Coffee or tea?  Red Bull or 5 Hour Energy?  Coke or Pepsi?  Capsules or tablets?

All of us know someone who absolutely cannot get their day started without their cup of joe, soft drink, or caffeine shot.  Many fitness enthusiasts use caffeine supplements for a pre-workout jolt.  And students use various forms of caffeine to cram for finals.  As a matter of fact, one needs to look no further than the ubiquitous Starbucks/Caribou/(insert favorite coffee shop) retail locations.  Tea cafes are starting to grow in popularity as well.  So it’s easy to see how caffeine, in all it’s permutations, has grown to become the world’s most popular psychoactive drug.

Our ancestors used daylight and their circadian rhythms to govern their sleep patterns.  Once the Industrial Revolution became a way of life, we had no choice but to adapt.  Moving indoors cut us off from our natural environment and disrupted sleep patterns.  The electric light tricked the brain into thinking that it was time to be awake.  And the popularity of caffeinated beverages gave workers another weapon in the arsenal that enabled them to bypass normal bedtimes.  And so it persists today.

Although I don’t drink coffee or soda (I do drink tea on occasion), caffeine in small doses is generally accepted as safe.  However, people these days tend to have some issue with moderation.  Some research suggests that some of the side effects of excessive caffeine consumption include addiction, elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, jitters, diarrhea, plethoric amounts of urination (diuretic effect), tolerance (which leads to overuse) and its ability to block some nutrients from entering the bloodstream.

So, what’s a viable, natural alternative?

Many people have started using sublingual (Latin for “under the tongue”) B12 as another option for a natural ‘pick-me-up’.  The difference between sublingual B12 and traditional forms (anything ingested) is that the sublingual method enables the substance (B12 in this case) to be quickly absorbed into your bloodstream thereby providing a quicker and more intense energetic effect.  Ingesting supplements subjects it to the hostile environment of the digestive tract, which can alter its effectiveness.  Typically, I suggest that you get your macro/micro nutrients, vitamins, and minerals from clean whole food sources.  But, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not practical to have that approach all the time – schedules get out of whack and life gets a little crazy.  Plus, certain groups of people (eg – vegans) tend to be deficient since the best food sources are meat and dairy.

I tend to have pretty good natural energy levels.  However, like every one of you, life gets hectic and that can wear me down.  So, I have used B12 (coupled with chlorophyll) before workouts or sporting events with very good results and none of the side effects of caffeine.  If you are a caffeine junkie, I highly recommend that you slowly ween yourself off of it, and give sublingual B12 a try.  And as an added benefit, you’ll enjoy the other positive, long-term effects of B12 on your health as well.

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Coffee is a multi-billion dollar per year industry and while I’m not a coffee drinker (and never have been), hoards of folks are obviously consuming this beverage on a regular basis.  Starbucks is the market leader in the snob specialty coffee retailer sector. 

They are about to unveil a new super-size (‘Trenta’) option for iced coffee, iced tea, and iced tea lemonade (as if consumers need another super size option).  The largest size they currently offer is the ‘Venti’.  Starbucks claims that sweetened beverages in the new size will have less than 230 calories while unsweetened drinks will contain fewer than 90 calories.

But let’s be honest, we all know which option will be the most popular.

Source: HuffPost

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One word……nasty.

Sources:

The Huffington Post

ScienceDirect (abstract from study)

ABC News

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Some of you may have been reading about this for last few months, but some U.S. officials are proposing an excise tax for sugary soft drinks.  Health experts from New York, Yale and Harvard, among others claim current taxes don’t go far enough to curtail abuse of these beverages, which play a key role in the obesity epidemic.  They liken these taxes to the taxes currently imposed on tobacco companies.  The plan is to add a tax of one cent, per ounce of beverage, which will increase the cost by 15 to 20 percent.   The purpose of this is two fold: 1) to generate extra revenue at a federal and state level, which could be use to fund public health efforts (ahem, health care reform), 2) to discourage the over-consumption of these drinks, and hopefully affect obesity rates by decreasing daily caloric intake.

Not surprisingly, a large beverage industry group is vehemently opposed to any such taxes.  This group is composed of some familiar names – Welch’s, McDonald’s, Burger King and Pepsi.  They acknowledge a serious obesity problem, but argue that more “comprehensive” programs are needed.  I actually agree with their contention that more complete solutions are needed to fight obesity, but taxing crappy drinks/food is a decent start as far as I’m concerned.  I’m sure junk/processed/fast food is in the crosshairs as well.  Stay tuned.

Source: Reuters

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