant to be located, even if the building (described as "crumbling") has not been actively used as a restroom for a decade. And yet the city has just ruled that the building can be converted into a Japanese-pagoda styled takeaway restaurant.

The reason that they want to turn the space into a restaurant - two different people have tried before - is that it is just outside the Deepdale stadium and such a location could do very good business from sports fans. Both previous attempts failed because residents have been opposed to the change on the grounds that a restaurant would create litter and attract vermin. This is particularly ironic considering that the eyesore has been a haven for prostitutes and drug addicts in the past.

I think I'd rather have a takeaway restaurant but, hey - that's just me.

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The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is seeking to increase the number of substances that could be used on cows that are to be deemed organic. CattleNetwork.com has a list of all eight substances, most of which are used to combat maladies common to feedlot cattle. The list includes bismuth subsalicylate, the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol, which would be used for stomach ulcer relief, as well as poloxalene, used to keep cattle from getting bloated. Both bloating and ulcers are often the result of a corn-heavy diet that grass-eating cows aren't used to. NewsTarget.com also reports on the proposed changes, but with a bit more of a slant than CattleNetwork.

Researchers have recently identified a group of chemicals believed to be responsible for grapefruit's meddling effects on some medications. For a long time, flavonoids were thought to be the culprit, but new research from UNC at Chapel Hill suggests that substances called furanocoumarins may be to blame. Furanocoumarins seem to make certain medications enter the bloodstream faster, which can make dosages unpredictable and cause unwanted side effects. Researchers say that furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice produced none of these effects in test subjects. Aside from the possibility of marketing such juice, furanocoumarins, once studied further, might be of some use in moderating how fast drugs are absorbed by the body.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

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