Hidden Caffeine in Food and Drink: Do You Know What You Are Consuming?
National Geographic
Did you know?
Guarana: Hidden Caffeine
Guarana
is an ingredient found in many sodas, energy drinks, protein bars, and
natural weight-loss aids. It comes from the seeds of a woody vine
native to Brazil named for an Amazonian people, the Guarani, who
process the seeds for use in food, drink, and medicine. What might be a
surprise is that guarana contains concentrations of naturally occurring
caffeine higher than that found in coffee, tea, cacao, and kola.
Guarana sodas are immensely popular in South America, especially
Brazil, and the stimulant is finding its way into more and more energy
drinks. Guarana is sometimes marketed as a natural alternative to
caffeine, but it's caffeine all the same. Look at the labels of some
energy drinks and you'll see both caffeine and guarana, which means
that you're getting caffeine from two sources.
Rethinking Caffeine
Scientists
have developed various theories to explain caffeine's “wake-promoting”
power. The consensus today focuses on the drug's interference with
adenosine, a chemical in the body that acts as a natural sleeping pill.
Caffeine blocks the hypnotic effect of adenosine and keeps us from
falling asleep. Since caffeine has also been shown to enhance mood and
increase alertness in moderate amounts, it's a potent potion for
students and scholars stuck in the lab at three in the morning. Paul
Erdős, the Hungarian mathematician who often worked his equations
around the clock, is known for saying that “a mathematician is a
machine for turning coffee into theorems.”
…”Caffeine
helps people try to wrest control away from the human circadian rhythm
that is hardwired in all of us,” says Czeisler. But then a shadow
crosses the doctor's sunny face, and his tone changes sharply. “On the
other hand,” he says solemnly, “there is a heavy, heavy price that has
been paid for all this extra wakefulness.” Without adequate sleep—the
conventional eight hours out of each 24 is about right—the human body
will not function at its best, physically, mentally, or emotionally,
the doctor says. “As a society, we are tremendously sleep deprived.”
In fact,
the professor goes on, there is a sort of catch-22 at the heart of the
modern craving for caffeine. “The principal reason that caffeine is
used around the world is to promote wakefulness,” Czeisler says. “But
the principal reason that people need that crutch is inadequate sleep.
Think about that: We use caffeine to make up for a sleep deficit that
is largely the result of using caffeine.”
(Click here to read the complete article.)
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It's a full circle. When a substance is needed by the organism as a result of a discomfort inflicted by the lack of the same substance, we could say it's a drug. WE can use mostly psychological methods when it comes to get rid of the substance but the need is obviously there.
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We must not be concerned about some traces of caffeine founded in soda drinks. There are other chemicals in those drinks we should worry about. The so called “E” substances are much more dangerous.
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It's honestly quite uncanny, the amount of different food and drink containing caffeine, that you wouldn't know of.
I wonder if the FDA should start enforcing compulsory labeling of food and drink containing over a certain level. This would allow chocolate in small quantities to get passed unlabeled, but sodas and other foods would have to be labeled.
I recommend checking caffeinezone.com if you want to see which foods the manufacturers are sneaking caffeine into.
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Wow! I never knew that guarana is actually caffeine. How can authorities allow this? What if someone has problems with his heart and he is not allow to consume caffeine? They should just say what the product contains, without any other special terms.
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Ada sears parts
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