Nutrition: Caffeine

The average American consumes 300 mg of caffeine a day. Much of that comes from coffee, but caffeine is prevalent in many foods, including tea, soda, and energ boosting foods. Caffeine has paositive effects such as temporarily increasing the metabolism and helping the body stay awake for longer periods of time.

However, there are huge drawbacks to caffeine. The first is its effect on sleep. Adenosine is integral to the sleep cycle and allows our bodies to acheive a deep sleep. Caffeine fools the body into thinking it is Adenosine and blocks Adenosine from binding with the body as long as caffeine is in your system. This stops you from acheiving deep sleep, the phase of sleep that helps restore the bodies health. Without this deep sleep cycle, you will be tired, which makes people want to drink more coffee, which is probably the exact oppsite of what needs to happen.

The second issue is caffeine is addictive. Caffeine increases the dopamine levels in the body. Dopamine activates the pleasure center in the brain. So caffeine becomes hard to quit because the body begins to crave those "good feelings".

My recommendation is to try to cut most of your daily consumption of caffeine out of your diet. Avoid sodas and coffee. Tea has caffeine, but it also has antioxidants, which are good for you, so occasionally having green tea should be fine. The goal is to make sure you have control of what you are eating and to try and avoid creating food cravings.