[I Didn't Know That] Red Bull: The Inside Story

Photograph by Thomas Hannich (whoever he is thanks for taking a nice picture of the Red Bull can)

What am I doing blogging this early in the morning you ask? Well could it be because of that thar up there? Well, no not really. Its just that because of a certain breakfast "date" I have with the guys this morning, I decided to sleep early last night. As in really really REALLY early! Ok, here's some interesting facts about the drink we have come to depend upon prior to any major events/exams. (Editor's note: Original article stolen from wired credit to Patrick Di Justo for writing the original article)

Ok, so whats in it? What's it made of?

1. Glucose

No brainer right, I mean the drink is sweet right. But did you know, glucose is not the reason for the "rush" you feel? Heck it seems, according to the article there have been many stories that disproves the "sugar rush" theory we all seem to be affected by. Maybe we should send this in to mythbusters.

2. Taurine

Ok time for some science-y gobbledygook... (Taken from Wiki)

"Taurine, or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic acid that is abundant in the urine of many animals (metazoa). Taurine is also found in plants, fungi, and some bacterial species, but at lower levels. Taurine is a derivative of the sulphur-containing (sulfhydryl) amino acid, cysteine.Taurine is named after the Lating taurus, which means bull, as it was first isolated from bull (Bos taurus) urine in 1827 by Austrian scientists Friedrich Tiedemann and Leopold Gmelin. It is often called an amino acid, even in scientific literature, but it lacks a carboxyl group and therefore does not qualify as an amino acid in biochemical terminology. It does contain a sulfonate group and may be called an amino sulfonic acid. Small polypeptides have been identified which contain taurine but to date no aminoacyl tRNA synthetase has been identified as specifically recognizing tauring and capable of incorporating it onto a tRNA."

Right so what does that all mean? Well the short version of it is, it originally comes from bull urine. Let it sink in for a moment... Bull urine... Sunk in yet? Ok now for the good news, its synthetically produced nowadays so no more extraction from bull urine (Editor's note: Phew...) so its all chemicals now. So what can Taurine do for us you say? Well looking at the wiki entry, I must say I'm quite surprised. I won't list them all down here except to say that maybe Lam and I should be drinking more of this stuff  V(^_^)V

3. Glucuronolactone

Gah!! More science gobbledygook which I won't bore you with so if you wanna know what it is, go check it out in wiki.

4. Caffeine

Ah yes, the stuff in coffee which keeps you awake and hyper is also the stuff that makes you hyper after drinking Red Bull. This is it folks. This is the stuff. Nuff' said

5. Niacin (niacinamide)

Holy cow, why does this word sound so much like a Chinese swear word LOL. I guess thats where "Ah Bengs" get their Ah Beng-ness. "Nia-*toot* lei ah!!"

6. Sodium citrate

This stuff is pretty good actually. Its used mainly as a preservative and or flavouring but studies done by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (2003) showed that use of sodium citrate (approx. 37 grams) improved running performance over 5km by 30 seconds! Wow...

7. Inositol

Here at Tales of a Disgruntled PC User, we go through all the gobbledygook so you don't have to (lucky you) but if you did want to, here's the wiki. Well anyways, this substance is turning into a wonder drug of sorts. Its effects have been noted to significantly reduce depression, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviour AND has been used effectively against some forms of cancer. The only problem, there's not enough of it in Red Bull to make any significant impact. The article says you need to drink at least 360 cans of Red Bull to get inositol's benefits :(

So there you have it folks. More PC/Tech related posts coming up. But I thought you guys would be interested in whats in Red Bull.