Caffeine Myth Unraveled

Caffeine, it's what most adults live off of and what every highschool and college student needs to finish their 20 page essays. How exactly does this wonder drug affect your body? (Yes, it counts as a drug because the definition of a drug is anything that alters your mind or body's functions blah blah blah I'm a nerd.) Could drinking this be potentially bad for you? Does drinking caffeine actually make your short? All these will be answered below :)

-What is caffeine?

Basically, caffeine is a stimulant that is found in many common drinks such as tea, coffee, and soda. Caffeine is typically found in tea and coffee, because it is a natural part of coco beans, coffee beans, and various tea leaves.

-What exactly is a stimulant?

Caffeine is a psychoactive stimulant drug, and these types of drugs altar either your mind, body or both. Effects include alertness, wakefulness, endurance, motivation, and a minimal need for sleep and food. Because of its ability to do pretty much all of the things just previously listed, many people use caffeine to "jump start" their day by drinking coffee right when they wake up.

-If caffeine is so great, how could it possibly be bad for you?

Like all things that are good in life, caffeine has tons of setbacks. (Don't forget, everything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or bad for your health)

1. Caffeine is a DRUG

You wont believe it! Everything that your health teachers have been preaching to you ever since middle school is pretty much true-drugs are bad for you, no matter how little you take. Of course caffeine wont effect you as much as something like weed, but having too much caffeine can seriously increase your health risks. Stimulants increase your heart rate and blood pressure, making you susceptible to heart attacks, strokes, clogged arteries...(wow I just repeated the same thing twice o.o) but yeah you get the point.

2. The so-called "crash" that everyone eventually gets.

The "crash" is the feeling after the drug wears off and let me tell you, having a crash after a sugar high or a caffeine high is NOT fun. After the effects of the drugs wear off, you feel extreme fatigue, drowsiness, headaches, and the list goes on and on. It takes a bit of time to recover after you crash, so be aware that you shouldn't drink caffeine in the morning, it would be wiser to drink it at night in order to stay awake. (But this is just personal preference)

3. Caffeine lowers your FERRITIN levels!

Yes, many of you are probably wondering "what the heck is FERRITIN?!". Well, without giving a boring biology lesson, ferritin is basically your body's ability to transfer oxygen to your muscles. (It stores iron in your body) So if you have low ferritin levels, exercising or doing sports will become really difficult because it takes much more effort to breath. Ways you can increase your ferritin levels is to make sure you have NO CARBONATED DRINKS at all, just cut it from your diet completely. That means no soda, no apple cider, and NO BEER. The carbonation totally wreaks your body's normal functions of carrying oxygen to your muscles so it's best to just stay away from it. Another way is to take a vitamin C tablet, mix it with orange juice and a tablespoon of liquid iron, and drink that daily. (Don't drink any dairy products 12 hours prior to doing this, it inhibits the iron and other stuff)

4. Tolerance to caffeine

Like all drugs,the more of it you take, the quicker you develop a tolerance for it. The more tolerance your body builds as you grow accustomed to it, the more you need to take to get the same "feel" as you did before when you drank caffeine. Tolerance is what many adults suffer from, because now that they are accustomed to drinking coffee everyday, it has become natural to them. Their bodies now NEED caffeine everyday just to feel normal. (Many drug addicts suffer from this when they are desperately trying to quit; their bodies just need the drug in order to function properly. In essence, the drug as become a natural part of their bodies and daily functions now.)

-Caffeine: Does it actually make you short??

To put it very simply, nope. While I was growing up, my parents nailed into my head that drinking caffeine was forbidden because it would stunt my growth and I would stay a shorty the rest of my life, sort of like that guy on the side. Well anyway, I found that the reason most people thought that caffeine would stunt your growth is because people drinking caffeine were drinking it in lieu of calcium-rich drinks such as milk. (NO, the milk you put in coffee doesn't count) In short, (HA.) caffeine actually doesn't make you short or stunt your growth. Time to go out and get some Starbucks, huh? :D

And that's pretty much it for things you might want to know about caffeine, if you've got any questions about anything I wrote about, feel free to drop a comment below :) thanks!

~Chichi

The Dangers Of BOBA. (GASP)

(If you live under a rock...or you're just deprived, boba is tapioca that is usually put into a sweet drink like milk tea; here's an example below. Looks good enough to drink huh?)

Lets start off with the basics of boba and milk tea. Typically the tea helps you wake up because it contains caffeine, and the sweetness not only makes it taste great but also gives you an energy boost when you're feeling down. The boba (the black stuff at the bottom of the cup) is made of sugar and cassava roots (so to all you vegans and vegetarians out there, no it's not made of gelatin), and it's a great compliment to the tea because they're sweet and a bit chewy. So tell me, who the heck wouldn't like this awesome drink? Well...probably anyone watching his or her weight for one. And studies show that it MIGHT cause cancer and/or arthritis.

1. The calories in boba

Okay lets start with the basics. Why would boba be the cause of you gaining 10 pounds overnight? (okay, that was an exaggeration but you get the point xD) The answer is pretty simple...it's the calories that each boba has. Studies show that each boba usually contains 7-15 calories for EACH one you eat. If you think about how many are in your drink...(usually 30-70, just to give a rough estimate) the number of calories that you're getting is really adding up. And that's not to mention you also have to tea that you're drinking to consider. So with each drink, the calorie count can be going up to the high hundreds or even low thousands.

2. Other health risks

(Please note that the following hasn't been proven yet, but there are tons of rumors about boba causing cancer and arthritis and blah blah blah) Anyway, a few years ago I read in the newspapers that boba may cause arthritis if you consume too much of it, but so far nothing in the science world has proved it yet so I'm unsure about how legitimate that article was. Boba has also been claimed to cause cancer, but no one has proved this yet either. Although nothing has been proven yet, it is highly likely that large companies that sell boba such as Lollicup, Quickly, and Tapioca Express may have been keeping information from the public though. Because they are such large companies, it wouldn't be hard to spread around propaganda that boba is in fact good for you. This trend has been seen over and over again all over the United States's food industries so if the companies actually did manipulate information it wouldn't be all to surprising.

3. Other random facts about boba and milk tea

-Boba was invented in Taiwan.

-Typically a large pot of boba takes around 4 hours to make.

-Many people claim that "boba" is slang for nipple in Mandarin. (ewww -.-)

-Cassava (the root that is used to make boba) is pure starch...which is why boba is so fattening

-Some sites claim that because boba is made with roots and potatoes, it's healthy. But if you say that you have a fattening butter-laden dish and you put some vegetables on it, wouldn't that suddenly become healthy as well?

And so there you have it, all the good, bad, and probably scary information that you may or may not have known about boba. The bottom line is, when it comes to boba don't drink too much of it, the good things in life should always be taken in moderation. (Whoa that sounds like I'm suggesting something. NEVERMIND.) That's pretty much it for now, keep in mind that I'm not ragging on boba or anything, this is just an fyi :)

~Chichi