Caffeine deserves a section of its own since it is so widely and extensively consumed while remaining very little understood. Beyond consideration as a stimulant that can wake you up or keep you awake, most people do not realize that caffeine has any other important effects. The very fact that caffeine can stimulate the body so strongly should send up at least a little warning flag that caffeine might not be so good for you. In fact, its stimulatory effect should send up a big warning flag.
Caffeine is being included in this chapter focusing on sugar because it works by releasing or mobilizing internal stores of sugar directly into the bloodstream, typically at a very fast rate. Therefore,
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all that was mentioned earlier about the negative effects of too rapid a release of glucose into the bloodstream applies when you ingest caffeine. And even though much of the glucose comes from internal stores rather than food just digested, caffeine nevertheless supports the maximal formation of fat from the sugar that was eaten, since it further increases the size of the glucose spike from the food with which the caffeine was ingested.
Caffeine, because of its glucose-mobilizing effects, is also a major player in causing chronically high levels of insulin. When caffeine is ingested in one form or another several times a day, it is very difficult for the insulin levels to dip down to normal for very long during the day, if at all. As already discussed, obesity is not likely to ever be reversed in the face of chronically high blood insulin levels.
What are the common sources of dietary caffeine? Coffee, tea, chocolate, sodas, and sport drinks top the list. But always read labels, since caffeine is a very popular stimulant, and any new food product could have it added. Although coffee typically leads the list for sheer amounts of caffeine delivered to the consumer, it is important to know that on an ounce-for-ounce basis, chocolate can deliver as much caffeine as some of the weaker coffees, such as instant. On the same equal amount basis, chocolate can deliver more caffeine than tea.
Chocolate can be harmful for a number of reasons. In addition to the caffeine content mentioned above, chocolate also contains smaller amounts of a related chemical, theobromine. Theobromine affects the body in much the same way as caffeine, but it is even more potent. When you take into consideration both the caffeine and theobromine content of chocolate, an indulgence in chocolate for some people could minimize the positive effects of much of this book's recommendations, especially with regard to weight loss. Chocolate can be a strong contributor to keeping elevated insulin levels up. At the very least, appreciate what chocolate is doing to you, and make it a "super treat" when you have it. Also, like all
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other sweets, eat it alone as a snack, and don't ruin the digestion of other good foods by eating them directly before or after the chocolate.
Most people realize how dependent on coffee and caffeine they have become only when they try to give it up. When one has experienced the headaches and general feeling of malaise associated with giving up caffeine, it certainly seems legitimate to consider caffeine an addictive substance. Small wonder that caffeine is added to so many popular drinks. Is there really any other logical reason for spiking so many soft drinks with caffeine? Even if the soft drink manufacturers say they want their products to give the drinker a "lift," which the sugar content will do anyway, the fact remains that children, who make up much of the market for soft drinks, are being groomed from a very early age to make the transition to the coffee rut as they get older. Of course, many adults just add the coffee to their routine, never giving up the soft drinks. The aging process then effectively accelerates even further.
Caffeine also tends to get glossed over as a very important substance for the pregnant woman to avoid. Not only does caffeine have all of the undesirable effects in the pregnant woman that it has in anyone else, it also can harm the fetus. Fernandes et al. studied the effects of moderate to heavy caffeine consumption during pregnancy and found a small but statistically significant increase in the risk for spontaneous abortion and low birthweight babies.10
Caffeine is a drug, and a pretty nasty one at that. Wake up to the real dangers of caffeine. It's not just for staying awake. Even if you can't get off of it, realize the dangers enough to help prevent your children from getting hooked and harming their health. The consequences will be paid if the caffeine gets ingested.
For those of you who are coffee drinkers who don't wish to quit, at least make every effort to drink properly decaffeinated coffee. Many coffees are decaffeinated by a process that uses toxic chemi-
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cals, such as methylene chloride or ethyl acetate. Try to find coffees that have been decaffeinated by the Swiss water process. This process uses only water to soak the unroasted beans, drawing out both caffeine and flavor. These beans are then discarded, and the water in which they were soaked is run through carbon filters, removing the caffeine but retaining much of the flavor. New beans are then soaked in this flavored but caffeine-free water. This new soak allows a withdrawal of caffeine from the new beans while removing much less flavor, since the water has already taken up flavor from the first batch of beans. This second batch of beans is then dried and roasted.
