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Coffee is Addictive
zpok writes "According to scientists, coffee is really addictive, which I guess must mean they'll come in and confiscate your latte any moment now..." Can't wait for the study proving sugar is sweet.
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Thanks mainstream media (and Slashdot) for once again misrepresenting, misinterpreting and oversimplifying a scientific study or publication.
Some people would probably think it's boring to read the actual article (J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1990 Mar;252(3):970-8) or the abstract, but a link could have been in order.
No, the news is not that "coffee is addictive". Duh.
From the abstract:
"A novel drug discrimination procedure was used to study the discriminability and subjective effects of caffeine in seven human volunteers who abstained from dietary sources of caffeine. [...] The present study documents biological activity of caffeine at lower doses than heretofore recognized. The general approach to investigating the effects of low drug doses may have broad application in human psychopharmacology research for characterizing other subtle psychotropic effects."
Funny? Laugh?
I wonder why the Seattle Times and Slashdot found this worthy to mention, at the same time as it's apparently not worthy to understand.
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Here is the original Johns Hopkins Medicine (hopkinsmedicine.org) press release ( +printer friendly version)
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
This could be the right article.
"OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the literature regarding human caffeine withdrawal to empirically validate specific symptoms and signs, and to appraise important features of the syndrome."
"CONCLUSIONS. The caffeine-withdrawal syndrome has been well characterized and there is sufficient empirical evidence to warrant inclusion of caffeine withdrawal as a disorder in the DSM and revision of diagnostic criteria in the ICD."
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Go buy a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans and scarf em down. You'll know what caffeine jitters are then.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
mental illness
n.
Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma. Also called emotional illness, mental disease, mental disorder.
This is all a mental disorder is. It does not assign blame. Caffeine withdrawal exhibits certain predictable symptoms affecting the normal order of a person's mind, and as such it makes sense to classify it as what it is, a disorder. The word "disorder" just means things are mentally messed up; it does not imply the person was "born" with caffeine withdrawal or blameless for having this disorder, anymore than a psychopath is granted amnesty just because they have antisocial personality disorder.
What they've found is that there is caffeine withdrawl. This doesn't mean addiction, it means physical dependence. Addiction is more of psychological condition in which you can't stop doing something in the face of negative consequences, e.g. you'll give out blow jobs if that's what you have to do to get your fix. Someone else gave this link to the actual study. It doesn't say addiction.
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As a former *$ barista and manager I know form where I speak. They spend a lot of time on coffee education if you are willing to listen.
If you want a better 'buzz' go with a lighter roast coffee. Darker roasts like French have been toasted longer to produce a deeper flavor but loose some of the caffiene in the process. The same is true for using an espresso roast for drip coffee. It makes a mean cup of coffee but sure has less caffeine than a cinniamon roast you will find in cheap 'over the counter' coffees in the supermarket.
Perhpas the biggest misconception is that multiple shots of espresso will really light you up. Wrong. All you are getting is a very concentrated flavor not a super boost of caffiene. That is cuz by the time it gets in to your latte the beans have been deeply roasted (to an espresso roast) and then 'super brewed' (as compared to traditional drip coffee)in the espresso maker. So if you are thinking that the quad shot Americano (espresso and water) you get to impress you buddies is some superdrink then just put on a dress and change you name to Sally. That is about as far removed from the 'manly' coffee my dad drank in the navy that you can get and still call it the same drink.
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It's not just that the body processes synthetic sugar differently than a natural sugar such as fructose that should give people pause.
This is a general tendency for serious drugs - The opiates are all similar to natural endorphins, with just a few OH radical's here and there for differences. When the body breaks down a synthetic opiate, several reactions proceed at the same speed as for natural endorphins, then a step occurs where the reaction chokes, as the enzymes responsible for that stage of metabolism don't fit the synthetic. Brain chemestry gets thrown off by this.
LSD and the various Mescalineoids have the same property in mimicing serotonin, again a natural brain chemical. They get a certain part of the way through the normal metabolic processes, then chemical breakdown slows, and again, brain chemistry fluctuates as a result.
There are some other drugs that the pattern isn't this clear. Psilocyben may or may not have a particular choke point in its metabolic path, although it does partially mimic some natural brain chemistry compounds. THC may or may not resemble a particular estrogen compound occuring naturally enough to go through some of the same metabolic pathways, the results are mixed. Partly, that's because these are both produced by plants and many of the tests use a mixture of several related chemical forms as those plants naturally don't make 100% pure anything.
Processed sugar metabolism involves splitting a double sugar molecule into two natural sugars right at the start of the process. The body doesn't seem to do this at a properly controlled speed, witness the fluctuations in the levels of those natural sugars as normally measured in the bloodstream.
Even in people with good tolerance for sugar (non-diabetics), those levels routinely vary by 200% or more (i.e. a typical fasting reading of 80, and a reading 15 minutes after eating sweets of 240, is not uncommon). That's an amplitude variation similar to what we see with the halucinogens for serotonin, and only moderately less than the fluctuation in natural endorphin levels of heavy opiate abusers.
Who is John Cabal?
Perhpas the biggest misconception is that multiple shots of espresso will really light you up. Wrong.
Not a misconception: a fact. If the espresso isn't pepping me up, what is? The demi-mug?
All you are getting is a very concentrated flavor not a super boost of caffiene. That is cuz by the time it gets in to your latte the beans have been deeply roasted (to an espresso roast) and then 'super brewed' (as compared to traditional drip coffee)in the espresso maker.
This flies in the face of a chemical experiment I did in organic lab. We STEAM EXTRACTED caffeine from some coffee grounds. You wouldn't believe the volume of crystals that precipitated from solution. "Super brewing", by which I take it you mean steam extraction, does an excellent job of pulling caffeine from the grounds.
Israel is a multi-cultural country made up of many different people or varying origins; we have the coffee cultures to prove it. Here are the main ones:
- The Eastern/Arabic coffee culture. Turkish/Greek coffee mostly, which is what people here assume you mean when you say black coffee. It can be served with many different spices, and is probably the most popular coffee brew in Israel, mostly with the working class. The "Ma and Pap" (e.g. "Pitzutziot") and 7-11 style shops sell these, which are rarely found in corporate coffee chains. "American black coffee" is simply instant or filter coffee, with no milk - which is something almost no one here drinks.
- The Italian coffee culture. It was actually introduced by corporate coffee chains similiar to Starbuck's (the local Aroma and Arcafe chains). The main drinks served there are the standard Espresso, Cappucino, and Latté. A favourite with women is Iced Coffee. These brews are mostly popular with the high-tech and academic crowds. An interesting fact is that the "Americano" type of coffee isn't sold here, as far as I know. We have short (1:1 water to coffee ratio), long (2:1) and double (2:2) Espresso servings.
- American/Western coffee culture (instant coffee). This is mostly popular here with people who like the weaker coffee types (and sometimes teens). It's the most accessible brew (primarily to small business who don't have coffee machines), but rarely found in the corporate coffee chains. Most offices in Israel offer instant coffee to the workers instead of the American filter coffee (or drip brew) machine - which is next to non-existant in Israel. Like I said before - this is rarely drank in the style of "American black coffee". Usually it is served as "2 sugar, with milk".
Oh, by the way, "Shovar" actually means voucher, not black. Next time try:"Ca-feh, Na-meh-s, bli khalav, bli sookar." (Translation: Coffee, instant. No milk, no sugar)
Good luck and have a pleasant time in our insane little country :)
I have some personal experience here. A number of years ago, my wife made me go in for counseling because I was seriously depressed. Clinically, it turns out, and after participating in individual and group therapies for 6 or 8 months, I was a lot better. Do I still have depressive tendencies? Sure, but I have tools for dealing with the thoughts and mental states that exacerbate those tendencies, and for the past 4 years I've been a much happier camper overall than I had been ever since I was a teenager.
So yes, let's be cautious, but let's not shoot down psychology/psychiatry over some "snake oil" pushers. There are good things going on there, too. I would wager much more than there are bad.
Perhpas the biggest misconception is that multiple shots of espresso will really light you up. Wrong. All you are getting is a very concentrated flavor not a super boost of caffiene. That is cuz by the time it gets in to your latte the beans have been deeply roasted (to an espresso roast) and then 'super brewed' (as compared to traditional drip coffee)in the espresso maker. So if you are thinking that the quad shot Americano (espresso and water) you get to impress you buddies is some superdrink then just put on a dress and change you name to Sally. That is about as far removed from the 'manly' coffee my dad drank in the navy that you can get and still call it the same drink.
I've heard this common misconception that espresso doesn't have very much caffeine repeatedly, even from those I would expect to know better. Can you point me to some supporting evidence that espresso isn't high in caffeine?
According to the Coffee Faq, a 7 oz serving of drip coffee has 115-175 mg of caffeine, while a 1.5-2 oz. shot of espresso has about 100 mg. So while drip coffee may indeed have more caffeine per serving than espresso (and that's if your "serving" is a single shot), espresso has dramatically more caffeine per volume.
In fact, if we average the ranges given above, a 7 oz. serving of drip coffee has (115 + 175) / 2 = 145 mg, or (145/7) 21 mg per onuce.
A 1.75 oz. shot espresso would have 100 mg, or (100 / 1.75 ) 57 mg per ounce.
That means that, on average, espresso will have about three times as much caffeine per volume as drip coffee per volume.
If you're in a hurry and want lots of caffeine, a quad-shot Americano would in fact be essentially straight caffeine: 1.75 oz X 4 = 7 oz. of espesso. That doesn't leave much room for the water, does it? And it'll pack a punch of 400 mg of caffeine.
Back in the 90s a friend of mine described one of his best legal highs, and it involved caffeine.
He took a fortnight out from all caffeine, pop, coffee, tea, pro-plus and all the rest. He made sure that he was totally caffeine free for the whole 14 days, then at the end of it he popped two pro-plus (caffeine tablets) and washed them down with a litre can of Coke. He said it was better than amphetamine, and legal to boot.
I should point out that we are UK residents, and having a cup of coffee is a 30 minute-ly occurrence, with no hype about it, just a coffee and no wall bouncing.
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At least on the east coast, we put either half and half or milk into coffee. Every restaurant I've been to provides half and half but in a residence, milk is often used since it is so useful for regular drinking and milk and cereal. It also cools the coffee faster since you need more for the same amount of creamyness. But if you are going to put a dairy product in your coffee, usually they mean the same thing, with half and half being preferred either way. But that's just my take. I'm from central (Trenton area) New Jersey for reference.
Oh, and artifical creamers are "creamers", so as not to be confused with the real thing.