Cola-chocolate, caffeine

Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance found in the leaves, seeds, or fruits of more than 60 plants. These include coffee and cocoa beans, kola nuts, tea leaves, guarana (Paulinia cupana) and Paraguay tea. Thus it is present naturally in many beverages, such as coffee, tea, and cola drinks, or is added in small amounts (up to 200 ppm) in some soft drinks and in foods such as chocolate. Caffeine is obtained by solvent or supercritical fluid extraction from green coffee beans, mainly during the preparation of decaffeinated coffee. 

Caffeine is a bitter-tasting compound found in coffee, tea, cola beverages, and chocolate. Caffeine is a mild stimulant, usually imparting a feeling of alertness after consumption. It also increases heart rate, dilates airways, and stimulates the secretion of stomach acid. Caffeine is an alkaloid, a naturally occurring amine derived from a plant source. In Chapter 25 we learn about the properties and reactions of amines. 

Cut back to one or two cups per day of most caffeinated drinks—coffee, black tea, colas, chocolate drinks—and eliminate these drinks entirely if you suffer from anxiety, have trouble sleeping, or are prone to headache. You might substitute green tea for the other beverages, as it has very little caffeine and offers several other health benefits. 

At one time, Coca-Cola actually contained a form of cocaine. These days, the primary stimulant in Coca-Cola and many other beverages is caffeine. Other stimulants are less obvious. Chocolate contains theobromine, a caffeinelike stimulant. Nondrowsy cold remedies contain pseudoephedrine, a relative of ephedra, another plant-alkaloid stimulant. 

A cup of drip-brewed coffee typically contains 100 milligrams of caffeine per 177 milliliters (6 ounces). Tea has about 70 milligrams, and colas have about 50 milligrams. A bar of milk chocolate has about 36 milligrams in 177 milliliters. 

Caffeine was conceived for a wide range of readers interested in the effects on human health, nutrition, and physiological function of the methylxanthine beverages and foods—tea, coffee, mate, cola beverages, and cocoa and chocolate products. These products supply one or more of the dietary methylxanthines—caffeine, theobromine and theophylline— and are an integral part of the diet of many people in many countries. The interest in the health effects of both the methylxanthines in isolation and in the products containing them has grown rapidly in recent years. 

After the nucleic acid purines adenine and guanine, the next most prominent purine in our everyday lives is probably caffeine. Caffeine, in the form of beverages such as tea, coffee, and cola, is one of the most widely consumed and socially accepted natural stimulants. Closely related structurally are theobromine and theophylline. Theobromine is a major constituent of cocoa, and related chocolate products. Caffeine is also used medicinally,... 

Use most widely used stimulant in the world Source coffee, tea, cola and other soft drinks, chocolate Recommended daily intake the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised pregnant women to avoid caffeine-containing foods and drugs, if possible, or consume them only sparingly ... 

In this chapter we will explore why we so readily consume caffeine. There are sound physiological reasons why so many companies make so much money from caffeine. The economics are staggering. Coffee alone is one of the largest cash crops in the world. It is estimated that in 1998/1999 coffee production was greater that 6 billion kilograms (more that 12 billion pounds), which would translate into over a trillion cups of coffee and literally tons of caffeine. This does not even take into consideration the caffeine consumed from cola beverages, tea, and chocolate. Our brains and our wallets are hooked on caffeine. 

Avoid consuming an excessive amount of caffeine derivatives such as chocolate, cocoa, coffee, cola, or tea... 

Avoid excessive use of caffeinated products, such as chocolate, cola, coffee, and tea... 

Avoid large amounts of caffeine-containing products (tea, coffee, chocolate, colas)... 

Caffeine is present in coffee, tea, and chocolate. These plant-derived beverages and foods also contain the other methylxanthines, which some scientists say serve as defense chemicals for leaves and berries produced in climates where there is no winter to kill off chewing bugs. Tea contains mostly caffeine, with small amounts of theophylline and theobromine, but tea is a weaker plant extract than the stronger brew, coffee. Theobromine is the primary methylxanthine found in cocoa, which also contains a small amount of caffeine per cup. Caffeine content ranges from as little as 5 mg in a cup of hot cocoa to 300 mg in 6 oz (177 ml) of espresso. Colas have about 50 mg per 12 fl oz (355 ml). 

Finally, purines such as caffeine (including dietary caffeine in coffee, tea, colas, and chocolate) and synthetic derivatives, such as theophylline, can interfere with the vascular actions of dipyridamole, These agents act to inhibit the adenosine A2A receptor, which serves to further emphasize the role of adenosine in the pharmacologic actions of dipyridamole (41-43), It has also been shown that this effect on A2A receptors is restricted to the vessel wall the direct anti-aggregatory actions of dipyridamole are not blocked by purines and may, if anything, be enhanced by the indirect effect of purines to upregulate A2A receptors (44,45). 

Coffee is not the only source of large doses of caffeine. Chocolate bars, for example, contain approximately 30 mg of caffeine. In addition, over the past 10-15 years soft-drink manufacturers have produced a number of caffeinated beverages including orange juice and water. However, colas remain the principal vehicle to Feed the Rush. A comparison of caffeine content of various colas is shown in Table 11.6. 

Methylxanthines include theophylline [thee OFF i lin] found in tea, theobromine [thee o BRO min] found in cocoa, and caffeine [kaf EEN]. Caffeine, the most widely consumed stimulant in the world, is found in highest concentration in coffee but is also present in tea, cola drinks, chocolate candy, and cocoa. 

Caffeine is an ingredient in coffee, tea, chocolate, and cola drinks. Its chemical name is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthene. You can see how long names like this would become unwieldy in word equations. 

Avoid the use of caffeine in any form (coffee, tea, chocolate, or cola). 

One of the most famous sources of caffeine is chocolate, also made from the seeds of a tropical tree. Chocolate, which contains a lot of fat and is very bitter, must be mixed with sugar to make it palatable. It, too, contains a stimulating drug, and cases of chocolate dependence are easy to find. You probably know a few "chocoholics." People who regularly consume chocolate or go on chocolate-eating binges may not realize they are involved with a drug, but their consumption usually follows the same sort of pattern as with coffee, tea, and cola drinks. 

Decaffeinated coffee contains about 3 mg per cup cola drinks contain 8-13 mg caffeine/100 ml cocoa as a drink, 4 mg per cup chocolate (solid) 6-20 mg per 30 g. 

Coca-Cola was originally flavored with extracts from the leaves of the coca plant and the kola nut. Coca is grown in northern South America the Indians of Peru and Bolivia have for centuries chewed the leaves to relieve the pangs of hunger and high mountain cold. The cocaine from the leaves causes local anesthesia of the stomach. It has limited use as a local anesthetic for surgery on the eye, nose, and throat. Unfortunately it is now a widely abused illicit drug. Kola nuts contciin about 3% caffeine as well as a number of other alkaloids. The kola tree is in the same family as the cacao tree from which cocoa cmd chocolate cu-e obtained. Modem cola drinks do not contain cocaine however, Coca-Cola contains 43 mg of caffeine per... 

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