CAFFEINE INFO

***SEVEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT CAFFEINE***

For most people, caffeine is a part of daily life . . . and for some, it's a REQUIREMENT. Whether you get your caffeine fix from coffee, tea, soda, or chocolate, you probably don't know much about it.

So here are seven things you probably didn't know about caffeine . . .

#1.) CAFFEINE IS THE MOST POPULAR DRUG IN THE WORLD. Americans alone drink 450 MILLION cups of coffee a day, and 90 percent of us get it in one form or another.

-Caffeine is found in 60 different plants, and experts think it might have been used way back in the Stone Age.

#2.) ITS NOT THE COLOR YOU THINK IT IS. Most caffeinated beverages are dark, but caffeine is actually a white, bitter-tasting substance that looks like baking soda. And dark roasted coffee actually has LESS caffeine than light roasted coffee.

#3.) HOW IT WORKS. Caffeine makes you more alert and increases the level of dopamine in your brain, which makes you happier. Plus, it's fast. In liquid form, caffeine only takes about FIVE MINUTES to start working.

#4.) SIDE-EFFECTS. Just one to two cups of coffee increases your metabolism, makes you breath faster, and makes you have to use the bathroom more often. Larger doses can cause headaches, jitters, rapid heartbeat, convulsions, and delirium.

-And HUGE amounts of caffeine . . . meaning more than EIGHT cups of coffee a day . . . can cause long-term side-effects like anxiety, depression, and chronic insomnia.

#5.) IT'S A COMMON INGREDIENT IN MEDICATION. Caffeine is used in pain relievers, and it's the main ingredient in non-prescription "anti-sleeping" pills like No-Doz. It's also used to help newborn babies breath.

#6.) IT'S NOT THAT ADDICTIVE. Unless you have around FIVE CUPS of coffee or TEN CANS of soda every single day, then you probably aren't addicted to caffeine.

-But if you DO drink that much, and you suddenly STOP drinking it, you'll go through caffeine withdrawal, which includes severe headaches, fatigue, and irritability.

#7.) CAFFEINE CAN KILL YOU. But it takes A LOT to do it. 5,000 MILIGRAMS of caffeine is considered a lethal dose if it's taken orally. To get that much in your system, you'd have to drink 40 strong cups of coffee as fast as possible. (Yahoo.com)