I’ve been looking to start up this blog for a while now and I’ve finally mustered up the energy to get it going (considering I’m in the middle of midterm season, this is the most justifiable way for me to make use of my time!). And the fact that my caffeine consumption has shot up about 300%, it makes perfect sense to make my first post about that!
I stumbled upon this interesting article that has some scientific basis for its claims about the effect of caffeine on those that consume it.
You can read it here if you choose to do that first.
One of the main reasons I like the article is because it explains, in simple terms, the scientific background behind the function of caffeine. Caffeine works to mimic adenosine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, found in your brain and reduce the amount of receptors that it can activate. Here’s a little neuroscience background to explain what I mean. A neurotransmitter (NT) is a chemical found in the brain that is expelled from your neurons and binds to other neurons in order to convey a signal or message (this is the process for any signal in your brain). In order to bind to these neurons, the chemical needs to be able to bind to a receptor, which is specific to that NT. However, there are so many molecules in nature that are similar to each other that it is possible for us to produce or consume chemicals that can be similar enough to bind these receptors. This can have a variety of effects from having an increased stimulation to blocking the receptors. In the case of caffeine, the adenosine receptors perceive caffeine as a similar enough molecule and bind it, without being activated. Adenosine, being a NT responsible for promoting sleep and reducing arousal, can’t bind as many receptors, and therefore we are less able to feel sleepy when caffeine binds these receptors!
Therefore as the articles shows, caffeine doesn’t actually give us energy, it just prevents us from being tired. However, there are other effects that caffeine has on our peripheral nervous system that give us the jitters and frequent runs to the bathroom ( I won’t be getting into that!)
Now I’m a big consumer of coffee and I do need that caffeine punch in the morning to really get me going. But how much am I really getting in my daily consumption?
It really depends on what kind of coffee you drink. Wisebread has a great summary of caffeine levels for you in this article.
I usually have a brewed cup of coffee in the morning at home (it’s pretty weak so I don’t get a huge kick). I’m guessing it only has around 80-100mg a cup at the most. However I’m on campus for school all day everyday so I really need that push to get me going. Usually I will go for a large Williams coffee which I’m guessing has around 180-200mg (I have no data to back this up, just a guesstimation) of caffeine.Some days I will go ahead and treat myself to that Pike cup of Starbucks coffee that all addicts will agree has the biggest caffeine punch from all the cafes out there (around 300mg)! And at the end of the day I might have an instant coffee on campus or at home which would bring the total of my caffeine consumption to about 400mg a day. The safe caffeine consumption is considered to be 600mg a day, above which it becomes toxic to your body, making my daily intake reasonable.
I’m sure to your surprise, my point in this article is actually to try to show that caffeine consumption needs to be lowered for the average North American (especially students). I am well aware of the majority of the population on campus that consumes sky-high amounts of caffeine on a daily basis that they become dependent on and I think a lot of that can be avoided using some simple techniques.
My first technique to lower my caffeine consumption is to understand how much I am taking in. Every year I go in cycles, usually around midterm and exam periods, where my caffeine consumption changes. When these times change, my consumption goes down. And I can understand that because I can consciously sum up how much I’m lowering my consumption by.
My second technique is to look for liquid alternatives. I think the biggest mistake to cutting the habit is quitting cold turkey. It’s one of the hardest things to do when you get migraines and fatigue spells. So my suggestion is to switch out the coffee for tea once in a while. The habit of consuming a hot beverage is what keeps me buying that coffee! So I go and grab a tea instead and pour some milk in there to make it similar to my coffee. This way I can lower the amount of caffeine I take in while still having a drink (remember that teas still contain a reasonable amount of caffeine)
Another suggestion is to try to limit the coffee in the morning, and if its too hard (having it a bit later in the day). Coffee doesn’t actually wake you up that much. You know what does? Apples! Instead of having that coffee, grab an apple in the morning with your breakfast and you’ll be golden (delicious) for the morning.
Hopefully some of these suggestions can educate you to become a conscientious coffee drinker =) And now, back to my coffee!
One of the best things I ever did for myself, for my long-term health and well-being, was to eliminate caffeine and the other methylxanthines from my diet. I’m convinced that ingesting caffeine is, really, the equivalent of raising your stress level. It puts your body into ye olde “fight or flight” mode and that mode is not meant to be maintained for a long period of time. After FINALLY – I quit caffeine at least a dozen times – getting that stuff out of my diet permanently, I become much calmer, MORE energetic (believe it or not) and not subject to “energy crashes”. I know I’m very much in the minority, but I also know that it is the right thing to do … for me. Check out Stephen Cherniske’s “Caffeine Blues”. It’s an eye-opener.
Thanks for the post David! I definitely agree that caffeine can have a negative impact (which I think everyone’s been affected by) on stress levels and general well being. Congratulations on finally stopping that habit and sticking with it! I’ve tried doing that in the past, but it’s much too difficult knowing how much I love the taste of it. I think it’s a very social thing too where it’s something you do with other people during your break to make you feel better, and you can’t quit because it’s always a stressful time to start trying (there’s some references to smoking in there!) so having that social support behind drinking it definitely has an impact on how much you drink. So I’m doing ok through moderation, but it’s definitely something everyone needs to lower.