I have a longstanding tradition of ordering, in cases of extreme indecision, “whatever that blue thing is” from a restaurant’s cocktail menu. Generally, this results in a festive beverage featuring Blue Curacao, some fruit salad, and a tiny paper umbrella. It occasionally means that I’m subjected to vile hives of scum and villainy concoctions like the Star Trek-themed beer (and I use that term very loosely) Romulan Ale [naughty word alert for some comments]. One-sentence review: Stale Bud Light with blue food coloring. I haven’t tried the energy drink of the same name yet, however.
However, it looks like I may have been onto something, at least as far as spinal health is concerned. The blue food dye (Brilliant Blue G / BBG) found in stuff like M&Ms energy drinks maybe able to be used to reduce damage from spine injuries. Rats were injected with it at the injury site, and, despite not making a full recovery, were able to limp, while control subjects remained paralyzed.
Adverse side-effects? Rats used in the study turned blue for a while. Heck, if it turned my hair blue, I’d save a fortune on Manic Panic.
[Source: Friend of Shrinkgeek; Image courtesy of be_khe on Flickr]
Related posts:
Andorian rats?
Brew! Kan-Ada!
Doesn’t matter how much money you’ll ever had, you can’t afford the blue fish.
“If American Express can buy it, you can have it.”
[...] looks like this was a pretty good survival strategy, especially in conjunction with going for the blue drinks on the cocktail menu. Tanning beds, according to the International Association for Research on [...]
[...] of us have at least a vague sense of what’s nutritious – green stuff (or my preferred blue stuff); things that aren’t too sugary, salty or fatty; and things that went through minimal [...]