Your Weekly Food-Like-Product – Monster Energy Drink

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Posted Monday, September 9, 2013 at 12:52pm EDT

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A few ingredients in Monster Energy Drink (This does not include the synthetic manufactured vitamins and caffeine derivatives that are also in it.)

Take into account that Monster has been in numerous lawsuits for wrongful death and falsely claiming the actual amount of caffeine content

Also, aside from the fact that the slogan is “unleash the beast”, if you haven’t heard this before, look at Hebrew lettering for 6, the logo spells out 666. Coincidence?  Or immoral?

(1.) Sugar

Fructose elevates uric acid, which decreases nitric oxide, raises angiotensin, and causes your smooth muscle cells to contract, thereby raising your blood pressure and potentially damaging your kidneys. Leads to insulin resistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but also many cancers.

Refined sugar tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism, as it turns off your body’s appetite-control system. It does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.

The cells of many human cancers come to depend on insulin to provide the fuel (blood sugar) and materials they need to grow and multiply. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (and related growth factors) also provide the signal, in effect, to do it. The more insulin, the better they do.

Some cancers develop mutations that serve the purpose of increasing the influence of insulin on the cell; others take advantage of the elevated insulin levels that are common to metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes Some do both.

Many pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that turn them into malignant tumors if they weren’t being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it.

Sucrose is reported to be capable of producing dermatoses in bakers, candy makers, and related occupations. It is well established that uncontrolled glucose concentrates in maternal blood are associated with elevated embryonic and fetal death and increased neonatal morbidity and mortality.

  • Sucrose was not carcinogenic, but showed tumor promoting activity in female Swiss albino mice
  • Sucrose produced skeletal changes in a guinea pig fetus after feeding the mother 5 to 10 g sucrose/kg body weight in the latter half of pregnancy.
  • A high resorption rate and an increased number of malformed offspring … /were seen in/ rats fed a diet composed of 72% sucrose, 18% casein, and 5% butter plus vitamins and a salt mixture.

Sugar Processing and Chemicals

The next step is decolorization, which removes soluble impurities by adsorption. The two most common adsorbents are granular activated carbon and bone char, manufactured from degreased cattle bones.

  • Isopropyl Alcohol –A clear, colorless, flammable, mobile liquid, (CH3)2CHOH, used in antifreeze compounds, in lotions and cosmetics, and as a solvent for gums, shellac, and essential oils.
  • Phosphoric Acid – A clear, colorless, corrosive liquid, H3PO4, used in fertilizers, detergents, food flavoring, and pharmaceuticals.
  • Acrylic Acid – An easily polymerized, colorless, corrosive liquid, H2C:CHCOOH, used as a monomer for acrylate resins.

(2.) Natural Flavor

Also known as…

  • Monosodium Glutamate
  • Glutamic acid
  • Glutamate
  • Monosodium glutamate
  • Monopotassium glutamate
  • Calcium glutamate
  • Monoammonium glutamate
  • Magnesium glutamate
  • Natrium glutamate
  • Yeast extract
  • Anything “hydrolyzed”
  • Any “hydrolyzed protein”
  • Calcium caseinate
  • Sodium caseinate
  • Yeast food, Yeast nutrient
  • Autolyzed yeast
  • Gelatin
  • Textured protein
  • Soy protein,
  • Soy protein concentrate
  • Soy protein isolate
  • Whey protein
  • Whey protein concentrate
  • Whey protein isolate
  • Anything “…protein”
  • Vetsin
  • Ajinomoto
 Names of ingredients that often contain or produce processed free glutamic acid:

  • Carrageenan
  • Bouillon and broth
  • Stock
  • Any “flavors” or “flavoring”
  • Maltodextrin
  • Citric acid, Citrate
  • Anything “ultra-pasteurized”
  • Barley malt
  • Pectin
  • Protease
  • Anything “enzyme modified”
  • Anything containing “enzymes”
  • Malt extract
  • Soy sauce
  • Soy sauce extract
  • Anything “protein fortified”
  • Anything “fermented”
  • Seasonings

 

After a single dose of MSG, Doctors discovered that specialized cells in a critical area of the animal’s brain, the hypothalamus, had been destroyed.

Rats given free access to MSG and water showed a high preference (93-97%) for the MSG solution, regardless of the diet they consumed

Rats treated with MSG showed morphological and morphometric changes as decrease in testicular weight, decrease in tubular diameter, reduction in germinal epithelium height, decrease in the spermatic count and abnormalities of sperms morphology.

Many studies reported the implication of (MSG) in cases of male infertility as it causes testicular hemorrhage, degeneration and alteration of sperm cell population and morphology

Millions of babies all over the world were eating baby foods containing large amounts of MSG and hydroloyzed vegetable protein (a compound which contains three excitotoxins).

(Excitotoxin)

  • Protein class of substances that damage neurons through paroxysmal overactivity. They are toxins that bind to certain receptors (e.g., certain glutamate receptors) and may cause neuronal cell death.-
  • Samuels (1999) reported that MSG is a neurotoxic agent i.e. causing damage to brain cells, retinal degeneration, leading to many endocrine disorders and causes renal damage.
  • The best known excitotoxins are the excitatory amino acids that can produce lesions in the CNS (Central Nervous System) similar to those of Huntingdon’s chorea or alzheimers disease.
  • Excitotoxicity is thought to contribute to neuronal cell death associated with stroke.

(Processing of MSG, Natural Flavors)

  • MSG is processed with methylthiopropionaldehyde and sodium hydroxide which both are higly corrosive and toxic.
  • “After the concentration of DAP had reached a maximum in the presence of the first mutant, the first mutant was removed and another E. coli strain was added.”
  • “The crude, crystalline glutamic acid is first suspended in water and then dissolved, neutralized and converted to the monosodium salt by the addition of sodium hydroxide.”
  • “The acidic filtrate was then adjusted by addition of sodium hydroxide or ammonia”

These products are carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides and some metallic oxides. Burning may produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or nitrogen oxides.

WHMIS (Canada): CLASS D-2A: Material causing other toxic effects (VERY TOXIC).

Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation.

Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans:

May cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects (teratogenic) based on animal test data. May affect genetic material (mutagenic)

Acute Potential Health Effects:

  • Skin: May cause skin irritation.
  • Eyes: May cause eye irritation.
  • Inhalation: May cause respiratory tract irritation.
  • Ingestion: May cause digestive tract irritation.
  • May also affect behavior (somnolence,), metabolism.

The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated. (But, still put in food)

Personal Protection: Safety glasses. Lab coat. Dust respirator. Be sure to use an approved/certified respirator or equivalent. Gloves.

Personal Protection in Case of a Large Spill: Splash goggles. Full suit. Dust respirator. Boots. Gloves. A self contained breathing apparatus should be used to avoid inhalation of the product. Suggested protective clothing might not be sufficient; consult a specialist BEFORE handling this product.

(3.) Taurine

Taurine is not listed as a GRAS substance by the FDA. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement/ingredient is safe before being placed on the market 

The main action of Taurine in the body is to conjugate cholesterol into bile acids so that they can be removed from the body. Several studies in animals and humans have indicated that taurine supplementation can reduce serum LDL (“bad”) cholesterol caused by high-cholesterol diets (Wócjik et al., 334 2010).

While not all energy drinks contain Taurine, it is one of the “central” ingredients in many energy drink products. Taurine is found in high concentrations in 25 animal protein such as seafood, beef, and chicken

Taurine is also added in high concentrations to energy drinks such as Red Bull (1000 mg), Monster (2000 mg), and Rockstar (3000 mg), even though there is no evidence that it has any effect on energy level or activity (Wócjik et al., 2010).

Much of the taurine used in food and pharmaceuticals is created by commercial chemical processes and thus is synthetic. Commercially available taurine is produced synthetically by the reaction of Ethylene Oxide with aqueous sodium bisulfate or the reaction of Aziridine with sulfurous acid

Aziridine (also known as ethyleneimine) is flammable and reactive; it may polymerize violently when exposed to high temperatures or sunlight

Taurine can be extracted from animal sources, mainly ox or cattle bile (BBA, 2011; New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, 2007). However, it appears that only small amounts of naturally produced taurine are available.

(4.) Acesulfame Potassium

 Acesulfame Potassium may be safely used as a general-purpose sweetener and flavor enhancer in foods generally It is the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H )-one-2,2-dioxide. Contains Fluoride and Lead.

The compound is not metabolized by the body but it also hampers the ability of the body to metabolize other food products.

Acesulfame-K may contribute to hypoglemica. People suffering from diabetes might think this compound is best for their taste buds but excess usage of this compound may stimulate the release of insulin and result in hypoglycemia.

Mental confusion, liver and kidney problems, headaches, depression, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances, etc. are some of its other side effects.

In the production of Acesulfame K, Methylene Chloride – a carcinogenic compound, is used. Long term exposure to Methylene Chloride: nausea, headaches, mood problems, impairment of the liver and kidneys, problems with eyesight and possibly lung and breast cancer

Acesulfame-K has undergone the least scientific scrutiny. Early studies showed a potential link between the sweetener and development of multiple cancers in laboratory animals.

The 1970s tests of Acesulfame—two tests carried out in rats and one in mice—are inadequate to establish lack of potential carcinogenicity. Here are a few reasons why the tests are inadequate

[Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) 1996]:

  • Sub-chronic tests were not conducted for the rats and mice used in the tests on which the FAPs rested
  • It is likely the minimum toxic dose/maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not achieved in the rat and mouse studies
  • Randomization of test groups was not carried out properly
  • Mice were held on test for only 80 weeks, rather than the 104 weeks characteristic of National Toxicology Program (NTP) bioassays
  • Animal husbandry and monitoring of animals on test were evidently poor, as indicated by high disease rates in the animals and extensive autolysis of tissues.

Acute Potential Health Effects:

  • Skin: May cause skin irritation.
  • Eyes: May cause eye irritation.
  • Inhalation: May causerespiratory tract irritation and mucous membrane irritation.
  • Ingestion: May cause gastrointestinal effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, cramps, loss of appetite. It may affect the blood (slight increase in hemoglobin concentration)
  • Aggravated by Exposure: Hemachromatosis, thalassemia, sideroblastic or Sickle Cell anemia.

Chronic Potential Health Effects:

Ingestion: Prolonged or repeated ingestion may affect the liver (liver degeneration)and kidneys (nephropathy), and may cause weight loss.

Other Regulations:

OSHA: Hazardous by definition of Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200).

EINECS: This product is on the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances.

References:

Legal G.R.A.S

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/184.1

G.R.A.S. List

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/fcnNavigation.cfm?rpt=eafusListing

　

　

John Parks
For two years I've thoroughly enjoyed researching the food additives "scientests" produce and put into all processed food. Also how the FDA classifies them as G.R.A.S. (Generally Recognized As Safe) With about 95% of the research I've done over the last two years the actual science, toxicity reports, manufacturing processes and pure technical aspect of it suggests otherwise.

When you see something that is "hazardous by definition", toxic, poisonous or corrosive and it's in the food you're eating, you would surely have to stop, think and ask, "That's going to go in me. Wait... It passes through the placental barrier? It decreases the testicular weight in mice? It's produced with volvano ash? It's processed with asbestos and krypton gas?"

Now, my main argument is this: If you know the food additive is toxic, corrosive or hazardous by definition, if it requires flammable or corrosive DOT stickers while transporting, if it has saftey precautions, spill procedures and you must wear suitable protective clothing while handling... Can you even assume it's safe to eat?

Irregardless of the exposure limits, the actual amount in food itself, how many regulations and standards there are or how low the toxicity may be... It is the general principle that the additives are still put in the foods you eat on a daily basis. I personally don't believe that when a tomato is dropped you have to evacuate the area and seal off the exits. Because that is exactly the procedure for some of the chemcial agents the FDA allowed in food.