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| forms of beans grown primarily in Africa and South America. Coffee is consumed by millions of individuals seeking an energy boost, on a daily basis. The energy boost comes from the alkaloid caffeine, which acts both on the cardiovascular and central nervous system to reduce fatigue, increase alertness and improve endurance. |
| Although caffeine is a common ingredient in many beverages, over-the-counter medications and foods, it recently has been suggested that it cannot be called a food or a drug. Dr. Jeffrey Bland, of HealthComm, Inc., a company specializing in health and nutrition education, says it falls into a recently defined in-between category called nutraceuticals. A nutraceutical is a food-derived substance which can have pharmacological effects on the body. Caffeine fits this definition perfectly. |
| Caffeine can have a negative or positive effect on one's body, depending on the dose and one's metabolism. There has been evidence published showing that excessive and chronic use of caffeine can lead to episodes of anxiety and high blood pressure. It has also been noted that when caffeine was taken in high doses, subjects performed worse than when they were given a placebo. |
| When taken in excess, caffeine can also irritate one's stomach lining, disrupt sleep, cause diarrhea, accelerate dehydrationrace day problems you can certainly do without. Lastly, if you are taking chronically high levels of coffee or caffeinated beverages and you try to back off, withdrawal symptoms are common. |
| But, as many athletes know, moderate doses of caffeine may have a positive effect upon athletic performance. While exercising, your muscles are always using some combination of carbohydrate and fat for fuel. As you increase the intensity of your effort, the tendency would be for your muscles to use a greater proportion of carbohydrate as a fuel. However, after taking caffeine in the form of cola, coffee, sports bars or tablets, fat is mobilized from fat depots, making it available to your muscle cells, and also causing a switch from using stored glycogen in great amounts for the preferred fuel to using more of the free fatty acids caffeine helps provide for the muscles to use for energy. This sparing of glycogen, one of the two |
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