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American Morning
New Study Challenges What Kind of Caffeine Boost We Get From Coffee
Aired July 23, 2002 - 08:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: A new study challenges our understanding of just what kind of caffeine boost we're really getting from coffee.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with more of this morning's House Call.
Good morning, Dr. Sanjay. Did you have coffee, first of all?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I haven't had my coffee. I'm not much of a coffee drinker. I was actually going to ask you the same thing, because I know these are some early morning hours for you. How are you doing up there?
NEVILLE: No coffee, struggling a little bit, but no coffee. But you know what, For those of white house don't drink coffee so much, we'll clearly get a bigger boost from caffeine because our tolerance level is lower, right?
GUPTA: That's exactly right. So it's a little bit of vindication for the non-coffee drinkers amongst us. Certainly, there is a journal study that came out, and they actually looked at this issue. They looked at the people who drank coffee regularly, and people who didn't drink it. They actually gave everyone a dose of caffeine, or the equivalent to a cup of coffee.
What they found are that people who are regular coffee drinkers got less of a jolt at it, specifically in terms of exercise tolerance. They could ride a bike, for example, 23, 24 minutes without it, and about 28 minutes with coffee. Those are regular coffee drinkers. People who don't drink coffee had about a six or seven-minute extra burst of energy from the coffee. Certainly it points out that I guess not unexpectedly that if you're not a regular coffee drinker, and you occasionally dip into the caffeine pool, you're going to get a much bigger kick out of it.
NEVILLE: What about those other drinks like Red Bull and other caffeinated drinks? Which ones have the most caffeine?
GUPTA: Funny you should ask. I actually have a whole list of them right here. And I think we've got some numbers to show you as well. We actually did some research on this. Coffee, for example, 85 milligrams, this is typical eight-ounce cup. Red Bull, 80 milligrams. This little bottle, 80 milligrams. Espresso is probably you're best bang for your buck, 40 milligrams of caffeine in just one ounce. Ice tea, 25. Coke about the same, 24. And don't forget chocolate as well has caffeine in it. One ounce about six grams of caffeine as well. So a lot of sources of caffeine there -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: If I had espresso, I would be just -- they would have to contain me, strap me down with some espresso.
GUPTA: Makes me really jittery, too.
NEVILLE: It does. Now aside from people like me, who else should stay away from coffee?
GUPTA: It is important to remember that coffee -- caffeine specifically really is a stimulant. It stimulates all sorts of things in your body. People typically associate it with increased alertness, maybe a little increased energy. But it also increases your blood pressure, increases your heart rate, and those sorts of things, people who have troubles with their heart. Pregnant women have oftentimes in the past been told to cut down on the amount of caffeine.
And Don't forget that caffeine is a diuretic. It will actually cause you to lose water. If you're drinking coffee, you're probably dehydrating yourself. You need to supplement with extra fluids. Important things to keep in mind if you're a big coffee drinker.
NEVILLE: What about alternatives? I know sometimes because, as I said, that caffeine is not necessarily the best thing for me, I take ginseng sometimes to get a little bit of that same jolt, which also has health benefits to it as well.
GUPTA: That's right. Caffeine is a stimulant, and there are all sorts of different stimulants out there. Caffeine, not to get too science-y, but it actually improves the way your cells metabolizes things, so it makes your body really efficient. And that's why people sort of like caffeine. But there are other things out there that do that, that may not have some of the negative side effects of caffeine, again, such things as increasing your heart rate, blood pressure, things like that. Ginseng is a good example as any Arthel.
NEVILLE: Well, Dr. Gupta, no coffee for us.
GUPTA: No.
NEVILLE: Maybe a little later. Got to have a little bit, right?
GUPTA: I have got this stuff called Donkey Kick, too. It says "punch up reaction speed with a kick of caffeine." Unopened, I'll point out; I'm not going to drink this.
NEVILLE: I'm not drinking anything called donkey kick.
All right, Dr. Gupta, thank you so much.
Good seeing you.
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