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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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Seriously... is there ANYONE in ANY part of this country anymore that just takes a little bit of responsibility for their own goddamn actions? The idea that the effects of drinking a cup of coffee could even be considered being classified as a "disease" is absolutely ludicrous.
People are so pathetic these days. I think the only disease involved in all this "you're not an irresponsible jackass, you just need medical help!" attitude is an acute affliction of stupid.
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...the study was more about the addictive properties of caffeine, rather than coffee. This is actually quite useful, because caffeine is often combined with paracetemol in pain killers. People who use these painkillers as "lifestyle drugs" (and they do - just look at the proliferation of "pocket containers" for brand name pills") might want to read this research. For example, the article states "Griffiths and Juliano assessed the validity of 66 studies on caffeine withdrawal over many decades. Fifty percent of people had headaches, and 13 percent had clinically significant distress or impairment of function.". If you're taking pain killers with caffeine to relieve headaches, the pain could actually start to be caused by your addiction to the caffeine. Still, at least they're researching something :)
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I resent that remark.
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...given that it has so much caffeine as well. I haven't had any soda in three and a half years, and I can tell you that it's still difficult not to drink it. Just smelling it really makes me want to drink some, so it definitely had an effect on me, regardless of whether that could be officially classified as addiction.
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Perhaps starbucks should be careful they don't get added to the list, especially serving columbian blends !
"In other news, it has been found that eating food can be addictive. Studies show that some humans who start eating food shortly after they are born are unable to stop until their death."
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
Seriously... Think about this. Druggies have already proved they'll pay just about any price to feed their habit. So, if you leagalize it, you reduce the cost of getting the drugs here, and selling them (black market goes away...). So, lets say the markup on your tyipcal drug is 17,000% from the black market. What should the markup be if the drugs where legal? Lets just say 500%, for arguments sake.
The government could charge a 100% tax on the profit, and the end user would only see a markup of about 1000% (17 times less than the current markup, for those who suck at math).
So, the druggies win (cheaper drugs). And the government wins (more taxes, less money spent on the worthless drug war). And the tax payer wins, provided the shills we elect don't siphon off all these extra funds into some type of 'special account'...
That, and I think people would be happier :D
/. is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.
I find that daily use of coffee completely prevents all side-effects of caffeine withdrawal. Give it a try and you will see.
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)
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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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I must be the exception to the rule. I drink coffe on average three times a week. And when I do, it is only one cup a day. It's when I get to work and realize I forgot my juice/water that I normally bring in to drink. For me, it is more about having something to sip on in the morning while I read the news, and settle in for the day. I can honestly say that no matter if I drink coffee for an entire month, I do not have "the need" to drink a cup on that next day. Water will do just fine.
I can honestly say that even though it does clearly have an effect on me (I get a little jittery and feel way too high strung after a cuppa joe) I would bet that most people would only have "withdrawal symptoms" for a day at most. I'm guessing (very unscientifically) that for most people the need for coffee is a routine. Try switching to water or juice or even decaf coffee to see if you feel any different.
I can see where someone who drinks a couple pots of coffee a day might get headaches or something if they just quit all at once, but this could be said for anything...sugar, caffeine, salty snacks, you name it. Your body is going to be used to dealing with anything you take in in excess. Once that excessive amount is gone, you will notice, at least for a little while. I'm not sure it's really groundbreaking news just because Johns Hopkins told us they found it out.
I certainly don't think it needs to be entered into the DMS just yet, just because some people get a headache from too little/much caffeine. (yes it happens when you get too much too, at least for me) I know people will say it is like alcoholism, where it's the same kinds of symptoms and what not. But I don't think alcoholism is quite as bad as people make it out to be. (and before I go any farther, let me tell you that I do have two alcoholics in my close family) I think that even though some people may be more likely to develop alcoholism, the blame and responsibility still falls on them. Every person has the ability to stop doing destructive behavior. You just have to learn what your limits are and govern them youself....but that's another topic for another day.
You present a strong argument.
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...sorry, just had to say it. Prohibition funds organized crime of all sorts.
What it does meen is I now have a legal basis for beating the cr@p out of the Starbucks clerk when he doesn't understand I just want plain black coffee.
It's worse here in Israel, where the idea of coffee is synonymous with milk. Every time I go somewhere for coffee it's a 5 minuet ordeal, that I am not caffinated enough to deal with.
"Caffe, Shovar, ein Chalav, ein sukar" (Translation: Coffee, black. No milk, no Sugar)
"Espresso".
"Lo Nescafe",(Trans: no instant.)
"Ah Nescafe Latte" (Trans: Oh, you must be wrong, and want Instant coffee mixed with steamed milk)
"LO! Nescafe, im maim cham. Ze Oh." (Trans: No you freaking moron. Put instant coffee in hot water, nothing else!)
"Maim? oh Chalav?" (Trans: No one actually drinks coffee like that here. You want it with milk)
"Look I'm a f@#$ing American. My hebrew sucks, and I know you speak 3 d@#$ languages so you can understand this. All I want is caffine in water. No milk, I'm lactose intolerant. No suggar I'm a diabetic. So unless you want me farting while I'm going through sugar shock on your floor, PUT INSTANT COFFEE IN HOT WATTER AND LET ME PAY YOU FOR IT!!"
Ah... I feel better now.
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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.
Have you been to an AA meeting?
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How did the parent post get a +4 for Insightful, anyway? I guess there are at least 5 of you out there who believe this B.S. statement.
Seriously, sugar is hardly the problem with obesity in America. The problem is primarily one of poor eating habits, coupled with lack of exercise. (Not that anecdotes prove anything, but just to pull out one random example; I used to know a gal who was a strict vegetarian, and I *never* once saw her eat a piece of candy or "junk food" - yet she was overweight.)
If you consume more calories than you use, you gain weight. It's really that simple. It doesn't matter if those calories come in the form of sugar or "healthy foods". If you're eating more than you're burning off - you'll eventually get fat.
If sugary foods are contributing to the obesity problem, it's only in a more indirect way. (Snack foods tend to be "ready to eat" and conveniently packaged. When you can just grab it, unwrap it, and stuff it in your mouth - you're more likely to do so often, hence increasing your overall intake of calories.)
Something tells me that if we started a war on caffeine, we'd have a whole new front in the war on terrorism to deal with. Millions of coffee-starved Americans calling themselves 'Al-Qafeen' would rage throughout our streets spreading chaos and discord...
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Sugar is a serious part of the obesity problem in America. It's not the whole thing - our eating habits are the real problem. Regardless, sugar is a carbohydrate and when your body is functioning "normally" your body will store unused carbohydrates as fat, barring those which are expelled from the body as waste.
Put simply, most americans have been relegated to eating prepackaged foods. Who makes their own spaghetti sauce any more, for example? I know several of you out there are jumping up and down in your chair saying "me! me! ima post and tell this fucker off!" but the fact is that you are statistically insignificant. But spaghetti sauce is loaded with excess sugar and so is just about everything else we eat. Even hot dogs tend to have a ton of sugar added to them - someone please explain to me why little fine-ground sausages need sugar.
Well, actually, don't explain it, because I know the answer: they don't need sugar but focus groups, taste tests, and other forms of research have shown that we like to eat food with sugar added to it. So, the food industry in America (and other places) adds a grip of sugar to just about everything, including many foods that ordinarily wouldn't contain any.
In short, everything you eat is sugary unless you make it yourself. This IS a serious problem and it IS totally unnecessary.
The problem really goes beyond sugar though, which after all is just a carbohydrate. No matter how you feel about no- or low-carb diets like atkins (which is just a new name on an old diet, which can be referred to as a low-carb modified fast) the fact is that we eat too many carbohydrates. As early as the 1700s you can find literary examples with people making observations that people who eat a lot of starch are fatter on average than people who eat a lot of meat. You can find carbohydrate-based fillers in just about everything on the store shelves; anything that doesn't have carb-based fillers is probably primarily a carbohydrate to begin with, like bread. The USDA food pyramid, promoted by the NIH after several billion dollars were spent trying to prove that eating fat makes you fat and failing, yet promoted on the "strength" of a study which showed that taking drugs to reduce your cholesterol decreased your risk of heart disease, suggests that we eat more carbohydrates than anything else. This is not only totally unnecessary (your body can quite efficiently derive energy from fats, it just doesn't do it as quickly) but completely ridiculous and utterly unfounded.
I don't know how you got a +4, Insightful for saying that sugar isn't a big problem, because it is. It's only a part of the problem, but the aggressive promotion of sugar-laden foods in the US is a big part of why we're fat. C&H sugar will happily tell you via a message printed on the packaging that SUGAR CONTAINS NO FAT. Well, whoop-de-do, it still makes you fat.
Come down off your high horse, which is headed in the wrong direction anyway, and join the parade.
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Sorry to hear about your plight, but it could be worse...
I live in "God's Country" (place your finger in the middle of the U.S. -- that's about where I am) and I have the opposite problem -- nobody has cream here.
Now, I started drinking coffee in the Italian area of Boston. I can't stand not having cream in my coffee. And out here, I'm literally surrounded by cows, but everyone insists on putting this "Creamer" stuff in their coffee. Creamer can be left open, in a warm room, for months and not go bad. It's simply not from this earth.
These fat slobs (some of the fattest in the nation!) would super-size their ASPIRIN if they had the chance, but "oh no, cream is too filling!" Gah!
And naturally nobody has ever heard of SUGAR. No, it's all artificial, carcinogenic "sweeteners". Most of the people just drink Foldgers instant-coffee, anyway. Mixed to half-strength.
If you're ever in the Mid-West, just remember that "coffee" means "slightly brown-tinted water with artifical sweeteners and fake milk."
Right before going to sleep at night, take one or two caffeine pills. It's necessary you use pills, because the taste of familiar caffinated drinks and/or the sugars in these drinks will cause an immediate "peppy" reaction. The trick to this hack is to fall asleep before the chemicals kick in. Caffeine takes about 30-60 minutes to take effect depending on the person, so you want to be in a situation where you can fall as quickly as possible.
If you do this correctly, what'll end up happening is that the caffeine will cause a state of hyperactivity while you're still asleep! What ends up occuring is an extremely deep, relaxing sleep, while producing intensly vivid dreams. Try it!
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I hate all the folks around me say "Gah" when they want to express frustration. Never heard it in NY.
Sorry, what I meant to say was, "Goddamn fuckin' mutha-fuckah's!"
And there goes my karma.