Sgt. Tony Carnathan spends part of his day at a desk several feet
from a coffee machine.
Carnathan, community policing coordinator for the police in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., enjoys his cup of joe.
“I’m standing here drinking a cup of coffee right now,” he said during a phone conversation one afternoon.
Before work, Carnathan downs two cups. Throughout the morning, he’ll have three or four more, and maybe a few in the afternoon. Then there’s the daily can of soda, and the several glasses of iced tea at home later.
Carnathan swears it’s habit–and not the caffeine–that keeps him coming back. “I’ve had caffeine all my life,” he explains. “I guess I just have a tolerance.”
Then again, you never know. Carnathan says he can’t imagine going a week without the stuff. On the mornings he doesn’t get his java, “I won’t say I feel bad, but I’m looking for that cup of coffee.”
For many folks, a day without coffee is a black day indeed.
Some just enjoy the roasted taste, or the comfort of cupping a steaming mug in their hands. Many others, however, need the caffeine fix, whether it’s from coffee, tea, soda or chocolate.
But what is it doing to your body?
Caffeine is a stimulant that jolts the central nervous and peripheral nervous system–a feeling that is increased the more caffeine you ingest.
That’s not so hard to do. It takes between four and six hours to eliminate half the amount of caffeine in your body, says Anita Kurz, a personal trainer.
“So it lingers in the body and can accumulate over a period of time,” she says. “The body has more caffeine than it can handle.”
Increased levels of caffeine can cause anxiety, restlessness, nervousness, an upset stomach, headaches and diarrhea.
Caffeine consumption raises the body’s metabolic rate. But it also increases the amount of insulin released into the bloodstream, which causes your blood sugar levels to drop, Kurz says.
The result? Hunger pangs, causing you to eat more.
Another minus–caffeine is a diuretic, so the more you drink, the more dehydrated you get, she says. Most folks don’t drink enough water as it is, so drinking caffeine, “makes the situation even worse,” she says.
But caffeine does have its perks. Some studies have shown that consuming about 2 1/2 cups of percolated coffee 60 minutes before exercise can increase a person’s endurance level, according to Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition and Human Performance by McArdle, Katch and Katch.
That’s because caffeine is thought to help the body use fat more efficiently.
The effects, however, seemed to work better in well-trained athletes rather than the average person.
Then there’s the “addiction” factor. Actually, addiction may be too harsh a word. People don’t need more and more caffeine over time, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation.
But that doesn’t mean you won’t feel its effects if you go cold turkey, either. Just ask Rene Cole.
About six months ago, Cole, a nutritionist with Medical Center Clinic Weight Management in Pensacola, Fla., decided to cut her four-cups-a-day habit in favor of decaffeinated coffee.
It wasn’t easy.
The first two caffeine-free days were “total misery,” she says, including a daylong headache that was near migraine proportions.
But these days, she feels much better and has more restful nights. “It’s been a tremendous changeover,” she says.
Drinking a lot of caffeine causes chronic headaches, she says. And if you alter your diet, like her clients do, the caffeine can have a stronger effect. She tells them to eliminate a cup a day, at first. “They don’t need to be totally miserable if they’re bringing their body back to a normal state,” she says.
Cole also finds out why people need that much caffeine in the first place. Is it to get going in the morning? Is it for a noon pick-me-up? “Their energy level should be up on a continuous basis,” she says. “If not, it’s their diet.”
Caffeine consumption all day long can lead to another problem–staying up too late at night. That sometimes means drinking alcohol to come down. “It’s a vicious cycle,” she says.
Carnathan, the police officer, could make the medical books.
He drinks at least seven cups of coffee a day, but doesn’t suffer from tremors or headaches. He has no trouble falling asleep at night, and he doesn’t feel withdrawals if he goes without.
A lifelong iced tea drinker, Carnathan started downing java 18 years ago while working the midnight shift.
“I’d have a cup of coffee in my hand all the time,” he says.
These days, it’s the same way. “If I’m not doing anything, I’ll grab a cup of coffee,” he says.
