Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Aminoethanesulfonic acid- It's holistic!


While on tour with my dance company in Tampa a few months ago, we came across an unfortunate encounter.  One that left me fuming and subsequently our costumes missing.  More on that later...

My company was in charge of warming up all of the student and community performers in that evenings show.  5 min before warm-up, 2 perky, and undoubtedly over-caffeinated students rolled into the dressing rooms with free energy drinks in hand and an endless stash off this liquid cocaine in their clever, cylinder shaped backpacks.

When my friend and fellow colleague refused to accept their generous offering, she told them that I (the holistic health coach of the group) wouldn't think it was healthy.  They turned their perky wrath on me to argue that their product was in FACT holistic and full of natural ingredients.  They defensively claimed that they ("unlike other energy drink girls") knew exactly what is in their product and began to spout off chemical compounds that probably took them 6 months of training to memorize.

I was in such awe of their lemming-like following that I wasn't fast enough to counter with the fact that ingredients like sodium citrate (a preservative), and taurine (an aminoethanesulfonic acid originally isolated from bull bile, but now made synthetically) are not ingredients commonly found in the "holistic" nutrition category. 

Me, being the non-confrontational person that I am, rolled my eyes (mature, I know) and then went to the stage to announce to everyone to toss out their liquid cocaine.  I explained that yes, they will get temporary wings, and feel high as a kite, but they were guaranteed to crash right before show time.  I took note of the 2 girls fuming by the stage door as I made my announcement with the college dance director backing me up.

Do you think it's a coincidence that one piece from all of our company costumes was discovered missing that evening, which included 2 pairs of my pants!   Hmmm...  Coincidence, perhaps.  But since energy drink corporations are now sending out blond, bouncy marketeers to claim that their products are holistic,  I'm going to go ahead and make the claim that they will hype you up and make angry enough to steal things. :) 

Have you had any energetic interactions with these people?