7-Up, the 85-year-old citrus soft drink, once went
by the less-catchy name “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda” -- and it was
packed with mood-enhancing lithium.
Lithium, a salt found in groundwater, has long been
used to treat bipolar disorder and depression. An essay by psychiatrist and
Cornell University professor Anna Fels, published Sunday in the New York Times, argued for
adding low doses of the substance -- mostly used to produce ceramics, glass and
batteries -- to drinking water in hopes of lowering rates of suicide, murder
and rape.
Lithium's mind-altering effects may have been an
early draw for 7-Up. The drink, which contained the compound lithium citrate,
started selling just two weeks before the stock market crashed in October 1929,
kicking off the Great Depression.
But the beverage, then known by its six-word
mouthful of a name, cost more than most of its 600 or so lemon-lime soft-drink
rivals at the time, according to its official
corporate brand history. Soon after its release, founder
Charles L. Grigg renamed the soda 7-Up.
Theories about the origin of the name vary.
The most logical explanation is that the "7" in the name refers to
the drink's seven ingredients: carbonated water, sugar, citrus oils, citric
acid, sodium citrate and lithium citrate.
The “Up,” Fels posited, references the lithium lift.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of lithium
in beer and soft drinks in 1948, and 7-Up was reformulated two years later.
Chris Barnes, a spokesman for the Dr. Pepper Snapple
Group -- the beverage behemoth to which 7-Up was sold in 1986 (before that,
it changed hands from its founder
to tobacco giant Philip Morris, interestingly) - said Grigg took the secret
behind 7-Up's name to the grave.
Barnes said a corporate history book documents the
same theory linking the name to the number of ingredients.
But he said other theories suggest Grigg was
inspired by a cattle rancher's brand. Another tidbit: Grigg apparently wanted
to call the soda "Click," but the name was already taken, Barnes
said.
"It's something that's a little
mysterious," Barnes said. "It contributes to the lore."
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