Almost 80% of people around the world are dependent on their daily dose of caffeine to go about the day. Most of them can’t even work properly without those boosting sips early in the morning, in the middle of the day or just to live through those tiring night long shifts. The use of caffeine has become such an important part of our world that it has become the most frequently used ingredient. With different types of research happening everyday, some represent caffeine having negative effects like lack of sleep or anxiety while others show positive impacts like more productivity and various health benefits.
In this blog, we’ll be highlighting the importance of caffeine and how you can reduce it.
What Is Caffeine?
Caffeine is a popular and addictive natural stimulant that is usually found in tea, coffee, soft drinks, and also in cacao plants. The main property of a caffeinated substance is that it activates your brain and central nervous system to avoid tiredness. Most people consume it to stay vigilant and alert during work.
These caffeinated products date back many thousands of years, when in 2737 B.C. at Kenya brewed tea was found. Moreover, coffee was accidentally discovered by an Ethiopian shepherd whose goats used to be hyperactive after gazing at cacao plants. People used to rely on tea and coffee for most years until in the late 1800s, brands introduced caffeinated drinks in the market.
The number keeps on increasing with every passing day with a huge number of coffee places, tea stalls, and energy drinks being sold around the world.
How It Works
Before going into the effects and impacts of caffeine, first you need to figure out about its working procedure on your body. When you consume any caffeinated product, it is immediately absorbed from the gut and added into blood. Since your blood is circulating to all the different organs, caffeine also surrounds your body from liver to various other compounds, having a major impact on the functionality of major organs.
Moreover, the main target of caffeine is your brain and nervous system. It is responsible for terminating the effects of a neurotransmitter called adenosine. In normal circumstances, these neurotransmitters relax your brain because of which you feel tired. The adenosine is at its lowest when you wake up and gradually builds up throughout the day till you don’t have any energy to stay awake.
Now for those who want to stay up late for any reason, caffeine helps to stay up to connect the deactivated adenosine receptors in your brain. This reverses the impact of adenosine and reduces the feeling of tiredness and fatigue. You’ll also find yourself being more pumped up because of higher adrenaline levels and increased dopamine and norepinephrine activities.
This is the reason why caffeine is known as the psychoactive drug that exerts its effects rapidly in the human body. For instance, if we drink one cup of coffee it’ll reach your bloodstream within 20 minutes and activate its full potential within an hour.
What Foods And Drinks Contain Caffeine?
There are many products that you consume in your daily life that have caffeine in it. These even include seeds, leaves, and nuts from different plants. However, you don’t consume the raw ingredients as it is but harvest and profess it to make food and beverage.
The amount of caffeine in each food type is different depending on the serving. Following are the expected load of caffeine in some popular beverage considering 8 ounces of each:
- Chocolate flavored milk and hot or cold cocoa have 2-7 miligrams
- Soft drinks have 20-40 miligrams
- Brewed tea has 40-120 miligrams
- Energy drinks have 50-160 miligrams
- Yerba mate has 65-130 miligrams
- Coffee has 102-200 miligrams
- Espresso 240-720 miligrams
Even decaf coffee isn’t free from caffeine and also has 3 to 12 milligrams. Moreover, depending on the type of chocolate, the caffeine ratio is higher with milk chocolate standing at the least and dark chocolate at highest.
It may come as a shock to most people but caffeine also exists in prescription medicines specifically for cold syrups, pain killers, and allergy pills. Even being the primary ingredient in most weight loss supplements.
Positive Impacts
There are a huge ratio of positive impact which you get with your daily intake of caffeine. From boosting performance to cheered up brain, some of those are highlighted as follows:
May Improve Mood And Brain Function
If you want to lift up your mood and increase your productivity then caffeine intake is the best way to do so. With caffeine, you can block all the brain-signaling molecule which can improve other nervous signals like dopamine and norepinephrine. These two hormones can be responsible in cheering you up and increasing your productive mature.
Caffeine can decrease the risk of major brain malfunction like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases up to 60%. According to doctors, if you drink 3-5 cups of coffee daily then it’ll reduce all the brain damages and can help to maintain chemical imbalance.
Helps in Boost Metabolism
In light of its capacity to animate the focal sensory system, caffeine might increase digestion by up to 11% and fat consumption by up to 13%. All things considered, consuming 300 mg of caffeine each day might permit you to consume an extra 79 calories everyday.
This sum might appear to be little, however it’s like the calorie overabundance answerable for the typical yearly weight gain of 2.2 pounds (1 kg) in Americans. By and large, just 0.8-1.1 pounds (0.4-0.5 kg) lighter toward the finish of the review.
Caffeine might help digestion and advance fat misfortune, yet these impacts are probably going to stay little over the long haul.
May Enhance Exercise Performance
Another advantage of caffeine is that during exercise it can help you increase the usage of fat turning it into fuel. The beneficial element of caffeine hits when it sustains the storage of glucose and increases its durability so that you don’t get exhausted easily.
Moreover, caffeine is also helpful in enhancing your muscle contractions and can improve fatigue tolerance within your body. Most researchers have pointed out that if you take in 2.3 mg of caffeine per pound of your body weight, at least one hour before exercise then you’re more likely to get a solid boost in performance and productivity up to 5%.
Even if you take the least of 1.4 mg of caffeine per pound of your body weight then it’ll be enough to get the benefits expected from it, including high intensity workout, more stamina, better exercise resistant capacity, and more.
Negative Impact
Just like the excess of every other product is bad for your health, if you get a high dose of caffeine daily, it will affect your health adversely. Following are some of the adverse effects from caffeine:
Anxiety
The major side effects that are connected with the high powered dose of caffeine are anxiety issues, insomnia, restlessness, and irregular sweating that can cause trouble with your general appearance and mental health as well.
Blood Related Issues
Caffeine also causes irregularities in blood circulation which can result in defects with the nervous system. It also causes high blood pressure, headaches, migraine, and more.
Moreover, in pregnancy caffeine intake is highly prohibited because it can cross the placenta. The outcomes of high caffeine dose can be miscarriage and low birth weight as well.
Numb Senses
People also consume caffeine with medications which can cause the need of daily intakes. Most people take daily doses of muscle relaxants or antidepressants which may appear to be a great replacement for caffeine but they have more dangerous effects on the human body. It can even numb your senses.
Recommended Dosages
Caffeine intake isn’t entirely bad and it is suggested to consume it in minimal amounts. However, most people lose count of what’s minimal. For them, the leading food and nutrition departments of the world including the European Food Safety Authority and US Department of Agriculture have recommended 400 mg of caffeine daily as a safe dose. This would make up around 2-4 cups scattered throughout the day.
It should also be noted that there had been cases of death due to 500 mg of caffeine in a single dose. Thus, doctors suggest you consume your caffeine in small amounts instead of all at once. They have even stated to take in 200 mg of every dose. Moreover, pregnant women are recommended to restrict their consumption to 200 mg every day.
Summing up
Any product, ingredient, or type of food that is consumed in minimal amounts is better for you, that’s why it is recommended to take a balanced diet because even a high amount of protein based products isn’t even safe for you. Caffeine has many pros when it comes to high productivity and boosting metabolism, however, if you consume a heavy dose then it can even make your senses go all out. It is suggested to consume caffeine as per the dose recommended by the doctors to avoid any health issues.
