Anyone remember when caffeine was off-limits for children? ("It'll stunt your growth!") These days constraints on caffeine consumption for kids and young teens are nonexistent. Kids are having caffeine early and often—high-octane Mountain Dew is the preferred soda of the under-6 set—and in much bigger doses than before. Caffeine Inc. is raking it in, often targeting teens and younger kids, and while Coca-Cola's polar bears get the attention, studies showing the negative consequences of child caffeination are virtually ignored.Look at fast-food joints, convenience stores and restaurants, where many kids get up to 40 percent of their meals. It's common to see young children and teens downing "big gulp"-size caffeinated sodas or lining up for seconds and thirds at refillable soda stations. These megadrinks can pack a wallop...
[Ed.: The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report that found the average U.S. teenager drinks 1,000 cans of soft drinks a year, three times higher than government sugar-consumption guidelines recommend. The same institute has called caffeine a "mildly addictive drug" linked to miscarriages and osteoporosis, recommending the FDA require food package labels disclosing caffeine amounts. The institute has also attacked Chinese take-out food as full of fat and oil, criticized buttered movie popcorn, come out against Mexican food, and called fettucine alfredo a "heart attack on a plate."]
