Okay seriously, even if you are familiar with it and it is one of your favorite beverages, the chances are you do not know all there is to know about this lemon-lime flavored, non-caffeinated drink.
Here are some of the facts that might blow you away!
Charles Leiper Grigg of St. Louis came up for the formula of a lemon-lime flavored drink in 1929.
Apparently he was really not very good at naming things, because he named it "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda"! Imagine ordering that at a Fast Food outlet!
But the name may have given you a hint as to what the other astonishing fact about 7 Up is.
It contained lithium citrate! Imagine all the very calm people drinking 7 Up. Lithium citrate is a medicinal drug which is used to treat depression, mania, bipolar disorder, self-harming behavior and aggression.
Lithium affects a person’s ability to drive or operate machinery, so hopefully nobody drank 7 Up before going to work or driving home!
Of course 7 Up no longer contains that mood altering medication. Lithium was removed as an ingredient of the soft drink in 1950. Ironically, the slogan for 7 Up until 1936 was “You Like It, It Likes You!”
