Harmful Effects of Energy Drinks on Children, Adolescents and Young Adults

Why Energy Drinks Are Popular Among the Young

Marketed as energy enhancers, young adults and children take energy drinks before doing athletic activities, working on projects or just studying for exams. These popular, often carbonated beverages contain caffeine and many other substances like tea extracts, ginseng, taurine and yohimbine that boost one's energy levels. They are able to stay awake and active, perhaps believing that their strength, endurance and memory are improved.

Some take these drinks in place of high calorie meals to avoid weight gain and suppress appetite. Since these drinks are loaded with sugar some prefer diet energy drinks which may contain fewer calories but have caffeine and other substances as well. Still others may use these products to overcome fatigue, stress and tension.

Various studies have found that about 30-50% of children as young as 5 years old, adolescents and young adults consume energy enhancing beverages in various amounts, with a few drinking these habitually.

 

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6 Ways to Solve the 'Renter's Dilemma' For Home Energy

Watching a skillful home-energyinspector explorea leaky house last week left me with a distinct sensation:envy.

As the inspector wentthrough the process, showing the homeowner how insulation, foam sealing, andother improvements would save money on heating bills, I realized I want some ofthat sweetweatherstripping action for my house. But my wife and I have a simple andcommon dilemma: we rent. We're not going to pay for house improvements becausewe might not live there for long and won't profit from the increased propertyvalue. Our landlord won't shell out for much because he doesn't pay heating andelectricity bills -- we do.

This renter's dilemmais a real barrier to getting more homes weatherized (which, in case you haven'theard, is afan-flipping-tastic policy that helps out cash-strapped residents, savesenergy, and creates building-industry jobs). Renters tend to have lowerincomes, so they could use the savings more.

So I put out acall a few days ago asking for proposals for cracking this nut. Wouldn'tyou know, some decent ideas came back. None of the proposals are a magicpotion, which means it's worth trying out a bunch of strategies. Starting withthree steps tenants can take:

1. Talk to landlords about what they can do. Sounds obvious, butit's an important place to start, and something not all energy-conscioustenants have done (guilty). A coworker got her landlord to pay forweatherstripping of doors simply by asking.

This may work for onlythe cheapest improvements. "Most landlords are looking for ways to recoup theirelectricity costs," Tom Harrison of the efficiency products shop Energycircle.com told me. "A few saythey want to help their residents conserve. And I don't doubt them, but to behonest, of the several I have spoken with directly, they are all Canadian --seriously."

2. Threaten to leave. If you're a desirable tenant, owners mightprefer to pay for some improvements than spend time and money looking for newtenants (The Alliance to Save Energy has a goodlist of specific improvements to consider.)

3. Ask about "green leases." In this arrangement, an owner agreesto pays for improvements (say, $2,000 for attic insulation), then raises thelease ($50 a month) to recoup the cost. If the improvement saves an average $65month in heating costs, the renter comes out ahead and the owner recovers theinvestment in a few years.

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How to Make Healthy Energy Balls

Far healthier than almost any energy bar that you can buy in a store, these energy balls are full of vitamins, minerals, and natural compounds that are perfect for providing a quick boost of energy.

Because these energy balls are made out of fiber-rich whole foods, eating just one or two can be surprisingly filling - quite the contrast when you consider that most folks have no trouble eating half a dozen or more mini-donuts in one sitting.

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U.S. Energy Use Declined 5% in 2009

The Washington Post, September 7, 2010
Straight to the Source

A bright spot in the nation's flickering economy is that Americans used less energy last year than in 2008, according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which recently published its findings online.

"Part of the reason is

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Green Living: Off-the-Grid Families Pioneer Sustainable Energy Lifestyles

By Kari Lydersen
The Christian Science Monitor, August 7, 2010
Straight to the Source

Asheville, N.C.
Living "off the grid" can conjure fantasies of Swiss Family Robinson-style ingenuity in paradise. Or, for those with less love of roughing it, it can simply remind them of the hardscrabble self-reliance throughout much of the developing world, where millions cook over fires, bathe in streams, and consider the glow of a bare light bulb a luxury.

In the United States, off-the-grid living - without relying on government entities or utility companies to provide electricity, heat, gas, and water - often is associated with gritting it out on the survivalist fringe.

But an increasing range of Americans are leading a snug, even smug, lifestyle totally or mostly unhitched from public utilities. Using nature - the sun, wind, water, and the earth itself - they cheaply warm and cool their homes and power everything from a blender to a giant flat-screen TV to a raging hot tub. And with the constant concern about global warming and messy dependence on fossil fuels, it's natural that growing numbers of Americans - "the foot soldiers" of energy independence, as one expert calls them - would begin taking steps to untether themselves from the grid.

For Wayah Hall, going off the grid in a cabin 26 miles from downtown Asheville, N.C., was a way to live in harmony with nature and avoid reliance on electricity that comes from the region's coal-burning power plant that pumps smog into the famous Blue Ridge Mountains haze.

Mr. Hall, an outdoor-skills instructor, and his wife, Alicia Bliss Hall, a natural healer, live in a kind of off-the-grid neighborhood with another young couple: Jason Brake, a professional muralist, and his wife, Diana Styffeler, a mountain bike excursion leader. Their two cabins, nestled in temperate rain forest, are powered with electricity that comes exclusively from solar panels mounted on a wagon that they wheel around the property to catch the best rays. Their water comes from a swiftly flowing stream; wood-burning stoves heat the cabins and even an outdoor hot tub; and indoor, waterless composting toilets built decoratively out of tree stumps mean they don't need a sewer system. They're installing a hydropower system in the stream that will add to the solar power.


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