Nutrition Spotlight: Caffeine

Caffeine- Performance enhancer or health detriment?  Pam Brisky, Clinical Nutrition Manager at Memorial Hospital has provided some insight into this common stimulant.

Caffeine is the most widely used, socially acceptable stimulant.  It is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate.  Besides being a helpful aid to jump start one's day, research now suggests that caffeine may be an added benefit during exercise.  As with any drug, the benefits must out weigh the health detriments.

 

 

Research now suggests that caffeine enhances performance by providing improvement in short-term, intense anaerobic exercise less than 10 minutes in duration and high intensity aerobic exercise lasting 20-60 minutes.  Caffeine will not turn a couch potato into a marathon runner though, because it does not increase exercise capacity.  Caffeine is not the cure for America's obesity crisis, but it may aid exercisers by increasing utilization of fat and sparing muscle glycogen.  Increased alertness can also be a positive side effect of caffeine.

 

 

Does caffeine's performance enhancement attribute outweigh its possible side effects? Side effects may include increased diuresis leading to dehydration which, ultimately, can lead to decreased performance. Additional known side effects are hypoglycemia, dizziness, headache, arrhythmias, insomnia, increased anxiety, gastrointestinal distress, tremors, increased craving for alcohol and drugs, increased heart rate and decreased calcium absorption. With so many potential adverse side effects of caffeine, it can sound similar to a televised drug commercial with all its FDA warnings!

 

 

So should you avoid caffeine or not? 

 

 

Effects of caffeine can vary between individuals because caffeine crosses all tissues in the body including the blood-brain barrier, skeletal muscle, fat tissue and the liver.  If you suffer from any side effects as a result of consuming caffeine, stop ingesting caffeine.  If you like caffeine, but are worried about how much to consume, revert back to the fundamental nutrition principle of moderation.  What is moderation when it comes to caffeine?  One to three milligrams (mg) of caffeine per kilogram (kg) of body weight is considered a moderate amount.  To calculate how much this would be for you, take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2.  Then multiple it by 3 and that is a moderate amount of caffeine for you.  For a 220 pound individual that would be 300 mg of caffeine.  (220 / 2.2 = 100 kg; 100 x 3 = 300 mg).  Three hundred milligrams is roughly 2 cups of regular coffee.

 

 

The table below lists caffeine content of popular items. 

 

Source	Caffeine (mg)
Drip coffee 8oz	234
Percolated coffee 8oz	176
Regular instant coffee 8oz	85
Decaffeinated instant 8oz	3
Espresso 1-2oz	100
Starbucks Grande coffee 16oz	330
Chocolate milk 8oz	48
Regular cola 12oz	46
Diet cola 12oz	46
Mountain Dew 12 oz	55
Mountain Dew Fuel 12oz	120
Dr. Pepper 12 oz	39
Jolt Energy 23.5oz	280
Pibb Xtra 12oz	40.5
Sunkist Orange soda 8oz	41
Red Bull 8.5oz	80
Tab Energy 10.5	95
Vitamin Water Energy Citrus 20oz	42
Nestea Iced Tea 16oz	34
Tea, Brewed 8oz	47
Full Throttle 16 oz	144

 

 

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