Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
the ld50 for a 175lb person is 15,240.75mg. 10,000 can EASILY kill someone. 5,000 probably still kills 1/4 of people (i didn’t look up the curve). i would guess that 1000 is probably safe for most people, but even a 1% death rate is pretty high for a lemonade.
2800mg is lethal according to Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20045678
ld50 means half of all subjects died at that dosage. but subjects die all along the curve. I believe people commonly die at 2800mg, but that’s far short of the ld50. id like to know where that dosage sits on the curve.
Yes, 10,000mg is the published lethal dose (approx. 21L of this lemonade.)
That would bring us to 10L of water, which could still be lethal to some people regardless of whether it had caffeine or sugar in it.
Thankfully, it’s probably closer to 0.0001% for lemonade.
Caffeinated beverages are among the most widely consumed, probably even more so than water in developed countries.
Fortunately, caffeine related deaths, even in those who take caffeine pills, are quite rare in healthy adults. When it does happen, it’s often when caffeine is abused, overconsumed, or the person has some underlying health condition and probably shouldn’t be consuming caffeine anyway.
i had not considered the dilution. i honestly have no idea how this effects metabolization (i’m not a medical professional of any kind i just dabble in pharmacology). you seem pretty sure about this so you’re probably right. i take one 200mg caffeine pill daily and thats about all of my consumption.
I could be wrong, too. I’m trying to consider all aspects of this case and to base my opinion.
I will say that if Panera is found guilty, I wonder how it will affect other restaurants, who serve foods that can cause death due to overconsumption in people with underlying health issues.
Will all salty, fatty, sugary, and caffeinated products have a Canadian cigarette-style warning labels on them? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Perhaps “Chubby Emu” will make a video about “death by lemonade”, as he (an MD) covers a lot of wacky food-related topics causing death or injury.