Are Bubbles Bad for Your Bite?

Hydration is so important especially as we head into the boiling hot summer months. Over the years, we’ve learned so much about how much water each person should drink. We are no longer stuck to the idea that you always need 8, 8oz cups no matter your size or typical exertion level. It’s better to consider all the individual factors and drink water accordingly. To the dismay of some, the average need is often a little more than the previously pushed 64 ounces. Many struggle with drinking so much plain water. They say it's tasteless and boring. Others even say it’s impossible to get down and they just can’t drink that much throughout the day. They’d honestly rather drink anything else. 

Tea, coffee and soda unsurprisingly cannot replace pure, plain water. What about sparkling water? You’ve probably heard someone say, usually to a kid, that soda will rot your teeth. This sounds like an “old school” exaggeration but it’s actually pretty spot on. The high sugar content of soda and the way it coats every surface in your mouth will encourage the growth of bacteria and without mitigating steps being taken, it may indeed lead to tooth decay. However, this is true of pretty much any sugary beverage and not just sodas. Additionally, this effect is not on account of the carbonation, which is a viewpoint many have held. Carbonation on its own does not seem to have a significant impact on one’s teeth. Therefore, it follows that without all the additives and sugars found in soda, sparkling water isn't going to be any more detrimental to your teeth than regular water. At least one study found that it in fact did not do any more damage to the enamel than plain water. 

However, not all sparkling water is made the same. Many brands will put coloring, flavoring, sweeteners and more in their sparkling water. This ceases to be just water and the toll it takes on your teeth is closer to that of any other non-water drink. Anything that coats your teeth in some flavor is something you should chase with a toothbrush and some pure water. This is really important to keep in mind as many companies are also selling water “enhancers” that make your water taste like all different things to help encourage people of all ages to drink more. While better than drinking nothing, these flavored waters or specialized water bottles that add flavor (essentially amounting to the same thing) can not replace pure water. It’s like trying to wash a muddy car with dirty water. Sure, you might get some of the really caked on mud off but the car won’t really be clean in the end. You’ll always have a film of grime that needs to be washed away with pure, clean water. As far as dental health is concerned, sparkling water is just as safe as water without all the fanfare. Now, your gastrointestinal tract might have a thing or two to say about replacing half the water you drink with bubbly water but that’s a slightly different story. Your enamel is safe and it’s a green light from the dental health side. Enjoy!

Resources:

Does Drinking Sparkling Water Damage Your Teeth?

Dental trend spotlight: Sparkling water

Enegry Drinks: Safe or Suspect?

What do you typically reach for when you feel that midday slump creeping up on you? Or when you have to write a paper for school and you just need a little more juice to stay awake? Apparently about a third of teens and young adults would reach for their favorite energy drink but this habit might not be as harmless as once believed. 

Energy drinks are typically a mix of water, tons of sugar, and a huge serving of caffeine. They often have a medley of herbs and vitamins as well, though most haven’t been officially approved to improve performance. The trouble with these drinks is that they actually tend to incorporate some of the worst parts of other popular beverages. For example, we’ve talked about the effect of the large amount of caffeine in coffee on the body and the brain. Coffee contains about 60 - 80mg of caffeine. It can contain more if you get that extra shot of espresso which adds as much as 65mg more. In comparison, it’s not uncommon for an energy drink to have 200-350mg of caffeine. A few have even more caffeine and unlike coffee, it’s pretty common for energy drinks to be purchased by the case and consumed similar to soda. Imagine downing two or three of these in one evening! Some of you probably don’t have to. You’ve been there, done that. 

Well, caffeine contributes to a myriad of health issues such as insomnia, anxiety and even hearth complications. The halflife of caffeine is 6 hours so drinking one of these drinks in the afternoon means you will still have a shot of espresso’s worth of caffeine in your system by the time you are ready for bed. Drink two and you will still have a similar amount of caffeine when you wake up the next day! It’s easy to see how this might cause issues with your sleep and exacerbate all the issues caffeine is known for. 

Ironically, these drinks are also thought to cause dehydration. Caffeine encourages the body to expel water and on top of that, energy drinks contain a ton of sugar. Unless you are chasing these drinks with a ton of water, it won’t be long until you end up depleted. 

Speaking of sugar, energy drinks tend to contain even more sugar than your typical soda. This is truly wild as many sodas contain 30 to 35mg of sugar per can! Energy drinks often contain 40mg or more. Just like pop, all the issues of drinking sugar are kicked up a notch in your average energy drink. 

The effects of all of these components are even more potent for kids and teens. Despite this companies tend to market directly and heavily to this demographic. The fact that a couple of teens have had heart attacks linked directly to energy drinks is not slowing that practice down so it’s important to educate those around you on the risks and dangers and to plan accordingly when shopping for your next pick-me-up. 

The Fluoride Sweet Spot

If you are a human being with a set of teeth, you may have heard that fluoride is necessary for their upkeep and stability. In the early to mid 1900s, researchers found that the use of fluoride reduces dental caries or cavities by 40% or more. They decided that to help lower the amount of dental decay in the general population, including those without regular access to proper dental care, they would add fluoride to the general water source. This way most people would get it in some amount. While this blanket effect, where possible, was effective in closing the dental decay gap between medium and low income communities, there were and still are some concerns. As you might imagine, applying a blanket treatment to an entire population who may or may not already benefit from fluoride dental care products removes the ability for individual assessments and application. While someone who lacks any other kind of dental care may benefit from the fluoridation of their water supply, those who are already using fluoride products may end up with a double dose. 

Why is this concerning? Well, at the end of the day, fluoride is a neurotoxin. When you ingest fluoride, it is quickly absorbed in the digestive system, mostly through your stomach lining and the small intestine. While about two-thirds of that amount is still excreted in your urine, the rest is taken up into the bones. This is why for a small period of time, fluoride was considered as a possible treatment of osteoporosis. However, while it does make the bones more dense, research seems to suggest that the brittleness of the bones and ease of fractures might be increased by fluoride, not decreased. Besides dental care, there do not seem to be any negative ramifications to getting no or low amounts of fluoride in one’s diet. So, it doesn’t seem to be essential. Really, the main thing that fluoride has going for it is that it does reduce tooth decay. However, even in that area, too much fluoride can cause what is known as fluorosis. Fluorosis is most prevalent in developed countries and here in the US almost half of all adolescents between 12 and 15 suffered from fluorosis. Fluorosis presents as a whitish discoloration on the surface of the teeth and is a sign that someone is getting too much fluoride most likely from too many sources at the same time.

Besides water fluoridation, other common methods of fluoridation have included milk fluoridation and salt fluoridation. These are actually more prevalent that you might think. Milk was introduced as a mechanism to make sure that small children were getting enough fluoride in their diet. Fluoridated salt is very prevalent in places like Germany or Switzerland where more than 50% of domestic salt is fluoridated. So, we’ve really leaned into the idea that we need this in our diet but besides fluorosis, is there a downside? 

Probably. Whenever the scientific community uses terms like “trade-off” and carefully defined parameters on which to make selective recommendations, it’s safe to assume that, yes, there is a set of circumstances in which the subject being discussed could be harmful. For fluoride, it is difficult to pin down general recommendations because, as we mentioned, everyone’s ingestion of fluoride is different. It’s naturally occurring, it’s added to our water, it’s in the air(pollution), it’s in some of our food, particularly if you are a meat eater, and it’s in our dental products. No one is disputing that at the end of the day, fluoride is a toxic chemical. It’s been associated with immune system dysfunction and gastrointestinal issues as well as premature puberty, dementia, and sperm decline. There’s also a chance that it is linked to both cancer and impairing neurological development in kids. Specifically, there may be a link to lower IQ in children. We’ve already talked about how it may be responsible for making bones more brittle and prone to fractures. Being aware of the amount that you as an individual are consuming fluoride may be the only way to protect yourself and your family as assessments of the general population are not going to address individual needs. Resources, like the one included below will allow you to get an idea of how much fluoride you are getting from your water system. Reaching out to your specific company will give you the best estimation. According to the CDC, If that amount is over 0.7mg/L, you might want to take steps to limit the amount of fluoride you are getting from other sources. Check out our resources below for additional reading and information about the fluoride content in your county!

Resources: 

CDC - MWF - My Water's Fluoride Home 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/why-fluoride-water/606784/ 

What's Happening with Baby Formula?

As we prepare to enter an era of American life where Roe v. Wade, a cornerstone of women’s reproductive rights here in the U.S., is under fire and may shortly fall, we also experience a historic shortage in baby formula. The irony of this shortage, which is challenging the ability of current American parents to feed their young children, happening alongside all the discussions about the protection of the unborn is not lost on us as a population. Perhaps before we focus so precisely on the protection of those currently unborn and without awareness we should ensure that if they were to enter into this world, we would be able to feed and care for them. Independent of your political views, this seems like the most reasonable and responsible use of government resources similar to managing resources in any other area of life. Make sure that you have the ability to support what you’ve already taken on before you insist on taking on more. Regardless, let’s take a closer look at this current issue.

This issue begins quite a bit before the current bacterial contamination. Due to staffing shortages and challenges with the international supply chain, the U.S. was already rocking about a 10 percent baby formula shortage. This shortage has been an ongoing problem throughout the pandemic and baby formula is just one of many, many things we have all watched disappear from the shelves. However, unlike your brother’s favorite cereal or that gaming console you’ve been waiting for for over a year, baby formula is a much more urgent and essential staple. Of the greatest concern are those specialized formulas for baby’s with specific allergies or nutrition needs. While some parents may be able to switch brands, picking up whatever happens to be on the shelf, others are desperately looking for any information they can find about when their specific, special diet formula will be in stock. Some parents are driving 5 or even 10 hours to pick up formula from the next state over, but other mothers don’t have the resources to pursue that. The pressure is on as the government tries to solve this issue before there are even more serious repercussions for families with young children. There is also a hovering question of responsibility and culpability as urgency rises and quick solutions are lacking. The shortage leapt from 10 percent to 43 percent this month. What happened?

We’ve noticed in previous explorations into food safety that the system by which we discover contaminated food products is often reactive instead of proactive. This bacterial contamination was no different as a number of infants became ill before anyone knew anything and any action was taken. Upon investigation into the cause of a breakout of infant illness, Cronobacter sakazakii was found in a Michigan Abbott facility. This strain of bacteria can cause meningitis and sepsis and ultimately death. In response to the discovery, a recall was issued and the plant was closed. That closure has resulted in the 43% decrease in the amount of formula available. In some states, more than half of the formula supply is gone. The event has raised a number of questions regarding the speed at which bacterial contaminations are identified and the FDA is informed. The first documented case of infant sickness was in Sept of last year. Thus, the question has been raised: was there a way we could have known about the plant’s contamination faster and thus mitigated the issue of both the sickness and the resulting closure more quickly?

Combatting this shortage has gone straight to the top as the White House is taking action to mitigate this problem. Even so, parents will probably be dealing with empty formula shelves for several weeks, if not months, to come.

Turn Off the Plastic Tap!

So, as we’ve all been existing this last week, one theme keeps coming back again and again. The overwhelming amount of plastic waste in this country and globally. Statistics like, 50% of emissions are coming from the top 10% of wealthy individuals globally. Or, the truly shocking news that among everything else, the USPS is about to buy a huge fleet of their classic truck model that we’ve recently learned gets about 8 miles per gallon of gas. This, in the face of all the efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Not a great choice when there are definitely other options available. When a public service doesn’t seem to be making an effort to change, it can be really disheartening as it seems to suggest that our government is not backing up their words with actions. Can you imagine the impact it would have in the other direction if all USPS trucks were transitioned to electric? Additionally, bathtub analogies about turning off the plastic tap abound. The idea is so straightforward that a very small child could understand the premise. If you haven’t seen one of these illustrations (check out the video below), basically, in order to stop an overflowing bathtub from dousing your space, you’d first turn off the tap. While interested and innovative, a lot of the suggested climate change fixes are more like attempting to bail water out of the flooding tub without turning off the tap. Impossible, impractical, irrational. Everything a successful plan should not be. We need to stop plastic waste at the source. The number of things that must be plastic is much shorter than the list of things that can be plastic or are cheaper when plastic.

That’s the bottom-line, though,  isn’t it? Plastic is cheap. You go to the store and you want a soda. You could buy a 20oz for, say, $1.50 or you could buy a 12oz glass bottle for $2.99. Which are most people going to buy? We’ve incentivized buying the plastic option to the point that it's all vulnerable communities can consistently afford. So, where is the root of the issue? Though large corporations bear a lot of the weight when it comes to making biodegradable and eco-friendly alternatives, they are motivated mainly through our consumerism. Companies aren’t going to produce a product for which there is no demand. But I recycle, you might say. Well, if you live in the US, you should know that the amount of plastic actually recycled has dropped below 6%. We aren’t saying don’t try but a lot of the stuff you think is being recycled may still be ending up in the landfill. So, if you can, when you can, buy a reusable alternative. Support companies that are making big moves towards reusable products. Most of all, we need to  get on the same page as a country and vote to support climate change savvy legislation. Customer demand is gradually making a change but with the right regulations we can make sweeping changes to the landscape of commercial production. We are already finding microplastics in our lungs and in our blood. What more will it take for us to work together to pull the plug on plastic waste? We have the innovations. Use them. 

Resources: 
Companies Moving Towards Zero Plastic

Light It Up!

Eureka!

The iconic symbol representing a good idea is getting a permanent upgrade.

Thomas Edison was the first to successfully patent a functional and marketable incandescent lightbulb in the 1800s and we’ve been relying on this technology for the last 150 years. The basic principle of incandescent light is that light is produced from heat. In this case, heat is passed through a very tiny filament in the vacuum created by the bulb until that tiny filament begins to glow, producing light. This is why a light bulb is warm to the touch, even after it’s been turned off. Without the glass surrounding the bulb, the filament, often made from tungsten, would oxidize in the open air and burn right up. Additionally, 90% of the energy used to light an incandescent bulb is emitted as heat, which, unless it is being used as a candle warmer or other heat-centric device, is quite a big waste. Even so, while alternatives like the fluorescent light bulb may have taken over the commercial scene, incandescent bulbs are still the least expensive option upfront for most residential settings.

That being said, LEDs are steadily rising in popularity as more people understand the advantages of their long-term value. LED light bulbs might be a little more expensive but they outlast incandescent bulbs lasting 50,000 to 100,000 hours. For comparison, an incandescent bulb typically lasts about 1,200 hours, if that. LED bulbs are wildly more efficient at producing light from electricity, taking much less energy to produce the same amount of light. They don’t use heat to produce light which saves a ton of energy but instead use electroluminescence.

Fig. 2 - Summary of Benefits

Electroluminescence is basically the production of light by a controlled flow of electrons, in this case, through the diode. Without getting too technical, the diode is a semi-conductive material designed to facilitate the production of photons and produce light from excited, moving electrons. This whole process means that a standard LED bulb can create the same amount of light without the loss of energy through heat emission and with a much smaller level of overall energy expenditure. This is good news for the United States’ plan to decrease total carbon emissions. In fact, the Biden administration estimates that changing over to LED lights would save consumers around $3 billion dollars collectively in just one year. It then comes as no surprise that incandescent light bulbs are officially being phased out of use. In theory, this will cut our carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the course of the next 30 years. That’s enough energy to power 43 million homes or 90 million cars for an entire year. 

One crazy thing about this change is that we had all the necessary information to make it half a decade ago, but we abandoned the plan before it could save us millions in dollars AND harmful emissions. Isn’t it great that we are now back on track for this simple move toward energy efficiency?

Resources:

https://www.lampsplus.com/ideas-and-advice/how-an-led-light-bulb-works/

Harness That Wind!!

We have a deadline for reducing the impact of global warming and limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It’s time to utilize all the known and new methods for providing clean energy. One of the better known methods of producing energy is through the power of wind. 

Historically, like hydropower, wind power has been utilized in some form for quite a while. Popular novel, Don Quixote, originally published in 1605 noted one such use in the famous battle with a windmill. Indeed, windmills are thought to have originated either with the Greeks around 250 BC or possibly in China in 200 BC. The windmill was and is still used to complete agricultural tasks such as grinding grain and moving large amounts of water from place to place. The use of the windmill eventually led to the development of the wind turbine which takes the utilization of the wind a step further by producing and storing energy. Instead of the mechanical rotation created by the propellers being used directly in a task like grinding grain, the rotation is leveraged by a series of gears and rotors to create electricity. This electricity can then be transferred to the grid, used on site, or stored in generators. 

The wind turbine is made up of 2 - 4 large blades suspended above ground by a tower. The tower allows for the greatest wind current, high above the ground, to be “captured” for use. The tail or vane attached to the shaft ensures that the blades are facing into the wind and the pitch control unit ensures that the wind turbine’s blades don’t get damaged by violent winds tearing at them at aggressive angles. From the mechanical movement of the blades to the generator, then from the generator to a set of inverters or power interface, energy travels back to the grid. The efficiency of this system controls how much power and the improvement of this system could be the difference of producing enough power for a small town or a large city from the same wind farm. Efficiency is everything. 

Treehugger / Hilary Allison

Wind power is one type of clean energy that produces zero emissions and countries like Denmark, that have been leaning into wind power for several years, are able to produce even more energy than they use. This is an excellent option as we work to replace and eliminate fossil fuel based energy sources. Even if your county or city isn’t utilizing wind power, you may be eligible to use wind power residentially. If it is suitable for your location, residential wind power is actually one of the most affordable options. In some locations, you can cut your home electrical bill by 80%. Combined with another source of energy, it’s possible to design a  home system that produces enough energy to sell back to the grid.  That’s beyond self sufficient! Residential goals for 2022! We have the clean resources, it’s time to implement them. 

Geothermal Energy: Heat It Up!

So by now you’ve probably gathered that as a global community, we are all trying to make the move towards cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy. Hydro energy and solar energy are pretty self-explanatory. We’ve already talked about kinetic energy, a very cool innovation using the movement of a multitude to power common amenities.  One type of energy that's been around in some form for ages but seems to get a bit less screen time is geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that uses the heat continuously produced within the earth’s core to generate energy.

One of the earliest examples of geothermal energy use that you might be familiar with is the heating of greek and roman baths. France was one of the first countries to use an installed heating system and the largest geothermal district heating system is in Reykjavik, Iceland. Idaho is thought to be the first place where geothermal heating was used for residents of the US and today over 80 countries around the world use this type of clean energy for household, commercial or industrial use. 

Geothermal heating is incredibly efficient, about 400%, meaning for every unit of energy used to power the system, about 4 units of power are supplied. For this reason, a geothermal heat pump is roughly about 300% more efficient than the best gas pump on the market. Additionally, though drilling into the earth does still release a certain amount of greenhouse gasses, the difference between it and burning fossil fuels is  significant. If 100,000 residential units replaced conventional residential units, over the 20 year lifetime of a typical residential heating unit, it would be equal to 58,700 cars being removed from the road or 120,000 trees planted.* 1.1 metric tons of carbon equivalents would never be released. 

This is also a consistent source of energy. Although you can exhaust a thermal field, they can normally be used for 20 to 30 years and like a water well, redrilling is sometimes a possibility. Also, leaving a geothermal field for a period of time may allow for regeneration.  Well maintained thermal fields have lasted for decades longer than this average and some currently in use have been operational since the early 1900s. 

If you decide to use a thermal pump to heat your home, you should be prepared for a higher initial cost. The system commonly costs between $18k and $30k though it’s estimated that this system pays for itself in 2 to 10 years depending largely on where you are in the US and the efficiency of the heat exchange for your locations. The system also requires some amount of land as the design requires digging into the earth’s surface to access the consistent underground temperatures.

While initially expensive, this unit will ultimately pay for itself and because it is better for the environment, you may also be eligible for some level of government tax benefit. It is definitely an investment but hopefully as technologies continually improve, the availability of this option will become more and more accessible to the general public. 

  Resources:

*Geothermal Heat Pumps: Environmental Benefits and Efficiency 

Geothermal Energy: Advantages & Disadvantages (2022) | GreenMatch 

A Note on Climate Justice

If you haven’t heard of climate justice, you may be wondering what justice has to do with climate change? We are all hurt by climate change and the slow death of our planet caused by our own mismanagement so what exactly is climate justice? The use of the word justice suggests that there is someone responsible for the wrong being done. There are actors that are doing wrong to another and there is a need for a balancing of the scales. This idea makes some uncomfortable because there is a suggestion of culpability and an opportunity for accountability. Let’s take a look. 

When we look at the impact of climate change and what areas of the world are suffering the most from the extreme conditions of global warming, we often see that some of the areas most impacted are contributing the least to emission. On a smaller, but no less important, scale, within the same countries there is a large disparity between the impact of climate disasters on those who are middle and upper class, and those with lower incomes or no incomes at all. For example, when hurricanes or tornadoes hit, those who can afford insured homes will bounce back faster than those who lack coverage or are moving from shelter to shelter. For this reason, climate justice speaks to a situation that goes beyond saving our world from burning up in the next decade or so. It speaks to the disparities in disaster resources, medical care, and more. It includes the question of, how do we protect those who are already the most vulnerable in our communities from environmental issues we’ve all contributed to. 

Some try to view climate change as an issue in isolation as they believe considering the larger picture may cloud the urgency of the current climate crisis. However, this does tend to suggest that the equally urgent situation of those who are currently without clean water, medical care, shelter and adequate food, does not deserve the same urgency. It ignores the fact that millions are currently dying right now often because those who are responsible for the highest levels of global warming emissions are also responsible for stripping their homelands of all their valuable resources, leaving the surrounding communities with nothing. 

Many would say that the interwoven nature of these issues requires an equally integrated solution as attempting to solve global warming in isolation will ultimately be less of a true solution, and more of a stop-gap measure. It’s been suggested that when a culture is built on squeezing the most out of the many while the few prosper while simultaneously never investing back into the foundation that made them great, you have an unsustainable cycle that will ultimately break down. Climate change then discusses exactly how we should tackle the problem of climate change from its core to the current crisis, including protecting the most vulnerable communities around the world. What do you think is the most necessary change to balance the scales between high emission countries or the wealthy and the most vulnerable countries and communities? Comment below!

Resources:

This is just how unfair climate change is

https://www.carbonbrief.org/experts-why-does-climate-justice-matter

Set to have 15 disaster a day by 2030 article

Remember the Bees?

Fig. 1: This is a bee. Hopefully future generations will get to see one in person.

We’ve talked before a bit about bees when we discussed neonicotinoids and adulterated honey but let’s take a moment to talk specifically about what we are doing to bees. Over the last few decades, the global bee population has dropped by about 30%. In the last five years we’ve heard of beekeepers losing more than half their hives to mites and pesticides year over year. We now spend hundreds of millions of dollars transporting bees around the country throughout the year to pollinate our crops. During this rotation, some keeps are losing as much asd 75% of their colonies. Millions and millions of bees at a time when the bee population is at its lowest. There are already places where we have begun manually pollinating in place of the bees but that is not feasible for the world’s crops. 

We are dumping millions into robotic bees and tiny drones, pollination guns and mechanical pollinators but what if we just tackled the core issue of this problem. Namely, the toxins we are spraying on our food!! We’ve talked about Monsanto before but they are not the only company that insists on spraying their crops with chemicals and pesticides that destroy local bee populations. They are simply one of the largest. Bees travel within a 1-2 miles radius of their home. Sometimes they can travel as far as five miles but they mostly make their home near a consistent food supply. When a beekeeper is located near to a big ag grower and they spray their plants with pesticides, the bees will still try to pollinate those plants. They will not die immediately but will bring the pesticide back to their colony. Scientists have tested the impact of neonicotinoids and found that it negatively impacts the bees that survive by affecting their mating, fertility, ability to navigate home and more even when diluted 8 million times. 

Pesticides, limited, clean food sources and mites are the main reasons we are looking towards a future that might be without bees. This is such a simple solution when you consider the consequences of doing nothing. The below video gives a picture of the international situation. Please take a look! We need to act now as the U.S. is the main producer for a number of the world’s agricultural crops. Is a world without bees really the future you want?

How you can help save the bees.