Caffeine Does it Really Work?

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How many of us cannot do without our daily coffee? We need it to wake us up or "pick us up" in the afternoon. We find the "wonder" ingredient caffeine anywhere now, from coca-cola to even pastries. Let us find out what some researchers have to say about our daily caffeine intake.

Enlarge ImageDonuts with Caffeine?

The caffeine-powered donut is invented. Look where we have come from the days the goats ate the red coffee berries back in the year 850 as the Legend of goat herder Kaldi of Ethiopia says. He experienced the berries "power" himself and since, we all have come to know coffee and its buzz. The caffeine is what makes us "wake up" after drinking our coffee and now we have it in pastries too!

Adding caffeine to baked goods? The idea of mixing caffeine in bagels and pastries was introduced as the researchers found a way to eliminate the bitter taste of caffeine. Therefore, the donuts taste will remain unchanged while they will contain an amount of caffeine equivalent to a 5-ounce cup of coffee, "Buzz Donuts". Yes, after all, we are living in a world with countless possibilities and combinations like these can suit so many people as we all seem to be in such a hurry. Grabbing a "buzz donut" can make things easier at times and oh, they are so tempting!

Regardless where caffeine is, its consumption has the same effects but, when we think about it, the donuts do have extra calories and fat when compared to a cup of "good old" coffee.

Anyway, caffeinated pastries have all the chances to become popular in our time when everyone looks for "instant" solutions for each problem.

Coffee 'no buzz' after all?

Coffee doesn't cause people to be more active or vigilant than normal although it wakes you up faster after the night sleep is what the researchers in the University of Bristol showed. Their work, pointed out the fact that the coffee buzz is present only with people who stopped consuming caffeine for a certain period, and it is only after this "coffee break" that they get the buzz back.

Here is a fragment of what Zoe Wheeldon, of the British Coffee Association, said: "There are two sides to the debate and a wealth of scientific evidence suggests that moderate coffee consumption of four to five cups per day is perfectly safe for the general population and does have a beneficial effect on alertness and performance even in regular coffee drinkers."

Those who swear by their morning caffeine fix say it wakes them up, and if they missed out they would feel sluggish and unable to get on with their day.

Professor Peter Rogers, a biological psychologist who led a research on the coffee's effects with the Bristol researchers, affirmed: "We do feel a boost from caffeine in the morning, but that's probably due to a reversal of the withdrawal symptoms." So that alertness you feel is your getting back to normal, rather than reaching above the normal level of alertness.

Professor Rogers said caffeine did have some benefits, such as preventing cognitive decline in the elderly, yet the best choice is choosing drinks that have no caffeine.

Pros and cons but who can stop you if you like it? If you know it harms your health you should find other drinks to replace it like coffee made out of soy or tea. Of course when it comes to tea you need to pay attention to its ingredients as it is not the same if you drink a mint tea or a green tea. Caffeine is not present in the mint tea but the green tea contains it and has a coffee-like effect.

However, had it been only for the caffeine, we could drink caffeinated water as well, but it is a different taste experience to drink a coffee that along caffeine has got all the other ingredients as antioxidants, potassium and magnesium. "When you give somebody caffeine without all the other substances that are in coffee you have a very different situation," one of the researchers acknowledged.

Many times coffee is just a pretext to communicate with people and a nice conversation and the taste you like create a pleasant environment, besides, it does not take a chef to prepare this drink, you can easily do it yourself! Well, balance is good in everything including coffee consumption.

So we can decide for ourselves what to do, keeping our mug faithfully to our side or... go without as we'll feel the same anyway?

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