Yesterday , The New York Timespublished a provocative belief pieceby a Cornell medical school professor that argued for add together lithium to our imbibing water . It ’s an interesting idea ! It is not , however , a raw one . In fact , one of America ’s favourite soft drinks used to contain the modality stabilizing element .
When it was initially released , the lemon - lime soda pop that we know as 7 - Upwas clumsily calledBib - Label Lithiated Lemon - Lime Soda . “ Bib - Label ” referred to the paper labels on the bottle , and “ Lemon - Lime Soda ” obviously referred to the feeling . The “ Lithiated ” turn , of track , refers to the lithium citrate that discoverer C.L. Grigg hoped would make the drink seem more levelheaded . The swallow was also marketed as “ slenderizing , ” which is wry because weight increase is now a known side effect of lithium .
At the clip , many people were flocking to springs that contained Li - full-bodied water . The tradition is really an ancient one , as Cornell ’s Anna Felsexplains in her Times column :
Lithium has been have intercourse for its curative powers for centuries , if not millenary . Lithia Springs , Ga. , for lesson , with its natural lithium - enriched water , appears to have been an ancient Native American sanctified internet site . By the late nineteenth 100 Lithia Springs was a illustrious health destination chat by Mark Twain and Presidents Grover Cleveland , William Howard Taft , William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt .
This era also saw the ascension of a style in medicated soft drink . Heck , even Coca - Cola oncecontained cocaine . A picayune bit of of course occur atomic number 3 seems tamed in comparing .
The fact of the matter is that in small quantities lithium is reasonably tame . While you ’ll see some describe it as “ intellect - falsify drug , ” its effect unremarkably are n’t even obtrusive , even at the high dosage now used to care for people with bi - glacial disorder . atomic number 3 does , however , have a very good track phonograph record of preventing depression and lowering felo-de-se rates .
Grigg eventually empty the original name of his popular flabby swallow and call in it 7 - Up . It was never completely unclouded what the name referred to , but it seems likely that it was the deglutition ’s seven ingredients . That theory is patronize by an former tagline : “ Seven natural tang merge into a zesty , flavory drink with a real impact . ” One of those factor , of trend , was atomic number 3 , and it ’s even been theorized that the “ 7″ refer to the atomic mass of Li .
After the government banned its use in mild drinks , 7 - Up block up including lithium citrate in its formula in 1948 . So if you ’re feeling down , do n’t drink 7 - Up . See a doctor . Then , when you get plate , go ahead and drink a 7 - Up . The soft drink is still very brisk , even without the mood stabilizing elements .
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