17 Caffeine Facts You Never Knew About

17 Caffeine Facts You Never Knew About

We have all come to love caffeine and our love for coffee has reached a point where most of us need a daily caffeine fix. If it’s not coffee then it’s tea. Both of which have their own caffeine content.

Too much of anything is always going to be bad for your health even if they have their health benefits and that’s one of the reasons people overdose on medicines that were created and prescribed to help them.

Abusing caffeine can lead to death as well, there have been cases where people have overdosed on caffeine powder and pills that were considered to be weight loss aids.

We’ll take a look at some caffeine facts. Some of them good and others not so good. Like any other thing, we’ll try to take the good and avoid the bad.

1. 10 minutes is all the time caffeine needs to have an effect on you. The full effect of caffeine can be felt at 45 minutes and can last up to three to four hours depending on your bodies ability to break down caffeine.

2. Adenosine is the chemical responsible for fatigue and sleepiness. It slows our neurons, So, as it builds up in our body it makes us sleepy. Caffeine blocks adenosine and hence we stay awake and alert after we drink a cup of coffee. As caffeine molecular structure is quite similar to that of adenosine it is able it is able to bind the adenosine and helps us stay awake.

3. Caffeine withdrawal is just as serious as drug or alcohol withdrawal. So, the next time you drink 3 or 4 cups of coffee in one sitting think about how it would feel when you realize that you are having too much and suddenly stop drinking. A headache, irritability, fatigue are few of the side effects that hit after 24 hours without coffee.

4. Where do you think coffee comes from? Coffee beans? But where do coffee beans come from? Straight out of the coffee plants? Nope. Coffee plants produce bright red fruits which then undergo various processes and is turned into the coffee beans or coffee powder that you use to make a coffee.

5. As we have already seen caffeine takes 10 minutes to hits in general. But how the caffeine is processed varies based on gender, race and various other factors like smoking. Women on birth control pills process caffeine at a slower rate as compared to women who are not on any form of birth control.

6. Here’s something now many of you might have known. In the world wars, I and II soldiers were known to carry caffeine tablets to stay alert and keep exhaustion at bay.

7. As caffeine is not just found in coffee and tea but also in certain varieties of ice creams and chocolate bars, almost 90% of world population is known to consume caffeine. Even though 98% of the caffeine intake worldwide is in terms of beverages.

8. Coffee is stronger than energy drinks because they don’t have as much caffeine as coffee. Similarly, the darker coffee roast has less caffeine as compared to the lighter roasts. With chocolate is exactly the opposite, darker the chocolate more the amount of caffeine.

9. Caffeine is not the only element in a coffee that affects your health. There are other elements that are comparatively a lot better for your health and they are few of the reason why coffee is believed to boost the life expectancy. It contains antioxidants. Other benefits include a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Even diabetes can be contained with the help of a coffee.

10. Caffeine acts as a pesticide as well as an herbicide. This keeps the insects and shrubs or weeds away. The pesticides get rids of the insects and keeps the plants healthy whereas the herbicide i.e. caffeine in the plants accumulates at the roots and doesn’t give the shrubs or weeds to take the nutrients and minerals that coffee plants need to grow and stay healthy.

11. The reason even decaf coffee will do when you can’t have a decent cup of coffee is that it has a minute amount of coffee. Around 13.9 mg of caffeine.

12. Here’s another fun fact there’s an energy caffeine spray that you will keep you awake and alert if by chance you start feeling fatigued or sleepy at any time of the day just spray it. It is absorbed by our body rather than being consumed like coffee and other caffeine eatables.

13. Migraine tablets and diet pills both contain caffeine in some amount or other. Taking a daily dose of diet pills is similar to drinking 12 cups of coffee daily.

14. The 90% of world population that consumes caffeine does not just include young adults, adults, and senior citizens. It also includes youngsters and children who have a constant hankering for sweets such as chocolate bars and certain ice creams.

15. Caffeine has a lot of advantages, one of them is reduced rates of suicide. As coffee is known to curb the depression. It has helped people choose life and live it.

16. Just like caffeine withdrawal is an actual medical condition, caffeine is a drug. In fact, caffeine is the most used drug worldwide followed by alcohol and nicotine.

17. Caffeine combined with alcohol is known to make a person more alert but it is a dangerous combination. As a drunk person might feel like he can do the impossible and take unnecessary risks that might prove harmful for their health.

Did you at least know half of the facts on this list?  And you have to admit some of the facts were really worth knowing.

Even though we have listed 17 caffeine facts we have barely scratched the surface of all things caffeine.

There is so much we still don’t know. We’ll continue educating you with more things. So, keep coming back for more health posts.

We’ll end this post with a caffeine fun fact our ancestors in the early stone age probably chewed on caffeine plants that’s how long caffeine has been in existence.

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