Caffeine, Crashes and Jitters: Here’s what you need to know about coffee
The occasional cup of coffee can be delicious, helping us to focus, become more alert and giving us that extra edge when needed. Yet in today’s world, too many of us are over-consuming and have become dependent on coffee, relying on its quick energy boost without being fully aware of its impacts on our body and mind.
To help you decide if you’d like to join the 21 Day Coffee to Cacao Challenge, we’ve pulled together some key information about coffee and the effects of caffeine on our health….
Caffeine: What Is It?
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug. Yet unlike many other psychoactive substances, it is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world. One of the most common places we find caffeine is in coffee, where the amount and quality of caffeine can vary greatly.
Regardless of its source, caffeine has nearly a 100% bioavailability when consumed orally, meaning that you absorb all of it into the bloodstream, it’s effects kick in, in about 45 to 60 minutes and can last three to five hours or longer. Over time, our bodies can become used to and dependent upon caffeine, so you have to drink more to get that same 'wake-up call' feeling.
What Does Caffeine Do?
Caffeine is known to increase alertness: it works by blocking the effects of adenosine, a brain chemical that makes you feel tired. At the same time, caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline, the “fight-or-flight” hormone associated with increased energy.
However, at higher doses, these effects may become more pronounced, leading to feelings of stress, anxiety and nervousness. When caffeine is present in our system at bed time, it may also mimic the symptoms of insomnia, leaving us tired, overwrought and ironically reaching for another cup of coffee in the morning as a solution to our fatigue.
The caffeine in coffee increases catecholamines—a neurotransmitter that signals the release of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as insulin. As a result, inflammation increases which can make you feel less-than-stellar and lead to prematurely aging skin. High doses of caffeine are also known to overtax the adrenals and increase heart rate and blood pressure.
How Much Caffeine is too Much?
The caffeine content of a single serving of coffee can vary greatly, depending on the type of coffee and method of preparation. To give you an idea, one mug of instant coffee contains around 100mg of caffeine (1), while a mug of filtered coffee contains around 140mg (2) and a medium latte from Starbucks contains 150mg (3).
Current recommendations are that up to 400mg of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults (4), while the NHS advises pregnant women to limit their caffeine consumption to just 200mg per day (5).
This means that for most adults, the recommended daily amount of coffee per person is between 3-5 cups. But it’s important to remember that we all process caffeine differently, which is why some people can have an espresso after an evening meal and still sleep like a baby, and for others, even a small dose will leave them feeling frenetic or on edge.
Do you though?
As always, it’s up to us to listen to our own body and understand how caffeine affects us personally.
What’s a Caffeine Crash and Why Do They Happen?
Coffee, tea and other caffeinated beverages are known to boost energy levels by stimulating the central nervous system, allowing you to become more alert and focused. However, these changes are only temporary and a few hours after consumption, as the caffeine is metabolised by the body and begins to leave the system, many people notice they feel even more tired than before.
This is known as a caffeine crash and is characterised by feelings of tiredness, irritability and an inability to concentrate – often the exact opposite effect of why people consumed caffeine in the first place! So why do caffeine crashes happen? The answer: caffeine blocks adenosine in your brain, which is the compound your brain produces when you're tired. But when you're drinking coffee, your brain doesn't stop producing adenosine. So as the caffeine wears off, adenosine floods your brain's receptors, making you even more tired than you were before.
Feeling Jittery? Got Brain Fog and Fatigue? Bad Coffee Can Be Toxic…
Low quality coffee beans are almost always contaminated with impurities and mycotoxins: a damaging compound created by moulds growing on the beans, which can lead to sickness, jitters, headaches, brain fog or a general bad feeling. Blends of different coffees are often worse because they mix cheap beans from multiple areas, almost guaranteeing that you’ll get some mouldy ones.