By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: October 26, 2011
Print Edition: October 19, 2011
Dogs may be man’s best friend – but caffeine is the best friend of everyone else. It keeps us awake, helps us lose weight, reduces our risk of diseases like diabetes and Parkinson’s, and gives us something to wash down those timbits with. However, it’s got some risks – and as it turns out, many of those risks hit the student demographic pretty hard.
First, let’s clarify. Caffeine is a drug – a naturally occurring one, called trimethylxanthine, but a drug nonetheless. Furthermore, as explained on Health Canada’s website, this drug affects our brains in a way very similar to a much more dangerous drug: heroin. Both drugs amp up the levels of dopamine in our brains, and this makes us happy – for lack of a more technical explanation. Prolonged use of both drugs cause the body to stop producing adequate levels of dopamine on its own, which partially accounts for the addictions formed to both caffeine and heroin. Long story short, if you drink enough coffee, you really do turn into a moody jerk without it.
Another danger of excessive caffeine consumption is weight gain. While ingesting caffeine in natural forms can help with weight loss, the drug is typically ingested in the form of coffee, pops or juices. While coffee can be taken without cream or sugar, other beverages tend to be high in sugar and low in nutritional value. This means that if you consume a large amount of caffeine for its feel-good and stay-awake properties, it’s important to be careful about how you’re getting it in your body. Unless you’re looking to gain weight, of course – and if that’s the case, try cupcakes. They taste better.
Caffeine can also be consumed in pill form. These pills can be purchased in drug stores or supplement stores; 4Ever Fit pills, available at Popeye’s supplements (among others) contain 200 mg of caffeine per pill. To put this in perspective, the Starbucks nutritional guide states that a tall cup of dark roast coffee contains approximately 260 mg of caffeine. While these pills contain less caffeine than the average cup of coffee, they can still be very dangerous. When consuming pills, the caffeine enters the body’s system very quickly and suddenly. A cup of coffee, conversely, may take an hour to ingest. The gradual nature that coffee is consumed with gives the body a chance to acquiesce to the stimulant, meaning any negative effects are minimized. Caffeine pills have been associated with a whole host of dangers, as noted on warnings on the bottles: heart problems, migraines, low blood pressure – the list is endless.
Taking caffeine pills for weight loss can be very dangerous, especially when taken in conjunction with ephedrine. Both stimulants work similarly in the human body, effecting blood flow and adrenaline output. Because of this, taking the pills in conjunction heightens the danger of each of the side effects, and can even be fatal – typically in the form of heart failure. Health Canada mandates that it is illegal to sell caffeine and ephedrine together; in 2006, 4Ever Fit packaged a bottle of each together in a “convenience” pack, and they were subsequently pulled from the shelves despite the fact that the stimulants were bottled separately.
Another danger of caffeine is ingesting it in conjunction with alcohol. As the Scientific American journal explains, “caffeine can reduce the sedative effects of alcohol; this may allow someone to drink for longer periods of time.” Translation? The caffeine makes you alert, meaning it’s difficult to tell if you’ve reached your limit. A particular danger is the energy drinks available that have alcohol in them already: the level of alcohol in these can be as high as that of four beers, yet the sugar added makes them taste less strong. Given this, it’s easy to drink too much without realizing it – and if you haven’t learned that sugary drinks make for gnarly hangovers, count yourself lucky and stay away.
Non-alcoholic energy drinks have their own set of dangers. Their levels of caffeine are quite high—as much as 300 mg in a single can—yet they are often consumed very quickly. Recently, Health Canada has put forth an initiative that requires the amount of caffeine to be under 180 mg, but this is still higher than their recommended dosage of 80 mg for adults. Further, they are now requiring that all ingredients and nutritional information are listed on the side of each can, along with labels warning consumers – not unlike the images and warnings that adorn each pack of cigarettes. The dangers of these drinks reach further than just their levels of caffeine: for example: in a can of Coke there are 30 mg of sodium, and in a can of RedBull there are 200 mg of sodium. Given the dangers of caffeine to the heart that already exist, those pre-class pick-me-ups aren’t such a great idea.
Studies show there are many benefits of caffeine, not the least of which is keeping you awake on all-nighters. The ways we ingest caffeine aren’t always so healthy. If you’re looking for a good alternative, try a piece of high-quality dark chocolate (about 40 mg of caffeine), or a mug of unsweetened green tea (60-70 mg). If you’re looking to eliminate caffeine from your diet, remember that it occurs naturally in many sources – chocolate, sugar, and all types of teas among them. Above all, remember that caffeine is a drug: you can become addicted to it, and withdrawal comes in the form of some pretty vicious migraines. Treat it appropriately.
