Nutrition Quackery and Mislabeled Foods Debunked

Misleading and unsubstantiated nutritional claims can ruin your health or even kill you.

- DR P.S. VENKATESH RAO

Many deaths have been reported due to cardiac arrest associated with an excessive intake of caffeinated energy drinks.

Protein is required for various body functions like muscle repair, blood and immune system function, skin, hair, and nail growth, and the production of enzymes and hormones. A high-protein diet can help satiate you and thus aid in weight management, but it isn't necessary for everyone. Elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, and other herbivores have powerful muscles despite a low-protein diet of grasses and leaves. Excessive protein intake can be detrimental to health, particularly in persons with kidney disorders. Protein breakdown produces an acid load, which the body neutralizes by mobilizing calcium from bones, leading to increased calcium loss in the urine, stones, and weak bones. Crazy food fads, extreme weight loss diets, and unproven medications can cause malnutrition and death.

Caffeinated Energy Drinks: Caffeinated energy drinks are associated with headaches, anxiety, insomnia, stomach upset, muscle twitching, restlessness, and sudden deaths with caffeine overdose. Caffeine content ranges in different brands from 50 mg to an alarming 505 mg per can or bottle, as there is no regulation.

Many are marketed for psychoactive, performance-enhancing, and stimulant drug effects. Caffeine intoxication and dependence are on the increase and may progress to drug dependence. The combined use of caffeine and alcohol increases the incidence of alcohol-related injury.

Junk Ultra-Processed and Junk Food: "Junk foods" like candy, sugary drinks, fried foods, and snacks have "empty calories" with little or no nutritional benefits and unhealthy ingredients like sugar, fat, and salt, leading to fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease-related deaths, anxiety, depression, and other health problems. Many drinks have loads of sugar and are chilled to hide their sour acidity, which can corrode your teeth.