Caffeine effect

Caffeine effect

In the morning after waking up, you drink coffee. Current studies show that 89% of the German population drinks coffee daily, mostly starting in the morning. After the first cup, the next one is already waiting at work, university, or at home. You have an espresso after meals and enjoy a cappuccino in the afternoon. Even in the evening, before your workout at the gym, you drink an espresso to push through better. Throughout the day, cup after cup, the caffeine you consume accumulates, and you're not always aware of how much you're taking in. You feel the caffeine. It becomes uncomfortable when you experience heart palpitations, sweating, or discomfort. A restless night because sleep refuses to come doesn't help either, turning coffee consumption from a pleasure into a nuisance. You've underestimated caffeine's effect. Enjoying caffeine consciously and switching to decaffeinated coffee at the right time is the way to go. You can enjoy your coffee moments without restricting yourself.

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is a substance found in plants, especially in coffee, tea, mate, guarana, kola nuts, and cocoa. Caffeine is a natural plant protection that keeps unwanted pests, such as insects, away from the plant. Chemically, caffeine belongs to the methylxanthines. Isolated and purified from plants or synthetically produced, caffeine is a white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder. The exact chemical name of caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine. Other substances in the same family as caffeine from coffee include theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine) from cocoa and theophylline (1,3-dimethylxanthine) from tea. Caffeine can also be isolated from tea and was previously referred to as theine. Theine is chemically identical to caffeine and is an outdated term that is no longer used. In plants, caffeine does not occur as a free substance but is bound to other components like tannins. In green coffee beans, caffeine is mostly bound to chlorogenic acid.

How does caffeine affect the body?

When you drink coffee, caffeine is quickly absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. From there, it reaches the liver, where it is broken down into compounds that can affect the function of various organs. The main function of caffeine is blocking adenosine, a neurotransmitter that relaxes the brain and induces sleepiness. Normally, adenosine levels rise throughout the day, making you feel more tired and wanting to sleep. Caffeine helps you stay awake by binding to adenosine receptors in the brain without activating them. This blocks the effect of adenosine, keeping you awake longer.

Decaffeinated coffee protects against caffeine overdose

Caffeine has positive properties, but as with everything, "the dose makes the poison." Not everyone tolerates caffeine equally well, and the effects of too much caffeine can be unpleasant. Already at 200-300 mg (2-3 cups of coffee), typical symptoms like restlessness, reduced concentration, nervousness, anxiety, sleep disturbances, trembling, as well as nausea and vomiting may occur.

Depending on the amount of caffeine consumed and individual physical reactions to the stimulant, various effects of caffeine on the body have been described.

Caffeine can improve mood, brain function, and protect against brain diseases.

Caffeine has the ability to block the neurotransmitter adenosine, which leads to an increase in other neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. It is believed that this change in communication in the brain can improve mood and brain function.

Studies show that consuming three to five cups of caffeinated coffee per day can reduce the risk of brain diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by 28-60%. Whether caffeine is the only effective substance is still unclear, as studies with decaffeinated coffee also show a protective effect on the nerve pathways in the brain.

Caffeine can stimulate metabolism and promote weight loss.

Due to its ability to stimulate the central nervous system, caffeine can accelerate metabolism and increase fat burning. Lean individuals show a more pronounced effect than overweight individuals. Several studies describe a weight-reducing effect of caffeine.

Caffeine can improve athletic performance.

Consuming small amounts of caffeine, about an hour before physical exertion, can improve physical performance. Caffeine supports the use of fat as fuel during exercise and helps store glucose in muscles. This is advantageous as it may delay the time muscles take to reach exhaustion. Caffeine can also improve muscle contractions and increase tolerance to fatigue.

Caffeine helps with respiratory diseases

Caffeine dilates the airways, improves the function of respiratory muscles, and promotes the clearing of the airways. Drinking coffee or tea can have a positive effect on acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Theophylline, caffeine's cousin from tea, has a stronger effect than caffeine and is therapeutically used in bronchial asthma.

Caffeine increases fluid excretion through the kidneys

Caffeine increases kidney circulation, resulting in a temporary diuretic effect, which varies individually. However, with regular caffeine consumption, the diuretic effect of caffeine decreases.

The myth that drinking coffee dehydrates the body has long been debunked. Although there is a diuretic effect, the amount of fluid excreted is within the natural range and is usually not problematic.

Is caffeine addictive?

With regular caffeine consumption, tolerance develops, and the wakefulness effect of caffeine is no longer felt as strongly. Offering your brain caffeine regularly displaces adenosine from its receptors. In response, your brain produces new receptors. This allows both the caffeine you consume and the adenosine that accumulates throughout the day to be processed.

Regular coffee drinkers often experience headaches, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, or bad moods when abruptly cutting out coffee or caffeine. These are withdrawal symptoms from caffeine abstinence. While a tolerance effect occurs with regular caffeine intake, it is not considered an addiction in the medical sense. Withdrawal symptoms typically disappear after a few days, and there is no risk of dependence like with drugs.

How much caffeine is too much?

Depending on how sensitive you are to caffeine, your personal caffeine intake is limited. In general, about 4 cups of coffee per day are considered unproblematic.

Caffeine in coffee

The caffeine content in green coffee beans varies depending on the type. Robusta beans contain about 2.2% caffeine, while Arabica beans contain only half as much. A typical cup of regular coffee contains 80 to 120 mg of caffeine, depending on the preparation method, bean blend, and grind. A cup of decaf contains about 1-5 mg of caffeine, depending on the strength of the brew. This means that for a regular cup of coffee (about 80 mg caffeine), you could drink an average of 26 cups of decaf (about 3 mg caffeine per cup) before reaching the same caffeine level.

Caffeine as a pure substance

Caffeine is added to various foods or medications, especially soft drinks. The caffeine content in soft drinks is legally regulated. Soft drinks may contain a maximum of 320 milligrams of caffeine per liter. A caffeine content of 150 milligrams per liter or more must be labeled. This applies especially to energy drinks and, occasionally, cola drinks. To protect vulnerable individuals from excessive caffeine consumption, these products must carry a warning: "Increased caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women." Soft drinks or cola drinks with less than 100 milligrams of caffeine per liter are not required to carry the warning. Coffee and tea are natural products and are therefore exempt from this labeling regulation.

In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that pure caffeine products pose a significant threat to public health after two deaths occurred in the U.S. The FDA took action and issued warning letters to retailers of pure caffeine, cautioning that just one teaspoon of pure caffeine powder contains the same amount of caffeine as 28 cups of regular coffee. A half cup of highly concentrated liquid caffeine products contains more caffeine than 20 cups of coffee. A lethal caffeine concentration in human blood is around 80 to 100 mg/L, which can be reached with the consumption of about 10 grams of pure caffeine (around 1 tablespoon).

In Europe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a safety assessment for caffeine in 2015. According to the EFSA, a daily caffeine intake of 400 mg is considered safe for healthy adults, which corresponds to about 4-5 cups of regular coffee. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as children and adolescents, should consume less. For these vulnerable groups, the intake amounts are lower. You would practically never reach the EFSA limit by drinking only decaf coffee. The caffeine content of a cup of filter coffee is roughly equivalent to 26 cups of decaf. The EFSA allows 4-5 cups of coffee, which would mean that you would only reach the EFSA limit by drinking approximately 130 cups of decaf. Even the most passionate decaf drinker would capitulate at that amount.

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