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FOOD APRIL 24, 2013  All Hyped Up The fears and facts of energy
drinks  The modern market for energy drinks is less than 20
years old, but the products are already firmly rooted in the
dubious tradition of American patent medicine. We’ve always had
a weakness for elixirs and potions that promise health and
vitality, but nowadays, we get our nostrums from the convenience
store rather than the travelling medicine show. If you wanted to
sum up energy drinks, you could put it this way: A middling
amount of caffeine combined with mega-doses of marketing and
pseudoscience. But while the market has experienced incredible
growth over the past two decades, an accumulation of deaths
ostensibly caused by energy drinks, an FDA investigation, and
the general tenor of public alarm suggests that the honeymoon
phase is over. But should we really