Healthy Fruit Drinks On sale on Beach Road's new 'Pattaya Promenade'.

Laboratory tests by Mahidol University on 22 samples of orange juice found many contained dangerously high levels of sugar. The tests revealed some concentrated orange juice and orange-flavoured drinks contain 11 to 15 teaspoons of sugar per small bottle or pack, compared to about seven teaspoons per similar-sized can of carbonated drink. The Department of Medical Services recently reported that Thais consume excessive amounts of sugar, with an average of 20 teaspoons per person a day. The recommended health standard is no more than 10 teaspoons a day. An excessive intake of sugar can lead to increased a risk of many diseases, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The lab tests also found that the juices contained less vitamin C than claimed on the label. The Foundation for Consumers said consumers should switch to fresh fruit, such as guava, for vitamin C intake. A 100g serving of fresh guava contains up to 230mg of vitamin C.

Check your receipt!If you are buying goods at BigC, Carrefour or Tesco/Lotus check your receipt very carefully. Often the price on the shelf does not match the price on the receipt. And more often than not, the difference is at your disadvantage.Very often the advertised promotions last a few days only, but the stickers remain on the shelfes for weeks.

Thailand's problem with Soda Water Thailand bans alcohol during election days and Buddhist holidays. Because some Thais like to drink their Whisky with Soda Water, the lovely officials are banning Soda Water on those days too.

Long-life
low-energy bulbs Buy the long-life low-energy bulbs here in Thailand.At homeWorks and other Shopping Centers you can get the good ones from Philips 2 to 3 times cheaper than in Europe! Prices start at about 63 Baht only.

Long-life
low-energy bulbs Global demand for fluorescent lamp tubes in 2008 is estimated at one billion units, and will increase to four billion tubes in 2015. Largely due to hiking oil prices. Philips is the largest global vendor of CFLs and currently has two production bases in Poland and India. Lite-On IT in Zhengjiang, eastern China, obtained OEM orders from Royal Philips Electronics, largely due to the pair's existing partnership in the manufacture of optical disc drives. Many of the mineral ores used as materials for CFL tubes can be sourced locally in Zhengjiang. Philips has been under intense price pressure for its lamps from Sanyo Electric, Osram and large retail channels.

In full contrast to nation wide advertisements:Your body can't absorb the Calcium in Soya Milk.Therefore: Calcium in Soya Milk is completely useless. FOX TV, March 23 2008.

If you are buying a bicycle check its brakes very carefully. Brakes on bicycles 'Made in Thailand' are mostly an useless accessory.

None of the NetBooks based on Intel's Atom CPUs can run Windows Vista®, but all can run the major Linux distributions. All NetBooks based on VIA's CM-7M CPUs can run Windows Vista®, Windows XP and the major Linux distributions.

Toshiba's Notebooks are manufactured either by Compal Electronics, Inventec or Pegatron Technology. Sony's Notebooks are manufactured either by Quanta Computer or Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry). Notebooks from Hewlett-Packard and Apple are manufatured by Quanta Computer.