Coca Cola, Coffee and Tea – How Much Caffeine is in These Drinks?

Is there an alternative to caffeinated drinks?

We are all becoming more aware of the side-effects caffeine can have on our body. Nowadays, people are changing their habits and cutting down on caffeine. However, is there any popular drink other than water that has no caffeine and acts as a perfect alternative?

What are the effects of Caffeine on the body?

Caffeine only occurs naturally or is added to popular foods. It’s moderately addictive which is a possible reason that soft drink companies add it to their products. Often, coffee and tea drinkers encounter withdrawal symptoms, these often include, headaches, sleepiness, lethargy and irritability when they give up drinking caffeinated drinks. The health effects of caffeine on the body are neither entirely good or bad.

Let’s start with the disadvantages of caffeine. “When people use caffeine every day, their bodies get used to it, and they don’t get the ‘good effects’ of feeling more awake and able to concentrate unless they use more of it,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A person experiencing withdrawal from caffeine often suffers from symptoms such as drowsiness, tiredness and headaches. To try and prevent this, they then consume more caffeine. Therefore, the vicious cycle continues.

Another problem with caffeine is that it can really interfere with your sleep. It interrupts with your levels of adenosine – a compound found in the brain that drives you to sleep. Caffeine binds to adenosine receptors in the brain which hinders adenosine from entering nerve cells and therefore making you feel drowsy.

Knowing these bad qualities of caffeine, are there any benefits of drinking caffeine? It is evident that after having anywhere from 20 mg to 200 mg of caffeine, people say the effect increases well-being, energy, happiness, alertness, and sociability.

What is the most caffeinated drink?

An article in the Guardian has published a graph to show just how much caffeine is in various popular drinks. Here, we can see the levels of caffeine in a serving in each popular drink.

Are there alternative drinks which have little or no caffeine?

In some cases, that strong cup of coffee or tea can be just what you need. However, as we’ve heard, caffeine can have several bad effects on your mental health. Therefore, why not try an alternative? Some fruit flavoured fizzy soft drinks have no caffeine, however, the lack of caffeine is often replaced with high levels of sugar. If you would like to stay away from both caffeine and sugar, carbonated or still filtered water is your best option as it contains neither of the two.