Caffeine content in common foods: Do you exceed the limit?

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Caffeine poisoning is no joke.

Previously, actress Cao Ying was suspected of having caffeine poisoning after drinking a cup of espresso. She suddenly experienced palpitations, difficulty breathing, paralysis of her limbs, and was unable to control the steering wheel on the highway.

A survey by the Japanese Society of Toxicology found that between 2010 and 2015, 38 hospitals surveyed admitted 101 cases of caffeine poisoning, resulting in three deaths.

Don't forget, caffeine is a drug. Today, let's talk about: How much caffeine is considered "too much"?

Caffeine is a substance that exists naturally in many plants. It is a natural "pesticide" for plants.

The most common ones are coffee beans, tea leaves, and cocoa beans; there is a plant called "guarana" in Brazil, its seeds also contain caffeine.

Therefore, foods made from these plants generally contain caffeine, such as coffee, chocolate, chocolate milk, black tea, milk tea, etc.

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Yerba mate tea, which is popular in South America, is also a caffeinated tea; however, "tea" such as barley tea and buckwheat tea does not contain caffeine.

In addition, caffeine is also the main ingredient of many energy drinks and functional drinks, such as Red Bull.

no.

The caffeine content is very low, but not zero, so it is more appropriate to call it "decaffeinated coffee" or "decaffeinated tea" . If you are super sensitive to caffeine, you may also feel uncomfortable drinking decaffeinated coffee.

Some packaged foods, such as drinks like Red Bull, will have nutritional information on them;

Chocolate is generally not labeled, but you don’t have to worry too much. First, the content is quite low, and second, the calories are so high that you probably wouldn’t dare to eat too much.

The higher the cocoa content of chocolate, the higher the caffeine content. One piece (13g) of Ghirardelli 86% dark chocolate contains about 22mg of caffeine; milk chocolate contains even less.

▲ Such a small piece

Calculating the caffeine content in coffee and tea is a bit difficult. The variety, picking time, roasting process, storage time, brewing concentration, etc. will affect the actual content .

For coffee, you can refer to the data of commercial coffee, which can be found somewhere. However, the same type of coffee can vary greatly between brands. For example, the price of American coffee at McDonald's and Costa is almost half!

As for tea, we mentioned before, generally speaking, black tea > oolong tea > green tea. The caffeine content is similar to latte, but much lower than American tea.

I hope you haven't experienced it and don't try it.

Because in addition to all kinds of physical discomfort - insomnia, headaches, nausea, tension, irritability, increased heart rate, stomach discomfort, etc., you may do all kinds of crazy things, and wish you could lose your memory afterwards# probably similar to the excitement after taking drugs#

This kind of experience is of no benefit to you except posting it on Zhihu and getting 10,086 likes. But we should thank these Zhihu users who are willing to share and use their painful experiences to help others wake up:

1. Author: Anonymous user of Zhihu:

At that time, we were doing a caffeine purification experiment and divided into 6 groups, each group had 1 kilogram of tea. In the end, all the caffeine was taken away by the teacher, and then there was a person

"The experimental equipment this time is new, and it seems that there is nothing inedible in the reagents of this experiment."

"What do you think pure caffeine tastes like? I've never had it and I really want to try it."

"I drank too much coffee anyway, so I'll give it a try."

I stuck out my tongue and licked it, about one-third to half of the amount.

"It doesn't seem to have any special taste. It's a little bitter."

At this time, the teacher cast a sympathetic look from afar and said, "If you can't do it, go to the hospital. It's still in time."

"It's okay, teacher. I'm going back to the dormitory."

Let me talk about the subsequent reactions: chest tightness with slight colic, excitement, red and tearful eyes, numb and hot hands, sweating all the time and anywhere, just want to drink water, want to drink water when I see it, frequent urination with a strong smell, can't eat anything but very hungry, scalp numb, want to study but can't sit still, even playing games can't sit still, playing games like a primary school student, learning comprehension is very low, his advanced mathematics fell behind at that time, Ding Ding always can't describe unconsciously, and his scalp becomes super greasy.

After 96 hours, I returned to normal. I felt like I was hollowed out. I lay on the bed without taking off my clothes and fell asleep. I weighed myself after waking up and found that I had lost 6 catties.

Source: https://www.zhihu.com/question/31434633/answer/82420081

2. Author: Mag

At the end of last year, I decided to take a barista course. At that time, I had already made it a habit to drink two cups of coffee every day, and I felt so awesome.

One day, I was taking a barista course. After finishing the coffee history class in the morning, I was eating lunch outside at noon. I remembered that I didn’t drink coffee in the morning, and suddenly I felt like drinking coffee. I looked around to find a coffee shop, and then I only found a Starbucks. Emmmmm… I’ll just make do with it.

When ordering, tell the waiter: I want an extra-large latte and an espresso.

Shop assistant: sir, the venti latte already has three espressos, if you want more, it will be four...

Me: Yeah, I know.

Suddenly I remembered what my teacher said, that compared to other types of coffee, the caffeine content of espresso is actually very low.

Me: Hey, wait, two more!

Clerk: ???

Me: (Awesome expression)

When getting coffee, the clerk does this:

"Mr. Mai, your... 6?? (shocked by the number 6 written on the cup)... 6 espresso... lattes... are... ready...

Tons, ton, ton, ton, ton. Mmm, the taste is quite strong, but it's okay.

It's nothing special...

Then the class continued in the afternoon, talking about the Golden Cup Rule of espresso.

The teacher produced a lot of espresso in class. In addition to the one or two cups that each student tasted, there were several more cups.

Looking at the cups of espresso produced by the teacher, which are rich in fat and tempting, I don't care about anything else and just pick it up and eat it...

Teacher: "Student, these are made from practice beans. Although they are drinkable, they contain a relatively high proportion of Robusta (a type of coffee bean with more caffeine, a more bitter taste, and a relatively cheap price)..."

Me: That’s fine. It would be such a waste to throw it away. It’s not going to kill anyone. I’ll drink it all for you. Tons, tonnes, tonnes, tonnes.

Then at night, I went to the Internet cafe with my friends to play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

People are just like crazy.

I suddenly felt very confident, my morale was high, and my heart was pounding.

I always feel that there is really no problem with my gaming level.

Then I started to dislike my friends for speaking in low voices because I couldn’t hear them through my headphones.

He simply took off his headphones and scolded his friend for speaking softly.

But when I take off my headphones, I can't hear the sound in the game.

So I used my ventriloquism to dub the game.

When walking, they shout "click, click, click", when shooting, they shout "ping, pong, pong, bang, bang, bang", when changing magazines, they shout "click", when driving, they shout "boom, boom, boom"...

I guess everyone in the Internet cafe thinks I'm a fool.

Then I was still excited and couldn't sit still.

Return to the youth hostel contracted by the coffee training institution.

I suddenly felt very confident, my morale was high, and my heart was pounding.

I always feel that I have no problem doing housework.

I offered to help the landlady with cleaning and started sweeping and mopping the floor, having a lot of fun.

He also performed an impromptu air guitar performance with a broom.

I wanted to imitate the punk bands' guitar smashing moves, and then I actually broke their brooms...

I guess everyone in the hostel thinks I'm a fool.

Then I still couldn’t lie down, so I ran out for a midnight snack.

I suddenly felt very confident, high-spirited, and excited.

I always feel like I can really eat a big portion of barbecue and it's okay.

We ordered a barbecue worth over 150 yuan, but of course we couldn’t finish it.

He also chatted with the boss and boasted a lot.

The boss said that the menu boards in his store were old, so he was going to print a new set and wanted to find a friend who was a graphic designer to design them.

I said I would help you design it, just wait for me!

I guess everyone in the barbecue restaurant thinks I'm a fool.

I suddenly felt very confident, high-spirited, and excited.

I always feel that there is really no problem with me doing graphic design.

I found an Internet cafe and downloaded a simplified green version of PS from some green software park, and then I actually made a menu printing design.

Then I copied it into a USB drive and ran back to the store to give it to the boss, but I saw that the store was closed. It was already past 5 a.m. the next day.

Then I strolled around the street for a while, and at 7:30, I saw a small supermarket open.

Once again, I suddenly felt very confident, my morale was high, and my heart was pounding.

I always feel that I have no problem completing what I promised to others.

I rushed in and bought a roll of transparent tape, a notebook and a marker.

I used transparent tape to stick the USB drive to the rolling shutter door of the barbecue restaurant. I stuck a lot of tape on it and sealed it with a big sticky mass.

Then I left a note to tell the boss that I had designed a new menu for him and the PSD document was inside.

It was already past 8 o'clock after all the trouble...

Didn't sleep all night.

At 9 o'clock, I have to go to the coffee course to continue my class.

Anyway, the time has come, so I washed my face and went to class again.

Yesterday we talked about espresso making and the Golden Cup Rule, and today we will talk about espresso tasting.

Teacher: "Good morning, everyone. Have you had breakfast? If you haven't, go downstairs and eat now, because today we are going to taste a lot of espresso in person. Everyone, get ready..."

Then the teacher made 6 servings of espresso using different extraction times.

"Now, please ask a student to taste the differences between these espressos." Then the teacher took out a small spoon and said, "Just taste a little bit of each espresso with this spoon."

Then I raised my hand and said I would taste it first.

I suddenly felt very confident, my morale was high, and my heart was pounding.

I didn't ask for the small spoon that the teacher handed me.

I always think that I can drink 6 cups of espresso in one go, it's really okay...

Source: https://www.zhihu.com/question/31434633/answer/344227338

Fortunately, you were not given a forklift.

Sensitivity to caffeine varies from person to person, and it may also change for the same person under different physiological states.

For healthy adults, 300-400 mg of caffeine per day is safe. For pregnant women (or those trying to get pregnant) or breastfeeding women, the amount should be halved to 200 mg/d.

400mg of caffeine is equivalent to:

Children and adolescents are more strictly controlled, and the younger they are, the stricter the requirements. The Mayo Clinic in the United States recommends that adolescents (13-18 years old) should not exceed 100 mg per day .

Taking a large amount of caffeine at one time, such as more than 1g, may be life-threatening. Only by taking pure caffeine can you take that much at one time; drinking coffee or Red Bull generally cannot get that much.

For example, with my small body, I have to drink 33.4 cups of Starbucks super American coffee to reach the "lethal dose"! This is obviously difficult. It hurts my stomach and my wallet.

But I still remind everyone: use moderation. There are thousands of roads, but safety comes first.

You can estimate whether your daily caffeine intake exceeds the limit based on the type of coffee you drink every day and whether you eat other caffeinated foods.

Finally, a reminder to those who have the habit of drinking coffee on a daily basis: pay attention to calcium supplementation (milk, green leafy vegetables, soy products) and vitamin D (sun exposure or dietary supplements) , and maintain moderate exercise to promote bone health.

Studies have shown that consuming large amounts of caffeine can accelerate calcium loss.

[1]https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm350570.htm

[2] www.caffeineinformer.com