Woman's extreme Red Bull diet
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A 23-year-old Auckland mother who lost 45kg in eight months by drinking nothing but energy drink Red Bull says she has ongoing health problems because of the diet.
Brooke Robertson told the Herald on Sunday she shrank from 105kg to 60kg drinking nothing but 10 to 14 cans a day, often accompanying them with nothing more than a handful of dry Honey Puffs.
Ms Robertson said she put on weight while carrying son Keir, now four, but did not make a conscious decision to go on a Red Bull diet.
"I just started drinking it. I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't eating – I was exhausted," she said.
"I just continued to drink it because it's an appetite suppressant and I noticed I was losing weight so stuck with it."
Ms Robertson said she managed to keep her addiction secret from family and friends, and did not recover from it until after a two-week stay in hospital following a minor heart attack.
"I managed to wean myself off it by being in hospital for that long but I had severe withdrawals – sweating, nausea, shaking. It was an addiction. The doctors stated that."
Ms Robertson now maintains her figure through exercise and a Weight Watchers diet, but said she still suffers the effects of the extreme diet.
She said she has a heart murmur, gets severe pain and cramping in her stomach and bowel, and suffers anxiety attacks.
A Red Bull spokesman said there was "scientific evidence that caffeine is not addictive".
The drink was available in 148 countries "because health authorities across the world have concluded that Red Bull is safe to consume", he said.
The drink is banned in Norway, Denmark and Uruguay because of health fears.
- NZPA
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If the lady drank nothing but Diet Coke the same thing would have happened. People are so scared of what is in Red Bull, but read the freaking ingredients. Educate yourselves before writing a stupid article such as this... Just for the record... One can of Red Bull contains the same amount of caffeine as a 20 oz. soda.
Good/bad? Norway has now approved Red Bull...
She couldn't have switched up the bull for Coffee, Cola, or Tea? Why so extreme? You can lose weight on Carrots and Cabbage too. Stear clear of the process foods. Moderation, moderation, moderation.
I can't be too hard on her. I once consumed nothing but one to two bottles of soda a day for a week or so, & I didn't even notice. I just drank it when I was thirsty, & when I was done with the bottle, I wasn't hungry. When I did notice, I was tempted to keep doing it because I had lost seven pounds, but I stopped because of the shakes that I was starting to get. It's easy to get caught up with something like this, especially when it has desirable short-term results.
crazy!
I am taking notes about this for a new weight loss plan I am developing that will make you skinny as a rail, but you have to give up 30 years of your life (or more) for it.
I think a lot of people will go for it.!
Well you can add drinking red bull to the list of effective crash diets... She should try other methods to lower her weight such as swallowing a tapeworm or cutting off a limb.
Red Bull is now available in Norway and Denmark.
Many additives in processed foods were never designed for human consumption. food/drug companies will go to extrodinairy lengths to veil additives in "foods" that may be toxic to some. Processed foods should come with health warnings as on cigatette packets as some of the garbage in them is just as bad for humans. Genitically modified foods should be clearly labelled as such to give consumers the freedom to choose what the eat. What happened to freedom of choice Monsanto ?
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How stupid was this woman? When will the world wake up and realise the dangers of excessive drinking of this poison! Just after Christmas i was in a resus unit of my local hospital (my mother had had a stroke) and the doctors were struggling to save a young guy in the next bay who had drank 10 red bulls a day throughout December to "Keep him going through the party season". His heart was, according to the doctor "beating so fast it was ready to explode". They finally managed to get him stabalised after 5 hours.