Audrey's Reviews > Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us

The author remains largely disinterested in the question of whether caffeine is good or bad. The author has collected all kinds of information and is sharing it. The writing reads like typical journalism. If you are not very interested in the subject, the book won’t be interesting. If you are only interested in certain aspects of caffeine, I suggest skipping the nonrelevant chapters.

The book covers the history, culture, and pharmacology of caffeine. It was discovered ages and ages ago on every major continent. The earliest forms of caffeine, in cocoa and coffee, didn’t taste great, but people couldn’t get enough of them.

You can die of an overdose (though it’s difficult). People are very good at self-dosing, as we don’t feel well with too much. This doesn’t happen with many drugs. There is still argument over whether caffeine is addictive. It has withdrawal symptoms that are miserable, which qualifies as addictive to me. How many people can miss a day of coffee or Diet Coke, or remember the last time they did so?

Here are some highlights:

• The caffeine content in coffee varies widely enough with the same brand and same serving because the beans are all different. When marketers talk about “as much caffeine as a cup of coffee,” the phrase is meaningless.

• The soda industry claims caffeine is a flavoring agent and is not addictive, yet very few can taste any difference with or without caffeine. In the history of soda and energy drinks, makers have tried to downplay or hide the fact that the drinks’ main appeal is the caffeine.

• Caffeine can trigger panic attacks in people with a family history of them and in people with Performance Social Anxiety Disorder. (Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder is very different in the brain, it turns out.)

• Researchers “found that caffeine enhanced working memory for extroverts, but it did not help introverts’ performance.” Other drugs interact with caffeine and can affect how it’s metabolised. (Caffeine with alcohol makes people think they are less drunk than they really are, which has caused deaths.)

• Canada and EU regulate caffeine far more than the U.S.

• Athletes use it for energy. Does this count as doping? The military especially relies on it.

• If caffeine only masks fatigue, how many sleep deprived people are out there? What about people who use caffeine all day and then need sleeping pills at night? How healthy is that?

• If caffeine were only discovered today, would it be made a prescription-only drug? If it was suddenly made illegal, would people resort to stealing and smuggling to get it, as with drugs like cocaine and heroin?

* * *

On a personal level, I have never been a huge consumer of caffeine. I don’t like the smell of coffee and tea and have no desire to drink them. The only caffeinated soda I ever liked was Dr Pepper. In my late teens I began getting migraines chronically, and I began using caffeine to treat them. (The book talks about Cafergot, but I think this drug has become obsolete.)

Part of this treatment meant avoiding caffeine unless I was developing a migraine. (The migraine process involves blood vessels constricting, becoming inflamed, and then suddenly expanding. Caffeine, as a vasoconstrictor, can keep the blood vessels from suddenly expanding.)

So I use it as a drug, but I don’t let myself use it more than three days in a row because that’s enough to become addicted. I also stick to about 50-100 mg a day when I use it. If I were to take 200+ mg a day, I would become instantly addicted.

Personally I feel that people should be allowed to consume whatever they want. However, I would like to see caffeine amounts listed on labels so I can be better informed.

Book Blog