The Sunshine Vitamin




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What makes fizzy drinks taste fizzy?

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  What makes fizzy drinks taste fizzy? When carbon dioxide gas and water react, they produce a weak acid, called carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is what is in your soda or any drink with bubbles. Carbonic acid stimulates the same taste receptors as the ones that are triggered by cinnamon and mustard and it is what gives rise to that prickly sensation in your mouth. If you have ever heard your dentist mention to you that it is the soda that you drink that is ruining the enamel on your teeth, take comfort in the fact that it is not carbonic acid that is the culprit. Hint: It is Red Bull that is the worst offender. Carbonic acid has a pH of 4.2, giving carbonated water a pH of 4.5. This is slightly acidic, but certainly not as acidic as Red Bull, which is 3.3. Where can you find carbonic acid? The first place you can find it, is in you! Carbon dioxide is present in the blood and combines with water to form carbonic acid, which is exhaled as a gas by the lungs. The rate of your resp...
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What's in Your Sunscreen?

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What's in Your Sunscreen? How the ingredient oxybenzone may be affecting your health and the environment     Moose Photos. Person Pouring Plastic Tube Bottle ; 2018. Oxybenzone is a chemical that is found in sunscreen, hairspray, shampoo, and even plastics. 1 It naturally occurs in a few flowering plants 2 , however it is more commonly created in the lab. 3 Oxybenzone is found as a cream coloured powder that is nearly odourless, making it a useful ingredient in cosmetics, as it won’t drastically affect the colour or the smell. 3 But why would you want to add oxybenzone to sunscreens and cosmetics? The answer lies in oxybenzone’s most useful property - it’s ability to protect our skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. 1 UV radiation can lead to tanning, burning, and aging of the skin, and when an increase in exposure to UV rays occurs, DNA can become damaged, potentially leading to skin cancer. 4 Oxybenzone is able to absorb the UV rays when applied on the skin, and rel...
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