Today I was working on a presentation I’m giving on Energy Drinks and Stimulants and I came across this picture which I think is so stinking cute. Especially for all of the science nerds out there who love pictures depicting what is going on in our body (yes, I did play with my organic chemistry model set for hours as an undergrad). For those two very reasons I decided to write about caffeine tonight. And because I wanted to dispel some of the common misconceptions.
Caffeine is found in the leaves or seeds of over 60 plants. For that very reason you may see “mate,” “kola nut” or “guarana” under the list of ingredients in a food or beverage. And, though this picture tells everything, caffeine binds to adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine inhibits neural activity, caffeine stimulates it. Decrease your caffeine consumption and you may experience withdrawal symptoms but these go away as soon as the “extra” receptors disappear. Caffeine isn’t really addictive beyond the withdrawal symptoms, it is GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA) and everyone’s tolerance differs. If you take in over 300 mg per day you may experience rapid heartbeats and difficulty sleeping. And, here’s the kicker, those energy drinks typically contain just 80-300 mg. So unless you are downing several a day they shouldn’t cause any untoward effects. The reports about death associated with energy drinks are ridiculous. That’s like walking up to a dead body and saying that the bread they just ate caused their heart to stop pumping. A person would have to drink about 170 Red Bulls in ONE day to die from the amount of caffeine in that product (Red Bull only has about 60 mg caffeine – as much as soda).
Caffeine can enhance your focus (even for those with ADD and ADHD), temporarily increase calorie burning, enhance athletic performance, possibly decrease pain after exercise and increase glycogen re-synthesis when consumed with carbohydrate post-exercise (hopefully we’ll know more about the dose in future studies since they did use a pretty hefty dose in this particular study).
So that’s my quick lowdown on caffeine. I’m off to bed and already fired up about my cup of Starbucks in the morning.
I have been drining caffeine for as long as I can remember and now being diagnosed with progessive MS, I really can not stop drinking the one pleasure in life that I have……..diet pepsi. Your article was awesome Marie and I hope that caffeine is okay to drink.
No, there is no evidence that caffeine causes osteoporosis. Great question!
You didn’t mention osteoporosis. Does it matter?