Red Bull and various other energy drinks (Taurine)

[Azimuth]

When the student is ready the teacher will come ....

[Dim]

Originally Posted by jap man

Caffine in coffee is not the same as caffine in food or drink... it is sythesized get it!!!!

Do what you wish, eat and drink as you like, but it is the fool who passes up information and lessons given to them by their seniors!!!

But it is the junior's right ask for further verification from their seniors...

The caffine in food or drink is not synthesized, it is removed from other sources. And even if it was sythesized it would be the same chemical compound and indestinguisable from the naturally occuring chemical.

I would still like to know why it is ok for me to go out, pick my own guarana, crush it up, add it to some water along with some flavouring, colour and a bit of CO2. But if someone else does it for me and puts a redbull label on it it suddenly becomes wrong....?

[Shokei Marcsui]

or a drug for that matter.....

[vapor]

Originally Posted by Shokei Marcsui

or a drug for that matter.....

I bet that is the same excuse that guys in handcuffs give when the police escort them away from their in-home green houses for growing marijuana or poppy! It is only a plant...it is no different than growing tulips====!!!

vapor

[Dim]

Originally Posted by vapor

I bet that is the same excuse that guys in handcuffs give when the police escort them away from their in-home green houses for growing marijuana or poppy! It is only a plant...it is no different than growing tulips====!!!

vapor

Osu, exactly! Just because something is "natural" does not necessarily make it inherently good, just as something which has been processed is not inherently bad.

Too much caffine is inarguably bad for you. However, the method of ingestion (in coffee or redbull) or the process by which it is obtained makes no difference to its 'goodness' or 'badness' (unless your trying to inject or snort it....). 　

[Hton]

i got onto that red bull thing for a while,found i ended up just training normally after a while, i guess i grew a tolerance for it. What made me stop was once i forgot to have one and spent all that session thinking i wasn't training right, listless and not concentrating enough. I thought, this is daft needing a special drink before i trained just to train normally, that and the way i found it really dehydrating, so much that ran out of steam and got a headache later. Now i have a cup of coffee AND a glass of water prior to training 3 out of 4 times .Organic , synthetic or environmental our bodies need water to flush them out.

[smoothsake]

I don't drink Red Bull because it tastes nasty. A little vodka does make it taste better but didn't that particular cocktail kill a girl a couple years ago. Makes you wonder if it was the Red Bull or the vodka.

Oh and BTW, Red Bull is HQ'ed here in Los Angeles. I have a friend that works there. They are doing extremely well. It is a simple formula. They pack it in smaller than conventional cans and charge twice as much as Coke. Ingenious little company. They practically just market the hell out of the thing and off the shelves it goes.

[Dim]

Originally Posted by smoothsake

I don't drink Red Bull because it tastes nasty. A little vodka does make it taste better but didn't that particular cocktail kill a girl a couple years ago. Makes you wonder if it was the Red Bull or the vodka.

I think its the affect of combining a stimulant (caffine) with a depressant (alcohol). More than a couple of those are dangerous, especially when its only recommended to have no more than two redbulls in one day.

[Shokei Marcsui]

Yeah. When I was a much younger lad red bull and grey goose was my weapon of choice. I remember coming home late in the morning and being passed out and my mind would still be racing through the events that occurred that day.

Worse still, a friend of mine decided that the drink of the day on my 23rd birthday would be Jaeger Bombs (shot of jaeger dropped in a cup of red bull and taken as a shot). Needless to say, I was pretty messed up that day.

Like Dim said it's the depressent and stimulant properties that make alcohol and red bull a dangerous mix. I actually like the taste of red bull now. Personally I think vodka mixes well with just about everything.

There are other energy drinks out there that do not taste as bad as red bull does. Sobe Adrenaline Rush taste pretty good. Kind of like carbonated orange juice.

[bushido spirit]

what i belive is that , if ppl could make it the old days training working hard.......etc . with no supplements nd power drink such as red bull then so could we tryn to avoid such chemicals as posible ( tho we might findit in the food wich we call " natural" nd fresh ) then why to bother putting in more chemicals !!!!!!

OSU !!

[feels]

Lately, I've been drinking Full Throttle: Blue Demons for fun. I pass on other "energy" drinks though.

[seienchin]

Think on this - the deadliest creatures on earth (with the obvious exception of us humans) drink....water.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by seienchin

Think on this - the deadliest creatures on earth (with the obvious exception of us humans) drink....water.

That's because they don't know about "The Coke(TM)(R) side of life(C)"*.

*Coke is a trademark of the Coca-Cola Amatil Company. No profit is being made from its use here.

[seienchin]

OMG - remind me not to take Coke with me when next I go on Safari. That's all we need - prides of coke-addicated lions chasing down the tourists!

[kidflash]

This discussion got a bit off of the original topic by raising a closely linked, more general and very interesting one: Should we use synthetic nutrition or should we stick to genuine naturals?

I think this question is related to an even more fundamental one: to the perception of our body. If you see your body with a scientific approach, as a kind of a living machine which we can examine and understand, you will probably choose to try to take advantage of the proceedings of the pharmaindustry. If you, on the other hand, see the human body as a mystery and inseparable part of nature as a whole, you will maybe stick to narural, traditional food (and medicine).

I think one cannot decide for one or the other side fully, but everybody has to decide for himself. The right way is the one balancing both sides...

Back to the topic: I have tried energy drink before weight training recently and really sensed an advantage: more power, concentration and so on...
But I would not try it before dojo training, just because I want to learn to become calm and relaxed - even in the midst of battle, so to speak, and I don't think it helpfull to be on caffine. (Especially because I am quite sensitive in this matter, for I never drink coffee)

[Paedde]

Is bottled water really bad?

I always drink bottled water =/

[nzproud]

I always thought that those purchased mineral water tasted ncie and just like what water should be. Water straight out of tub is drinkable but I hate its chemical taste and smell after it's left over after a couple of hours.

[Spirit]

All bottled water is "dead" water. Since they have to pasteurize it, this kills off all the minerals and enzymes in water.
Now some bottle water is just filtered tap water (many of the big named waters sold around the world) and others are spring water.
Tap(filtered) bottle water (like your tap water, in USA) has chlorine and fluoride in it 2 very harmful chemicals. Even though they are used and OKed by Government agencies, they are cancer magnets.
Either way it is dead water= has no value other than hydration, Yes water has other values than hydrating the body i.e. minerals and enzymes.

It would be better for you (and way cheaper) if you installed a charcoaled filter system under your sink for your drinking water. As well one on your shower head, remember the biggest organ of the body is your skin.

[helenosch]

Just read an interesting article in a consumer-magazin, where they said for sports bottled mineral water (with gas) is actually the best you can drink; you get all necessary minerals plus water without all the added stuff you might get in these new drinks like H20 and sorts - though they also said that in Switzerland you needen't to worry about the minerals, what comes out of your tab is most of the time the same, healthy, clean and free!

Something like that, I've seen already on a TV-Show, where people tested different Sportsdrinks and compared it with tab-water, and mineral-water (also with gaz). Strangely enough the gaz-water came out on the top; they didn't like the sweet stuff like Powerade/Gaterode etc. and preferred clean water, tab water even made the list before new stuff like lacto-tab or H2O.

[seienchin]

Why add drugs to your water. Caffiene is a drug. It's that simple. If you are using it to increase your performance during training, you are using a performance enhancing drug. It is irrelevant that it is legal. What matters, is that you are relying on a drug when you should be cultivating the determination of the spirit. Drug use (even legal drug use) is not what karate is supposed to be about.

When you turn to drug use, you are admitting that for you, the destination (ie, winning, or being the "best" at training, or passing the grading) has become more important than the journey. And that is an admission that you have lost your Way.

It is hard to express this without sounding sanctimonious, but I just struggle with a conversation between serious martial artists about the performance impact of a drug on their training. It just seems a little sick.

Now - don't get me wrong. I am not a caffein