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Geez, what has happened to us?

As short as a decade ago, it was really easy.

You have a pee-pee, you're male gender.

If you don't, you are female.

If you are one out of 4500 newborns, you have ambiguous genitalia. Then the doctor decides willy-nilly wether you end up having a pee-pee or not. Better hope he decides right, or your life is fucked.

Vitamin C and vitamins in general are not some magic bullet against common illness.

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/vitamins_common_misconceptions?open
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietarysupplements/dietary-supplements-misconceptions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/18/medicineandhealth.sciencenews

Best research we got suggests if you take something like 1000mg a day at the start of a cold you can ease the effects, but you'll also develop nausea, headaches, and kidney stones.

So what's worse? runny nose of a kidney stone?

My point was that they do this for a very good reason, to prevent the spread of disease. An often quoted figure is ~80% of infections (everywhere, not just in hospitals) are spread because people don't wash their hands, or wash them properly.

http://www.cdc.gov/cleanhands/
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Handwashing_why_it's_important?OpenDocument

By washing your hands with just water, you are effectively saying you don't care about this for the people you do come in contact with. And I'm glad you have the ability to differentiate those with weakened immune systems.

Most energy drinks are a mixture of the following:
* Caffeine
* Sugar
* B-vitamins (1: Thiamin, 2: Riboflavin, 3:Niacin, 12, )
* 1 more substance (at least in the can I most recently looked at). I can't remember the name, but it's normally produced in the body unless you are an infant (where the normal source is breast milk).

The concentration of B vitamins can be between 50% to 200% of the RDA, depending on the drink.

Check out the Vitamin facts, B-vitamin groups, or check out a nutrition textbook.

Energy drinks are just sugar + caffeine to people on correct diets. Why pay over 2x the price for what is essentially Mountain Dew or sugary coffee?

Eat the normal 4-5 small meals a day with no snacks, and take a multivitamin supplement. Do some exercise. You'll get a much better effect.

but I don't have a problem with this.

Once kids get much past 10 or 12, it becomes increasingly difficult to change their eating habits.

And with the evidence mounting that junk food contributes to a wide range of diseases I don't see how parents keeping on watchful eye on their children could be a bad thing.

well, they already have 1D personal data reminder devices

Hangovers are caused by dehydration not B vitamin loss

No shit. I said it's one of the causes for a hangover.

(though you probably lose water soluble vitamins while becoming dehydrated).

Vitamin B is well known to be destroyed by alcohol. Just search for "alcohol vitamin B" on Google (here is one link). Some B vitamins like niacin are used by your liver to break down the alcohol, therefore "using it up" as it were. Do some research before spouting off.

As for complex versus simple carbohydrates, all complex carbs are just made up of simple carbs ...

Uh, right... That's like saying gas and motor oil come from the same place, I'll just fill up my tank with 10W40 next time.