CAFFEINE: AMERICA’S DRUG OF CHOICE

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CAFFEINE: AMERICA’S DRUG OF CHOICE JoAnn Guest Jun 05, 2005 16:35 PDT

CAFFEINE: AMERICA’S DRUG OF CHOICE

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v1n12.html

If you are going to use a drug, caffeine is certainly better than

nicotine, cocaine or narcotics. Adults can have their blast of caffeine

in their morning coffee if they choose to; that’s their

business. But an increasingly large number of children, and I mean

little children, are having that same blast.

 

" Nearly three-quarters of all children over the age of 6 months

regularly use caffeine, according to the Medical Tribune” writes Jean

Carper in " Your Food Pharmacy, " June 15, 1994.

 

According to a study in Food Technology, 40% of one and two year olds

average nine ounces

of soft drinks a day.

 

Caffeine is a stimulant, not as powerful as Ritalin or amphetamine, but

a stimulant nonetheless.

Do you really want your children using a drug?

 

This is assuming caffeine-users are able to have any children in the

first place:

 

A. Wilcox, C. Weinberg, D. Baird: Caffeinated beverages and decreased

fertility. The Lancet.

8626-7:1473-1476, December 24/31, 1988.

 

Because of the risk of Reye’s Syndrome, most parents avoid letting their

kids take aspirin. But

caffeine, as well as alcohol, aspirin or other nonsteroidal

anti-inflammatory drugs, is among

recognized factors that can cause gastric ulcers. All these drugs

decrease the strength of the

stomach lining.

 

Caffeine interferes with normal blood sugar levels:

 

Cheraskin E, Ringsdorf WM Jr, Setyaadmadja AT, Barrett RA. (1967) Effect

of caffeine versus

placebo supplementation on blood-glucose concentration. Lancet. Jun

17;1(7503):1299-300.

 

Cheraskin E, Ringsdorf WM Jr. (1968) Blood-glucose levels after

caffeine. Lancet. Sep

21;2(7569):689.

 

 

I well remember my first pharmacologically memorable encounter with

caffeine. I was 19, in

London, and had visited the Brompton Oratory. On the way out of this

most beautiful cathedral, I

spotted a little old lady (really) going down a long flight of steps

with a cane in each hand. It was

the classic Boy Scout opportunity, for it really looked as if she was

going to topple over any

second. I caught up with her (that being easy) and helped her across

the street. Across the street

turned out to be her hotel, where she actually lived, mind you, for it

turned out she was very

wealthy. She invited me to have coffee with her in the hotel’s elegant

sitting room. I had seen

red-coated waiters and dazzling silver tea services in the movies, but

this was the time I was

living it live. She turned out to be a real hoot and a brilliant

conversationalist. Hours went by, and

in that time I downed eight cups of coffee.

 

I felt fine. Back at my hotel that night, I went to sleep, sort of. It

was not long before I awoke, my

eyes opened wide. I tried to close them, and they instantly leapt open

again. It was as if my

eyelids were on springs. This went on for some time, as I lay there and

figured out, eventually,

what might have transpired.

 

I’d had about 1,000 milligrams of caffeine, that’s what. And it was

working just fine.

 

Where, exactly, does “just say no to drugs” begin? By law, nicotine use

is prohibited until age 18.

Alcohol use is prohibited until age 21. There is never a legal age for

dangerous street drugs,

such as crack, PCP and heroin. And yet I know of no age limit whatsoever

on caffeine.

 

HOW TO QUIT THE CAFFEINE ROUTINE

Vitamin C

When I taught clinical nutrition at New York Chiropractic College, many

a student would begin to

consider their caffeine consumption after I told the above story in

lecture. Several told me that

they had headaches whenever they stopped using caffeine, but if they

megadosed on vitamin C,

they did not get the headaches. I have had this confirmed and

reconfirmed by quite a number of

folks at this point.

 

 

Stress reduction helps.

Monahan, R. J. Secondary prevention of drug dependence through the

Transcendental

Meditation program in metropolitan Philadelphia. The International

Journal of the Addictions

12(6): 729-754, 1977. (Decreased drug abuse; decreased use of cigarettes

and alcohol;

decreased use of caffeine; decreased need for tranquilizers and other

prescribed drugs.)

 

Because caffeine causes a " flushing out " of vitamin C and the

B-vitamins, I think vitamin

supplements are essential to the user, and to the would-be quitter. VAST

numbers of Americans

are serious coffee users. VAST numbers of kids drink colas, and

Mountain Dew has more

caffeine than Coke or Pepsi. Diet aids and extra-strength pain relievers

provide still more

caffeine. Time to kick the habit.

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html