It appears that the French believe that caffeine should only be delivered to tourists in small espresso cups in large numbers on the Champs-Elysées. The French government has banned Red Bull as dangerous to public health and the European Court of Justice said that it could do so. However, the Court ordered France to lift the ban until it could prove those dangers.
Red bull is the most popular energy drink in Britain with 213 million annual sales. The English mix the drink with alcohol at clubs. In 2005, an Irish teenager Ross Cooney, 18, died after he drinking four cans of Red Bull and playing basketball. His death was ruled as a case of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Click here for more on SADS. While discouraging pregnant women from drinking Red Bull, the English health officials declared it safe.
The French, however, insist that the combination of caffeine, vitamins and sugar is too much for the French physique. Denmark has also banned the drink.
The European Commission disagrees and sought to overturn the ban.
For the full story, click here.
“Regardons a terre les pauvres gens que nous y voyons epandus,
la tete penchante apres leur besogne, qui ne savent ny Aristote ny Caton, ny exemple, ni precepte: de ceux la tire Nature tous les jours des effets de constance et de patience, plus purs et plus roides que ne sont ceux que nous etudions si curieusement en l’ecole.”
couldn’t have been written in the Caffeine Age.
Well, JT, I don’t know. I think it depends on how each person defines being “over-caffeinated.” A French person could easily say we Americans were equally over-caffeinated, even if some of us only have one small cup of coffee each day. Or, if not over-caffeinated, then over-….something else. 🙂
Sure, but what of the danger of all those over-caffeinated French?
Good grief. (wishing there was an “eyeroll” smiley I could use)
These stories are getting more ridiculous by the day. We shouldn’t let word of this get out; some “genius” in D.C. will begin targeting Starbuck’s coffee next. I know; it’s highly unlikely, but then again, I never thought one could get arrested for “serial snacking” either until JT included that little gem in his “The Criminalization of America” column. Some of these clowns will stop at nothing to get a “criminal” case to court.