Caffeine, How Much Is Too Much?

 According to the National Coffee Association's 2013 online survey, U.S has become world’s biggest consumer of coffee with over 80 plus percent of adults consume coffee. It comes to an average of three cups a day per person or rounds up to a mammoth 600 million cups.Most of us consume some form of caffeinated beverage every day. Coffee has become an integral part of our life rather than just a shot of caffeine. It's a $30 billion a year industry and has become an affordable luxury, disease-fighting antioxidants with an addictive aroma.Caffeine has shown its presence naturally in coffee, tea, cocoa, yerba mate and guarana, and also added in variable quantity in energy drink, sodas and weight loss supplements.

What is the limit?

Caffeine effects vary from person to person, some might get jolted and jittery from a single cup of coffee while others display no symptoms from multiple cups a day. Caffeine’s safety mostly depends on person’s tolerance along with the dose and your health. People having less tolerance for coffee can experience high spikes in blood pressure, disrupted sleep, headaches, irritability, or nervousness. It may even lead to toxicity, CVD risk, diuresis, calcium imbalance and behavioural effects when passing this maximum limit on a regular basis.In this article, I’ve tried to explain about recommendations on caffeine safety, but remember that individual tolerance for coffee may vary. And much of the studies are done by European Food Safety Agency (EFSA).

Healthy adults

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), the US National Academies of Science (NAS), and Health Canada have reasoned that, for grown-ups or adults, the intake of caffeine up to 400 mg/day don't raise any major health issue. While you can devour on more caffeine, 400 mg is how much caffeine most healthy individuals can routinely consume in a day without any negative symptoms.The EFSA also indicated that, for most people, consuming up to 200 mg of caffeine at once doesn’t raise any health concerns, however taking 100 mg of caffeine close to bedtime may affect sleep quality.It should be noted that the half-life of caffeine is approximately 5 hours, which means that you may still have caffeine in your blood if you drank coffee within the last 10 hours.So it is plausible to consume 400 mg of caffeine per day for a healthy adult, but it is important to avoid caffeine near bedtime for optimal sleep quality.

Breastfeeding or pregnant women

Women who are breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to become pregnant should limit their intake of caffeine to 200mg per day, according to a review by EFSA. There are few other reviews who concluded that 300 mg/day is safe but it may increase the risk of miscarriage along with nausea.For a pregnant woman, the half-life of caffeine increases from an average of 3 h to 10.5 h especially during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy. It means that when you are pregnant, your body takes a lot longer to get rid of the caffeine you consume.

Children and adolescents

According to the EFSA, the information available is insufficient to note down a safe caffeine intake for children and adolescents, but it recommends using the adult population’s upper limit for single doses which is 3 mg per kilogram of body weight as the younger population’s upper limit for daily intake.The health Canada and non-legislative audits support lower upper limit which is 2.5 mg/kg/day. The Institute of Medicine has suggested that drinks high on caffeine should not be sold to children at school.

For people with cardiovascular health concerns

It is very much recorded that caffeine can raise blood pressure for 3– 4 hours, however, this impact typically diminishes with regular consumption of caffeine. Luckily, in sound and healthy grown-ups, caffeine admissions of up to 400 mg/day have not been connected to increments in cardiovascular risk. However, in individuals with hypertension or previous cardiovascular conditions, the long haul impacts of standard caffeine admission are less sure. Consuming caffeine in moderation should be fine but it is best to get accessed by a healthcare provider or consultant on a regular basis.

What happens if I ingest too much caffeine?

Caffeine can be toxic and lethal if consumed in large quantity. In oral doses, 15 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight is considered toxic and 150 mg/kg can be lethal.  Therefore, caffeine can kill a healthy person if drunk in rapid succession without giving many breaks in between.Powdered caffeine can be much dangerous as FDA has warned that “one teaspoon of pure powdered caffeine is equivalent to the amount of caffeine in about 28 cups of regular coffee”. So it is much easier to overdose on powdered caffeine than on caffeinated beverages.

Best practices

It is estimated that caffeine users consume 180mg of caffeine per day or about 2 cups of coffee. The proposed max limit where it doesn’t affect your health sits at 400 mg/day or little more than 4 cups.For healthy adults up to 400mg/day is considered safe. Pregnant or breastfeeding women are advised to consume no more than 200mg/day. People with the cardiovascular issue should also limit their caffeine intake. And for young children, I would suggest staying away from caffeine for a while.It should be noted that not all coffee is equal, some have more caffeine and some has less. So it is important to know the caffeine content of the type of coffee you consume.Furthermore, frequent consumption of caffeine can fade away its benefits, so it better to cycle caffeine. 

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