The Original 7-up Was A Mind-altering Substance

Coca-Cola isn’t the only soda that started as a pharmaceutical elixir. 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. A chart from lithium producer Western Lithium Corporation shows how the salt is used in different products. Lithium's mind-altering effects may have been an early draw for 7-Up.

 

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