this is a pasted copy of a mail i received this morning, make of it what you will.
i found it interesting when talking to the local fish and chipo whom i've known since i was 6 when he used to chase me out of his shop with a broom so i didn't miss the school bus and curse me when i plonked a dollars worth of copper on his counter and proceeded to rattle off a list of 1 cent lollies i wanted him to count out for me.
anyway we got around to talking about all the different energy drinks he had filling up his refridgerators, when he told me he almost makes more money from the kids on their way to school in the morning stopping in for their can of V or redbull breakfast, than he does from the lunchtime tradie crowd...
what crap are we allowing our kids to poison themselves with...?
Red Bull Drink = Slow Death?
From Helmi
10-12-9
France & Denmark have banned it from the country...
RED BULL - slow death ...
Do NOT drink this drink anymore!
Pay attention...read everything...
As a public health safety, please pass on this email to all the contacts in your address book especially those with teenage children.
This drink is SOLD in all the supermarkets IN OUR country and our children ARE CONSUMING IT ON A TRIAL BASIS. IT can be FATAL.
RED BULL was created to stimulate the brains in people who are subjected to great physical force and in stress coma and never to be consumed like an innocent drink or soda pop.
RED BULL IS the energizer DRINK that is commercialized world-wide with its slogan: "It increases endurance, awakens the concentration capacity and the speed of reaction, offers more energy and improves the mood. All this can be found in a can of RED BULL, the power drink of the millennium."
RED BULL has managed to arrive in almost 100 countries worldwide. The RED BULL logo is targeted at young people and sportsmen, two attractive segments that have been captivated by the stimulus that the drink provides.
It was created by Dietrich Mateschitz, an industrialist of Austrian origin who discovered the drink by chance. It happened during a business trip to Hong Kong , when he was working at a factory that manufactured toothbrushes.
The liquid, based on a formula that contained caffeine and taurine, caused a rage in that country. Imagine the grand success of this drink in Europe where the product still did not exist, besides it was a superb opportunity to become an entrepreneur.
BUT THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS DRINK IS ANOTHER THING
FRANCE and DENMARK have just prohibited it as a cocktail of death, due to its vitamin components mixed with GLUCURONOLACTONE ' - a highly-dangerous chemical, which was developed by the United States Department of Defense during the sixties to stimulate the moral of the troops based in VIETNAM, which acted like a hallucinogenic drug that calmed the stress of the war.
But their effects in the organism were so devastating, that it was discontinued, because of the high index of cases of migraines, cerebral tumors and diseases of the liver that was evident in the soldiers who consumed it.
And in spite of it, in the can of RED BULL you can still find as one of its components: GLUCURONOLACTONE, categorized medically as a stimulant. But what it does not say on the can of RED BULL are the consequences of its consumption, and that has forced a series of WARNINGS...
1. It is dangerous to take it if you do not engage in physical exercise afterwards, since its energizing function accelerates the heart rate and can cause a sudden attack.
2. You run the risk of undergoing a cerebral hemorrhage, because RED BULL contains components that dilute the blood so that the heart utilizes less energy to pump the blood, and thus be able to deliver physical force with less effort being exerted.
3. It is prohibited to mix RED BULL with alcohol, because the mixture turns the drink into a " Deadly Bomb " that attacks the liver directly, causing the affected area never to regenerate anymore.
4. One of the main components of RED BULL is the B12 vitamin, used in medicine to recover patients who are in a coma ; from here the hypertension and the state of excitement which is experienced after taking it, as if you were in a drunken state.
5. The regular consumption of RED BULL triggers off symptoms in the form of a series of irreversible nervous and neuronal diseases.
CONCLUSION: It is a drink that should be prohibited in the entire world as when it is mixed with alcohol it creates a TIME BOMB for the human body, mainly between innocent adolescents and adults with little experience. Forward this mail to Everyone and Let them know about this..
Helmi@Coolfishermann
What a load of total unabridled rubbish. Apart from the poor english like most conspiracy stuff, there are a number of total falsehoods, and no citations at all.
Firstly...GLUCURONOLACTONE. Naturally occurs in the body as it is what glucose turns into (in part). It is used in connective tissue so red bull should in theory be good for you if you have a joint injury.
Quote from Wiki "It has received some notoriety due to urban legends that it was a Vietnam War-era drug manufactured by the American government. The rumor goes on to say that it was banned due to several brain tumor-related deaths. The rumor has since been proven false, as neither the cited British Medical Journal article nor the "banning of its consumption" ever occurred. Furthermore, no warnings appear on the Food and Drug Administration website regarding its potential to cause brain tumors or other maladies.[2]"
Secondly: B12. Used to wake up coma patients. Wow...must be a chemical or a drug and therefore scary. It contains 4.4mcg, and my multivitamin contains 2mcg. (supposed to take 2 a day). Hardly a huge amount in red bull. You can't overdose on B group vitamins as they are water soluble and excreted in urine. That's why you p!ss yellow after taking a multivitamin. Basic highschool science.
Using the writer's logic we could say that B12 combines with a chemical known as dihydrogen oxide (H20) in the body to create toxic urine!!!! Shock bl00dy horror.
Lets all start a fear campaign about berocca too.
Thirdly: contains something that thins the blood. Well what? Who says? Is it in a high enough concentration to cause haemorrhage? Citation please?
Aspirin does the same thing, by the way. Doctors get old people to take it to thin the blood to reduce heart problems, maybe they should prescribe red bull.
Finally. What a ripper.... "It is dangerous to take it if you do not engage in physical exercise afterwards, since its energizing function accelerates the heart rate and can cause a sudden attack"
So let me get this right..... It makes your heart rate go up which may kill you so you should go excercise after taking red bull. Since when did excercise reduce heart rate 
Retards let loose on the internet again.
Great response, Mark, to what I also thought was a lot of rubbish, too many people including the doc believe everything that has been presented to them as being Bad in whatever form (email-snorkleheads websites), is going to kill us .
I have to admit that I have the odd energy drink mm ,my fave is samedi, and while I lay an AVERAGE of 800 bricks per day (5 day week), I recon I would burn anything that I eat or drink up fairly fast.(tend to psssss alot after 8 beers,,,,,,,,,,,- just keeping the body clean!!
Recently had a full medical check , ya gota do that when you get to my age,,,, 48, the Doc, who was 32 commented that he would like my blood pressure, like that of a 21yr old athlete !! wtf,, dont know how that happened but will keep the intake of all fluids just the way they are for now, only cause he said just keep doin what your doin! .
as far as I'm concerned If ya dont over do it, whatever that may be, and keep fit things will keep tickin along nicely!!,,,,,,,
pay to much attention to this type of shyte and we might all be vego;s ( Ancient Indian word for poor hunter)
I don't think the doc necessarily believes it - he said make of it what u will.
BTW I do agree the caffeine would be bad for kids they drink waaay too much of energy and sports drinks. I never said red bull was good, just that the article is B.S
Well, I don't really care, if the drink was so 'Fatal' then I think he crazy health freaks would have done something by now...
"Please pass this email on to all the contacts in your address book"
If you see an email with this on it and you still take it seriously then there is something wrong with you.
By the way, please pass this reply on to all the contacts in your address book.
in a motocross clinic they recommend it to keep up the concentration when you get fatigued.
I tried it for sailing so I wouldnt crash as much when getting tired. That was ok but it definitely makes you dehydrated.
maybe gatorade, redbull and vodka next time
Redbull is NASTY!
Most of the "energy drinks" have so much caffeine that they exceed the amount allowed in the Food Code, and instead are registered as dietary supplements with the federal Therapeutic Goods Administration.
This dude went into cardiac arrest after drinking 8 Red Bulls in 5 hours.
www.smh.com.au/national/mans-heart-stops-after-red-bull-overdose-20070819-gdqwa4.html
without offering any commentary I can confirm that redbull was banned when i lived in france in 2001 and 2002. we used to go to monaco ( 30 mins up the road) and buy it in cases to serve to our clients.
Personally i hate energy drinks but PR is right a red bull n voddy makes the night kick off (that's one not a dozen for me ta).
Here is the deal though: There are 2 red bulls out there. The stuff in shops is awful and does artificially stimulate the bod but (I think) it isn't dangerous though. Wouldn't feed that sh!t to my kids though.. just like I wouldn't feed the max caffeine drinks, give em garauna or coffer/tea/vino/scotch etc.
The OTHER RED BULL, is probably what the good doc is refering to though. This sh!t IS DANGEROUS! I am talking about the stuff sold in little brown medicine bottles in places such as Thaliand. Yes - it is licenced RB but in concentrated form and it contains (along with lots of added nasties) amphetamine. Actually (even though a Thai resident told me that) i belive it has long been removed.
Whatever is in the small brown bottle, I had one bottle that really kicked me about in the morning before departing Thailand several years ago. After about 2 hrs of feeling very sprightly indeed I ended up having a kn awmighty stomach ache that had me doubled over in the departure area and nearly stopped me getting on the plane. Later that night (some 12 hrs later at least) I could not sleep a wink in the hotel all night and must have counted the number of re-occuring paterns on the hotel wallpaper three times over at least!
I have not lived a saintly life, but that sh!t was definately evil and should be avoided for sure.[}:)]
Here is a pic of the liquid evil :
Actually (even though a Thai resident told me that) i belive it has long been removed.
So hate me then.
I CBF typing people properly because its easier to type Ppl when you are on a roll. i bet you knew what it meant right away and u didn't have to sit there and think now what does PPL mean? therefore it makes no difference whether i type the whole word or the abbreviation.
i hate lots of things and its my personal freedom to do so. 
actually no, i don't have more than one can per day and if i so choose i can go as long as i like without having can.
as for other "therapeutic goods" they've got the entire range of energy drinks for me to choose from.
i quite like the taste of redbull and i have also tasted degreaser and a whole bunch of other automotive cleaning solvent and they taste nothing like Redbull. if it tastes so bad then why is it one of the largest drink companys in the world with only 3 types of drink available? RedBull sugarfree RedBull and Redbull COLA.
Why dont you find something worthwhile to whinge about.
Too much of anything will kill you
If you drink too much water you can die... maybe we should ban that
