Caffeine, Wonder Drug

coffee

I came across this nifty research review article while writing a post for Harvard Health Blog. Ah, caffeine. What a fascinating little chemical!

Don’t feel like reading an eighteen-page scientific paper? Here’s the gist of it: Anything you thought your cup of coffee was doing for you, it probably is.

Yes. Coffee. It really does improve alertness, attention, mood, and reaction time, especially when we’re sleep-deprived. It may also enhance physical coordination and endurance. Temporarily, of course.

But not just coffee. I found myself studying the table below, which lists the caffeine content of common beverages, foods and medications.

Who knew: a serving of dark chocolate has the same amount of caffeine as a can of Coke! That’s just two tablespoons of dark (baking) chocolate. That may be my new go-to pick-me-up in the late afternoon.

If you’re as big a dork as I am, check it out, and enjoy!

 

Estimated caffeine content of beverages, foods and dietary supplements

Item Caffeine content (mg/100 mL) Serving size (mL) Caffeine content (mg/serving)
Coffee
 Drip method 60–100 150 90–150
 Instant 27–72 150 40–108
 Decaffeinated 1–3 150 2–5
Tea
 1-min brew 6–22 150 9–33
 5-min brew 13–33 150 20–50
Iced Tea 6–10 350 22–36
Chocolate Products
 Hot cocoa 1–5 175 2–8
 Chocolate milk 1–3 235 2–7
 Milk chocolate 3–50 30 1–15
 Baking chocolate 115 30 35
Cola Beverages
 Coca-Cola® 10 350 35
 Diet Coke® 13 350 47
 Pepsi® 11 350 38
 Diet Pepsi® 10 350 36
Other soft drinks
 Dr. Pepper® 11 350 40
 Mountain Dew® 16 350 55
 Barq’s® Root Beer 7 350 23
Energy Drinks
 Amp® 30 235 71
 Cocaine® 120 235 280
 Monster® 34 235 80
 Red Bull® 34 235 80
 Rockstar® 34 235 80
Energy Shots
 5-h Energy® 333 60 200
 10-h Time Release® 740 57 422
Over-the-counter Medication
 Anacin (1 tablet) 32
 Excedrin (1 caplet) 65
 Midol (1 pill) 60
 NoDoz (1 tablet) 200

1 oz = 29.56 mL.

Reference:

McLellan TM, Caldwell JA, Lieberman HR A review of caffeine’s effects on cognitive, physical and occupational performance. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016 Dec;71:294-312. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.001. Epub 2016 Sep 6.

 



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