Alternate timeline where 7Up never changed their recipe: Truly, the moment Nirvana sold out was when they wrote Lithium in hopes of soliciting a sponsorship deal with PepsiCo for their 7Up Lithiated Lemon Soda product.
I will have you know that 7Up is NOT a Pepsi product, it was from the same ppl that brought you Dr. Pepper (they merged in the 80s, iirc)
Pepsi's inferior version was Sierra Mist, which I think they've now renamed
They did put lithium in the soda, but they didn't use it "as a mood stabilizer". The discovery that lithium could be used to stabilize moods happened at exactly the same time that 7Up stopped using it.
I wonder, though… when I was a kid my parents always gave me 7Up when I was sick. I ended up hating it because it always made me think of being sick. I wonder if they gave it to me because all they remembered is that it made them feel better when they were kids.
My mom did too, but explicitly said it was on the same theory as ginger ale--mild-flavored, colorless, sweet (usually allowed to go flat)--but my brother hated ginger so we didn't keep that on hand.
Looked it up; wikipedia has it as the original formulation 😱
'The product, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[2] It contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug, until 1948.[3][4]'
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Up
Definitely lithium citrate, banned by the FDA as a food additive in the '40s over there
I was looking this up yesterday because I was making my favourite cocktail and wanted check the name (lithium lynchburg, nice if you like long drinks)
My favourite cocktail: Lithium Lynchburg
Tumbler glass
Measured shot of Cointreau—or other Triple Sec, Cointreau's nicer
Measured single shot of either Jack Daniels or Uncle Nearest—has to be Tennessee whisky, others don't work
Fill it up with 7Up—or other citrus based fizzy drink
Lovely
Thanks, now I have to run and stick my head inside of something so that when it explodes in a few seconds it won’t leave a huge mess for me to clean up. 🤯
(It was originally called "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda," when it first went on sale in 1929, but they changed it to "7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda," in 1936 to make it more marketable) 😆
Yeah, they did. And an Emperor of Ancient China once regularly drank mercury because he believed it was a health tonic. Humans have a long tradition of this kind of nonsense.
At least if she’s taking “real” homeopathic treatments they are literally just water. Or if not literally just water then so diluted as to be water by any practical measure. So the down side is somewhat capped I guess.
You can track the exact path Lewis and Clark followed across america because they consumed a tonic containing elemental mercury that was marketed to combat both diarrhoea and constipation.
Pure mercury is way less bad for you than mercury compounds though.
Possibly why it was our family's go-to beverage whenever we were ailing/nauseous/at risk of dehydration. Mom would point to the slogan on the bottle: "You like it. It likes you!" and nod sagely.
