caffeine amount | Caffeine and You

Is Caffeine a Drug or a Food?

January 5, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, and changes other processes in the brain

Technically, caffeine is a type of psychotropic drug (also called a psychoactive drug). That is, it affects the central nervous system and alters brain activities associated with mental processes, perception and behavior.

Caffeine: Listed or Hidden?

When caffeine occurs naturally (as in coffee, tea, or chocolate), the FDA does not require caffeine to be listed as a separate ingredient. So a Hershey’s Kiss or bottle of Starbuck’s Frappuccino doesn’t need to specify caffeine. Nor does an energy drink when the caffeine is part of a natural botanical source, like guarana or yerba mate.

But when caffeine is present as an additive, the FDA does require it to be listed as an ingredient; this applies to foods, beverages, over-the-counter and prescription medicines, and dietary supplements – which include energy drinks and energy shots – but not to soft drinks.

Sodas are not dietary supplements. Soft drink makers got a special pass from the FDA back in 1980, when they argued caffeine was added just as a flavor enhancer – a claim that appears to be more myth than fact. Consequently, they are not required by the FDA to list the amount of added caffeine they contain, though the amount must not exceed 71 mg per 12 ounces. Only recently do some soft drink makers voluntarily print caffeine amounts on their labels, which we’ll get into later.

A Monster Energy Example

In 2013, Monster Energy – and a few other energy drinks – switched from being classified as a dietary supplement to being classified as a food (or specifically, a beverage). Monster’s formula is the same, and it still loads the same amount of caffeine, but the information on the can is different.

The new Monster can sports a Nutrition Facts panel and adds “CAFFEINE FROM ALL SOURCES: 80 mg PER 8 FL. OZ.”

The old Monster wore a Supplement Facts label and the standard dietary supplement disclaimer that reads “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” The old Monster also lists caffeine, but not the amount, and only as an ingredient in its proprietary “Energy Blend,” which also includes guarana, inositol, glucose and other substances.

Here’s what’s puzzling for consumers: Unlike sodas which are limited to 71 mg per 12 ounces, the recategorized new Monster contains much more than 71 mg per 12 ounces; an 8-ounce portion still delivers 80 mg of caffeine. Which points out the flaws in the FDA’s regulations. Many would argue that the fizzy sweet Monster Energy drink tastes and looks just like a soft drink.

Even the FDA’s deputy commissioner Michael R. Taylor says the rules on caffeinated products appear to be outdated, and the agency is looking at ways to revamp them.

Caffeine Confusion for Consumers

So, if it looks like a soda, and tastes like a soda, but it’s more caffeinated than a cup of coffee, it’s probably an energy drink. If the FDA classifies the energy drink as a type of dietary supplement, caffeine may be added in any amount as long as it’s not known to be harmful. (Terms like energy drink and energy shot are purely marketing terms, not FDA categories.)

In the U.S., whenever an energy drink, energy shot and energy gel or other caffeinated edible is approved by the FDA as a “dietary supplement,” it’s permitted to be sold without limits to the caffeine content, because the FDA does not consider them food. So even though caffeine is a stimulant drug, it’s not regulated as a drug by the FDA – when it’s an ingredient in a dietary supplement.

Things get especially murky when you realize that a Starbucks Doubleshot Energy drink is considered a food, while a Java Monster Loca Moca is a dietary supplement, yet both contain the same amount of caffeine in a 15-ounce can.

To the average consumer, they’re all just caffeinated beverages.

How to tell the difference? Look at the label:

Supplement Facts – appears on dietary supplements
Nutrition Facts – appears on foods (and beverages)

When a product is classified as a dietary supplement, it gets to play by different rules, as the next section explains…

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents

What Exactly Is a Dietary Supplement?

January 5, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Energy shots are regulated as dietary supplements

Energy shots, like energy drinks, are regulated as dietary supplements

Caffeinated energy drinks, energy shots, sports gels, weight-loss products, caffeinated gum, and other caffeine-added products are typically regulated as dietary supplements; though as the previous section explains, some energy drinks are now reclassifying themselves as beverages.

So what constitutes a dietary supplement, and how did FDA regulations get to be so loose?

The FDA defines a dietary supplement as a product taken by mouth that contains a “dietary ingredient” intended to supplement the diet.

The “dietary ingredients” in these products may include: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glandulars, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or concentrates, and may be found in many forms such as tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders.

At first, the FDA considered dietary supplements to only consist of such essential nutrients as vitamins, minerals, and proteins. In 1990, “herbs, or similar nutritional substances” were allowed.

In 1994, dietary supplement rules were expanded to allow non-essential nutrients, such as ginseng, garlic, enzymes, fish oil, and caffeine, for instance. Congress heeded to lobbyists and passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

As long as makers of dietary supplements made no unsubstantiated claims that their products treated, prevented or cured diseases, FDA barriers were dropped.

Today, the FDA puts no limits on the serving sizes or amounts of ingredients in dietary supplements. Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring their products are safe, and if an ingredient is itself new, the FDA must first review the safety data on it. But otherwise, dietary supplements are pretty loosey-goosey; they don’t need FDA approval before marketing.

The Dietary Supplement Disclaimer

We’ve all seen labels that read:

“This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

In the U.S., dietary supplements can’t promote themselves as cures. But dietary supplements can make three types of claims:

health claims – the link between food substance and disease or health condition
structure/function claims – the intended benefits of using the product
nutrient content claims – the amount of a nutrient or dietary substance in a product.

So the FDA allows for some pretty wide leeway on labels, and puts the onus of truthfulness on the manufacturer. According to the FDA:

“In general, these claims describe the role of a nutrient or dietary ingredient intended to affect the structure or function of the body. The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and truthfulness of these claims; they are not approved by FDA.”

Dietary supplements must include a disclaimer that the FDA has not evaluated their claims, and must also state that the product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease,” because only a drug can legally make such a claim. (Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission regulates marketing claims in advertising materials.)

How Is Caffeine Listed on a Dietary Supplement?

According to the FDA, the “Supplements Facts” panel must list all dietary ingredients, including caffeine. But caffeine comes in many forms, which may not be obvious on the label. Besides caffeine, a label may list guarana, maté, chocolate, cacao, tea, or coffee. These ingredients also deliver a caffeine buzz, but they don’t have to be specified as “caffeine.”

The “Other Ingredients” statement lists ingredients that the FDA says “could include the source of dietary ingredients, if not identified in the Supplement Facts panel (e.g., rose hips as the source of vitamin C), other food ingredients (e.g., water and sugar), and technical additives or processing aids (e.g., gelatin, starch, colors, stabilizers, preservatives, and flavors).”

You’ll often find guarana and yerba mate (or mate) listed as “Other Ingredients,” especially in energy drinks and shots.

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents

Flavor-Enhancer Myth: Colas Get a Pass

January 5, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Coke claimed caffeine was a flavor enhancer

The FDA almost banned caffeinated soft drinks in 1980. But Coca-Cola and its rivals successfully argued that caffeine was merely a flavor enhancer – not a drug. The FDA agreed to allow caffeine in soft-drinks if it didn’t exceed .02 percent, or 71 mg per 12 fluid ounces. In addition, caffeine was not required to be listed as an ingredient.

But does caffeine really enhance the flavor of soft drinks?

In 2011, researchers suspected that caffeine was being added to beverages for other reasons. “The majority of people cannot taste the difference between caffeinated and non-caffeinated soda,” said the author of the study, Dr. Jennifer Temple. The team tested whether over time, teens would prefer caffeinated beverages over comparable non-caffeinated ones.

Teens repeatedly sampled various unfamiliar soda drinks and rated their likings of each. The sodas contained different amounts of caffeine. Over time, participants increased their liking of soda with the highest caffeine levels. But there was no change in preference for soda with low or no caffeine. Plus, the amount of caffeine made a difference: the more caffeine a soda contained, the more teens liked the beverage. Dr. Temple concluded that caffeine in sugary carbonated beverages teaches adolescents to prefer those beverages.

So caffeine may be the secret ingredient that brings people back to a product – again and again and again – but not because it enhances flavor, as soda companies claim.

This raises the question of whether caffeine is addictive, or at the very least, habit-forming – a topic to come in Chapter 8: Your Pattern: Habit, Safety, and Addiction.

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents

Caffeine in the Toolbox

January 6, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Is caffeine a tool for modern humans?

Imagine you’re at the beach. You slide on your sunglasses and spread a towel out on the sand. The sun beats down. Your skin feels hot, so you apply sunscreen. At first you enjoy the sun but as the afternoon wears on, you flee, back to the car and eventually home to an air-conditioned house. As you change clothes, you admire your tan.

You’ve just demonstrated the remarkable human ability to adapt, both biologically and by inventing things that change our surrounding conditions.

Human adaptation is key to our success. Our skin releases melanin to protect against the sun’s rays. We build shelters to keep out wind, rain, and varmints. Our machines change the temperature of the air. Our ability to cope with the variability of our environment is our biggest advantage. And somehow these things, these adaptations, just flow together over time: we’re not always aware of how we come to cope. We just do.

Is Caffeine an Adaptational Tool?

In so many ways, caffeine makes humans more adaptable. With caffeine, we can avoid sleep. Day can be night, and night can be day. We can ward off hunger and fatigue. We’re more social and exchange ideas. We solve problems, and make things all day long. And when we feel pain, caffeine stops the hurt and keeps us going.

Why do we include caffeine in our diet? It doesn’t provide calories, fat, or protein. It does stimulate neurochemicals that change how we interact with our environment. It’s a source of antioxidants, and it’s delivered in natural substances that contain even more antioxidants. Perhaps we choose caffeine because in some ways, it helps us more than it harms us.

Caffeine’s effects may be making more of a long-term impact than we can easily see. But the fact that most people experience caffeine on a regular, daily basis suggests we may be operating differently, in some big-picture way, from times when caffeine was not widely consumed.

Caffeine can be a powerful tool in the human toolbox. But it comes without a manual. We’re still learning how it works. Fortunately, new tools like MRI scanners and human genome mapping are helping us figure it out. But many of caffeine’s mechanisms – the nuts and bolts of how it works – remain unclear.

Caffeine’s Effects: Good or Bad?

If you’re tempted to lump caffeine into mutually exclusive “good” or “bad” categories, don’t. Caffeine won’t fit. Current research finds evidence that caffeine has benefits, is safe in low to moderate doses, yet it can also be risky for some people. The FDA puts almost no restrictions on its use, but the medical community is more cautious when children, teens, pregnant women, and people with compromising health conditions are involved.

Despite years of research, caffeine remains somewhat mysterious, yet promising.

Caffeine is a drug, but largely an unregulated one. It can be a safe way to increase alertness, reduce fatigue, elevate mood, and improve sports performance. As delivery vehicles, coffee, tea chocolate and other botanicals contain beneficial antioxidants, and may prevent some cancers. Caffeine may also prevent some cancers, lower the risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, and reduce the effects of cognitive aging.

Caffeine probably won’t make you smarter. But it does appear to boost our brains in happy, productive ways. A large number of studies indicate caffeine can help you work faster, increase focus, aid concentration, reduce attention lapses, and benefit recall. How and when you choose to use caffeine may give you an edge.

How much caffeine gives you the best boost? Click to the…next section

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents

Low or High Doses: Caffeine’s Biphasic Buzz

January 6, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Caffeine is safe in low doses, but high doses are risky

Caffeine is biphasic – meaning it delivers significantly different effects when taken at low doses than at high ones.

We see this in research studies, when subjects are given small or large amounts of caffeine. But you and I can also feel the difference.

The more caffeine you ingest doesn’t mean the better the buzz. In fact, caffeine’s most popular effects – feeling good, awake, and alert – happen at low to moderate doses (100-300 mg, or one to three cups of coffee, depending on the person).

At higher doses, caffeine intoxication sets in: jitters, heart palpitations, anxiety, nausea, increased blood pressure, and such. Feeling good turns to feeling bad.

When products deliver high amounts of caffeine in concentrated doses, it’s easy to ingest too much in a short period. People with heart conditions and young people are especially vulnerable to caffeine’s adverse effects. Some energy drinks, energy shots, caffeine powder, and certain “dietary supplements” are more likely to deliver risky doses of caffeine.

Being Smart About Research Results

More and more, caffeine seems to be good for us in many ways. It’s a promising but still mysterious substance. Research results tend to conclude with the admonition “More research is clearly needed.” Or, “The mechanisms of action that account for these effects are uncertain at this time.”

Research may suggest a correlation between caffeine and an end result, but we aren’t always sure what caffeine does to get to that result.

Correlation doesn’t automatically mean causality either; there may be other factors at play, such as other ingredients in the beverage (like antioxidants), or the genetic types of the subjects. Journalists, and researchers, constantly conflate coffee with caffeine, so it’s often hard to tell which substance is really the active player.

Many of caffeine’s adverse effects reported prior to the 21st century seem to have been disproved, or not substantiated. Faulty methodology, unknowns like the influence of genetics, small sample studies, cigarette smoking, and other factors have pretty much tossed most of the scary warnings about caffeine out the door. Some prudent warnings do remain because we just don’t know enough, like the effects on newborns.

In some studies, the amount of caffeine makes a difference in results; one cup of coffee or 100 mg may be as beneficial as drinking water (i.e., no special therapeutic effect), while others require a hefty four to six cups of coffee or the caffeinated equivalent, which is enough to throttle many drinkers into the jitter zone. To make things even more confusing, caffeine in coffee may not yield the same results as caffeine in tea, sodas or energy drinks, or these other beverages may not have been tested as rigorously as coffee.

Finally, potential conflicts of interest can influence the results or their interpretation. Trade associations for coffee, sodas and energy drinks, tea, and chocolate actively fund scientific research studies. They may have no influence on the results, but it’s good to know who’s paying the bills, especially when results are conflicting or suddenly groundbreaking.

Next up: It’s all about you! How your uniqueness determines caffeine’s effects…Head over to Chapter 7

Caffeine Basics: Table of Contents