Why Caffeine Is Absolutely Necessary
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…Way too much coffee. But if it weren’t for the coffee, I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.
-David Letterman
Why Caffeine Is Absolutely Necessary
Caffeine. Just writing it down gives me the shivers, and it isn’t from the jitters. No, I’m so excited because I am passionate about this taboo wonder drug, and I’m going to show why you should be too!
According to Wikipedia:
“Humans have consumed caffeine since the Stone Age. Early peoples found that chewing the seeds, bark, or leaves of certain plants had the effects of easing fatigue, stimulating awareness, and elevating one’s mood.”
It appears that the Chinese were the first to steep these plants and drink the caffeinated beverages. Tea was first used by the Chinese in 3000 B.C. Later, coffee was discovered in the 9th century in Ethiopia, and spread quickly to Persia, and then to Europe.”
Jumping forward, we find ourselves in the year 2010 where it is a wonderful time to be a caffeine aficionado. For starters, you’ve got your coffees, espressos, and teas. For those who need it on the go, there are the gels, shots, packets, and even powders. Caffeine can even be found in pill form. But with all this easy access to such a wonderful stimulant there has to be a downside, and there most certainly is: the media.
Caffeine has gotten a very bad rap. Every other week I seem to hear about the dangers of caffeine from the most credible of all scientific sources: network news. The problem isn’t that this is done on purpose, but rather simply due to a lack of information and the need to “sell” exciting and controversial news to an information-hungry public. As crude as it sounds, spouting about how dangerous caffeine is will garner much more press than citing how helpful it can be.
It seems that the negative side affects such as jitteriness, headaches, and its diuretic properties only show themselves at high doses. These “high doses” are well over 500 mg of caffeine, or over 5 cups of coffee!
To get down to the nitty gritty, here are three ways that caffeine can improve your athletic endeavors that you might not have known:
1- Performance Benefits. While caffeine hasn’t been shown to benefit shorter races, its endurance benefits are well known. Basically, caffeine promotes activated muscles to use fat as their fuel source. This allows the athlete to work harder and longer.
2- Boost Recovery. Recently, a study was done to find out the truth behind this claim. A select group of cyclists rode to exhaustion to ensure complete muscle glycogen depletion. During their 4-hour recovery period, one group was given a carbohydrate recovery drink, while the other had the same only with the added stimulant of caffeine.
“With the ingestion of both caffeine and carbohydrate, the overall amount of glycogen stored in the muscle for the 4-hour period was 60-percent higher than with carbohydrate alone,” said Hawley. “There is absolutely no question that this additional muscle glycogen would improve performance.” (Journal of Applied Physiology, May 2008)
3- Treat Asthma. One our authors is an asthmatic, and when in need of his inhaler, a strong cup of coffee is enough to bring him back to life. So there you have it, caffeine can save lives!
This goes without saying, but please check with your doctor before thinking about supplementing your diet with caffeine. People with high blood pressure especially need to be careful with extra caffeine. Otherwise, take advantage of this wonder drug and go out there and get energized!
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