Does decaffeinated coffee still have soul?

On New Year's Eve of my first year as a graduate student, I felt the power of caffeine alone in a foreign country. At that time, I had been working on my thesis for a week but had not yet written a single word. At 9 o'clock in the evening, I went to McDonald's to buy a cup of coffee and vowed to finish the first draft tonight.

I held it in until 1am, but still hadn't finished writing. I lay in bed in grief and anger, telling myself that after I woke up, on the first day of the new year, I would finish the first draft even if it cost me a lot of skin. But God didn't seem to give me the chance to execute my plan. At 2am, 3am, and 4am, I tossed and turned with my sore eyes open until 6am, when I crawled to the computer that I had just closed .

Caffeine: Blocking fatigue signals

This anxious sleepless night is attributed to the caffeine in coffee. If you can magnify the nerve cells in the brain, you can see that caffeine and other substances are waging a war. When you are tired, the body will secrete a substance called adenosine, which binds to receptors on cells and tells the body that it should rest (feel sleepy). However, the molecular structure of caffeine is similar to that of adenosine, and they will occupy adenosine receptors, preventing the body from receiving the signal of "I am very tired" , thus keeping it energetic.

I am OK again | pixabay

Caffeine is found in coffee and tea, two common and ancient refreshing drinks. In addition to keeping people awake, they can also make people feel slightly happy , which may be related to caffeine's influence on the metabolism of dopamine , a substance that can activate the reward center in the brain. In addition, caffeine also makes the heart and kidneys work actively and intensifies the secretion of adrenaline . That heart-pounding feeling is very much like love.

In the following days, I finally finished the first draft of the paper. It doesn't matter how the assignment turns out, but I can hardly forget the sleepless night that was born because of coffee, and the gray-blue winter in the UK that could not be bright is still fresh in my mind.

Drink, drink coffee to prolong life | pixabay

The awakening function of caffeine will improve people's cognitive and athletic abilities. It makes people more focused, and physically, a dose of 3-6 mg/kg can significantly improve athletic performance. For example, a cup of Star XX large American coffee contains about 225 mg of caffeine, which will have a significant effect on most people. When we need coffee, we often need its function - to get up early, rush work, or give ourselves a little confidence and boost for a big task.

When I was working on my thesis, affordable instant coffee and endless literature were my closest companions every day. At this time, I never thought about buying a cup of decaffeinated coffee.

Decaffeinated coffee generally refers to coffee that has had more than 97% of caffeine removed (the specific caffeine content will be indicated on the package) . Brazilian writer Austrégésilo de Athayde once described it as a man without a soul, a woman without charm, pepper without spiciness, and red wine without alcohol. It is a kind of thing that deceives the senses and loses the inner truth.

Does decaf coffee have a soul? | pixabay

This kind of thing that has lost its inner authenticity is sold at the same price as regular coffee in the store, not a penny less.

In terms of process, decaffeinated coffee has an extra caffeine extraction process compared to regular coffee. The extraction is done before roasting, and there are three main methods: dissolving with water, dissolving with organic solvents, and dissolving with supercritical carbon dioxide. While these three methods obtain caffeine, they also more or less strip away other flavor substances in the beans, affecting the taste of the coffee. As a result, decaffeinated coffee usually tastes lighter because caffeine itself has a bitter taste.

Why choose decaf coffee?

During this year's Spring Festival, a friend A, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, offered me a cup of decaffeinated coffee. I refused to drink from her cup. Coffee without caffeine is not even a diuretic, so does it still have a soul? But I can't say that A bought the casket and returned the pearl.

Three or four cups a day when you're rushing to finish a job | pixabay

A is a PhD candidate and drinks about 4 cups of coffee a day, first 2 cups of regular coffee and then 2 cups of decaffeinated coffee. A told me that she started trying decaffeinated coffee about 3 years ago because regular coffee kept her awake .

One of the side effects of caffeine is that it affects sleep. After caffeine occupies adenosine receptors, nerve cells cannot receive adenosine signals, and the reactions of reduced central nervous system excitability, vasodilation, and drowsiness that should occur when fatigued cannot be realized as expected. Only after the body breaks down caffeine can adenosine reoccupy the receptors and work, and people can rest well . However, the efficiency of the body's decomposition of caffeine varies from person to person. Excessive coffee intake or drinking coffee too late (some suggest not to drink coffee 8 hours before bedtime) may cause insomnia.

A told me that decaf coffee is lighter and more sour, but the taste is also pleasant. A thinks decaf coffee is very good, as it can avoid the side effects of caffeine and satisfy the psychological dependence on taste and social ritual .

Drinking coffee is sometimes a ritual | pixabay

After getting in touch with more decaffeinated coffee lovers, I found that apart from those who are caffeine intolerant and pregnant women, many of them are both decaffeinated beverage consumers and caffeine lovers. My colleague Window Knocking Rain not only has decaffeinated coffee, but also decaffeinated green tea and decaffeinated black tea. She told me that her habit of replacing water with tea and adding coffee every day once caused palpitations, another common side effect of caffeine. Now she has bought many decaffeinated tea bags and drip coffee, but she still drinks a cup of regular coffee every morning.

Like her friend A, Window Knocking Rain had a failed Amway experience. She once recommended low-caffeine drip coffee to someone, who commented that it tasted bad.

" If you have very high requirements for coffee quality, you may not be used to drinking decaffeinated coffee. " Chuang Qiaoyu, who studied pharmacy, has researched methods for decaffeination. She told me that the loss of flavor components is inevitable, and the difference in taste between decaffeinated coffee and regular coffee is easy to taste. "The aroma is lighter and a little bland, but it tastes like coffee."

Does decaf coffee have a soul?

The caffeine content of the most common Arabica and Robusta coffee beans today is about 0.8-1.4% and 1.7-4%, respectively. In addition, coffee contains hundreds of substances that together make up the coffee we drink. If coffee that loses 90% of its caffeine still has a similar taste, can we say that the former is the soul of coffee (after all, there is also a lot of caffeine in cola, milk tea, and sports drinks)?

Arabica coffee | Wikimedia Commons

For some coffee lovers, the faster heartbeat and the swollen head after a sip of black American coffee are probably the moment when they meet the soul of coffee. Although caffeine may cause side effects such as insomnia, palpitations, calcium loss, and temporary increase in blood pressure, studies have also found that it is associated with a lower risk of dementia and depression .

For others, the strong bitter and sour taste is the soul of coffee. A cup of low-caffeine Americano after dinner is no less enjoyable than a cup of black coffee at breakfast.

In addition, coffee is a common beverage, and its health risks and benefits have been studied for many years. When some recent studies separated decaf coffee from regular coffee, they found that some of the benefits may be attributed to substances other than caffeine .

Roasted coffee beans | pixabay

For example, a 2012 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that both regular and decaffeinated coffee can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer , and decaffeinated coffee also appears to be associated with a lower incidence of colon cancer. In 2014, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the National University of Singapore found that both decaffeinated and regular coffee can reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes . The authors believe that ingredients other than caffeine - such as chlorogenic acid, lignans, quinolone and magnesium that improve glucose metabolism - may be responsible for the reduced risk.

I drink about 3 cups of coffee a day, 2 cups in the morning and 1 cup in the afternoon. As I drink more and more, the refreshing effect is weakened due to tolerance (increased adenosine receptors relieve caffeine occupancy), and I feel sleepy if I don't drink. The side effects of caffeine intake are also real. You can avoid insomnia by drinking early, but you can't prevent calcium loss by drinking early.

After meeting several decaf coffee consumers, I put aside my prejudice that coffee should be associated with exciting things and walked into a coffee chain at 8pm. A cup of decaf latte is about the same price as two cups of milk tea, the same as regular latte. I took a sip and it didn't have the astringency of regular coffee, but was as gentle as soy milk .

I didn't suffer from insomnia that night.

No Insomnia | pixabay

References

[1] Caffè Americano. https://www.starbucks.com./menu/drinks/espresso/caffe-americano

[2] Caffeine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

[3] Health check: can caffeine improve your exercise performance? https://theconversation.com/health-check-can-caffeine-improve-your-exercise-performance-114087

[4] Effects of caffeine on human behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12204388

[5] Ding, M., Bhupathiraju, SN, Chen, M., van Dam, RM, and Hu, FB (2014). Caffeinated and Decaffeinated Coffee Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and a Dose-Response Meta-analysis. Diabetes Care, 37(2), 569–586.

[6] Sinha, R., Cross, AJ, Daniel, CR, Graubard, BI, Wu, JW, Hollenbeck AR, Gunter, MJ, Park, Y. and Freedman, ND, (2012). Caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and tea intakes and risk of colorectal cancer in a large prospective study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 96(2), pp. 374–381.

[7] Which is the by‐product: caffeine or decaf coffee? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fes3.4

[8] Coffee bean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_bean

[9] How Caffeine Works? https://science.howstuffworks.com/caffeine5.htm

Author:vicko238

Editor: Xuezhu

An AI

Homework: What do you think is the soul of coffee?

Additional questions: Is the soul of milk tea the milk tea or the pearls? Is non-alcoholic beer considered beer? Does Coke Zero have a soul?

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