Free Republic

It’s no secret that kids (and some of us adults) love fruit juice. Many of us grew up drinking fruit juice, and parents often think 100% fruit juice is healthy. But is it really? UC Davis Health pediatricians Lena Rothstein and Dean Blumberg tackled this juicy topic in their podcast Kids Considered: We often like the taste of fruit juice because it’s a sweet drink. But it’s no secret that sweet often means more sugar, even if it’s natural sugar. Think about whole fruits that are sweeter – they have more natural sugars that make them taste sweet. Same goes...

This is an artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue areas) on its surface. Ancient regions on Mars bear signs of abundant water – such as features resembling valleys and deltas, and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water. Scientists think that billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Mars was much denser and warm enough to form rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans of water. As the planet cooled and lost its global magnetic field, the solar wind and solar storms eroded away to space a significant amount of the planet’s atmosphere, turning...

When cars had metallic bumpers, sodas were used to polish them, and popular acidic soft drinks has also been known to be a good toilet-bowl cleaner. Now, Greek gastroentrologists headed by Dr. Spiros Ladas at Athens University Medical School and Laikon Hospital have published a study proving that drinking Coca-Cola (the brand name provided in the article) can open up clogs in people with overly convoluted gastrointestinal systems caused by the ingestion of digested fruits and vegetables. They published their findings on Monday in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.