Are You Consuming too Much Caffeine Than Ever?
With busy schedules and running from here to there, everyone is looking for the pick-me-up that will last all day. But, with those pick-me-ups, what price are we making our bodies pay? From energy drinks and sugary coffee, more and more people, especially kids, are consuming way too much caffeine now, more than ever.
Venom, Sobe Adrenaline Rush, Vamp, Monster, Rip It Lime Wrecker Energy Fuel, to name a few of the hundred of energy drinks out on the market. They end up getting you really hyped up then make you crash, hard. And depending on the amount of caffeine and sugar in the drink depends on the extent of the downward crash later in the day.
Over 2 billion cans of energy drinks were consumed by Americans in 2007. Kids call it buzz in a bottle-the new high-dose sugary caffeine drinks that supercharge the MySpace crowd. They are already a $4.9 billion industry, with over 100 new drinks hitting the market in 2006. Many pack double the amount of caffeine of traditional soda. Same goes for the coffee concoctions that many adults and even parents drink to help get them through their day to day tasks.
Beverage makers say they don’t market their highly caffeinated rocket fuel to kids by an means. That wasn’t the intention of making them at all, yet they are everywhere that teenagers are. Like skateboarding events, bike tours, race car sponsorship, and even concerts that are geared toward a younger crowd.
Here is a caffeine breakdown:
• 12oz. Coca Cola Classic: 34 mg
• 12oz. Dr. Pepper: 41mg
• 12 oz. Mountain Dew: 55mg
• 8.5 oz. Red Bull: 80mg
• 8 oz. Coffee: 135mg
• 16 oz. Full Throttle Energy Drink: 144mg
• 16 oz. Rockstar Energy Drink: 160mg
• 16oz. Starbucks Coffee Grande: 259mg
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Earthly Eating Recipe
Kids Activity
Lumberjacks
What you will need:
Graham Crackers
White Decorating Icing
Small M&M’s
Marshmallows (small and large)
Chocolate sandwich cookies
Decorating gel
Pretzel sticks
Red String licorice
Food colorings (make sure they are all-natural colors)
Cut 2 graham crackers each in half diagonally, slowly sawing back and forth with serrated knife to create 4 long triangles. (Adult assistance)
Pipe small amounts of icing onto the long uncut side of each triangle. Press icing-sides together to form a standing tree. Pipe outer edges of the tree with additional icing. Press M&M’s into the icing along the outside of the tree, or ice the entire free-standing tree all one color. Make as many as you want for your forest. Set tem aside.
Next, spread icing on end of 1 marshmallow; place icing-side down on the top of the chocolate sandwich cookie. Spread icing on both ends of another marshmallow and stack it on the first one. Top with a third marshmallow to make the first man.
Use decorating get to draw eyes and mouth on the top marshmallow.
Insert 2 pretzels in the middle of the marshmallows of the man for the arms. Cut a 6-inch length of red licorice and tie around the neck for a scarf on your lumberjack. Insert a mini marshmallow into the end of a long piece of pretzel and set up beside the lumberjack for his axe.
Happy Eating!
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