Dear Fit,
I just got a fancy coffee maker for Christmas, and now I'm finding myself enjoying at least three or four cups a day. My husband says that's too much. Is he right? Is there a danger in having too much caffeine?
—Caffeinated Carol
Ooh, this is a tough question for me because I'm with you — I love coffee, but it's the caffeine we need to worry about. For the average person, up to 300 milligrams of caffeine a day is considered a safe amount to consume. Since caffeine is a stimulant, if you have too much each day, it could affect your sleep patterns, heart rate, blood pressure, headaches, or digestion. Overdoing it with caffeine may also be associated with miscarriages or cause a woman to give birth to a smaller baby.
It may surprise you to find out how much caffeine is in your favorite hot beverages so read more.
| Drink | Amount of Caffeine |
| 8 oz. Short cup of Starbucks Coffee | 180 mg |
| 12 oz. Tall cup of Starbucks Coffee | 260 mg |
| 16 oz. Grande cup of Starbucks Coffee | 330 mg |
| 20 oz. Venti cup of Starbucks Coffee | 415 mg |
| 1 oz. Starbucks Espresso | 75mg |
| 8 oz. Organic Black Tea | 65mg |
| 8 oz. Organic Green Tea | 50 mg |
| 16 oz. Starbucks Hot Chocolate | 25mg |
I won't beat around the coffee beans here. There are definite health benefits to drinking a cup of joe, such as antioxidants for overall health and improved memory. Java may also help ease muscle pain, and coupled with working out, drinking coffee may help prevent skin cancer. A recent study also suggests that drinking a few cups a day may help you live longer.
So while coffee is good for you, too much caffeine is not. Even if you enjoy two eight-ounce cups, that's 360 mg of caffeine — 60 mg over the recommended limit. One ounce of coffee contains about 21 mg of caffeine, so stick to no more than a total of 14 ounces of joe a day. If you want to enjoy this hot beverage throughout your day, sip on four- to five-ounce cups, three times a day.
Dune
HTC
Charles Tyrwhitt
Wow, interesting numbers.
1Luckily, I don't drink coffee (actually, I cannot even stand the smell), but I love tea, so that was very helpful!
Oh mannnnn...Not only do I drink alot of coffee but I also drink alot of diet coke. I am WAY over my caffeine limit.
2i switched to folgers 1/2 caff/decaff...i like it..still taste good! i really try not to drink coffee every day. on the days i don't drink it, i drink decaff tea. but thats only prolly two days a week. i just love my java too much!
and to prevent myself from buying starbucks
i've been adding a bit of cinnamon to my coffee grounds before brewing, then when i add a bit of my sugar-free vanilla creamer..YUM! taste even better, and saves money!!!
3Thank goodness I switched to tea! Every once in awhile I do have coffee (usually weekends) because we bought a TIM HORTONS COFFEE MAKER!!! But coffee is too hard on my tummy so I cna't drink a lot.
4No wonder I have trouble sleeping sometimes... my bad!
5I love coffee...
6
I know I drink waaay too much caffiene... but I just lurrrrrve my coffee.
7Scary. Thank God I hate coffee.
8I can only have coffee every once in a while. Like you mentioned, it really affects my sleep even if I have a cup as much as 5 hours before bedtime. Plus it makes me all jittery and dehydrated. But I do find a good cup of joe to be a special treat and very tasty.
9I'll drink coffee every now and then but I never crave it. I'd rather drink tea.
10is it weird that caffeine just DOESN'T affect me?
11I can drink 10 cups of coffee right before bed & I sleep like a baby. If I'm exhausted caffeine just won't keep me up, I need to rely on sugars (healthy ones!) for that. Does anyone else have that problem?
I drink green tea mostly. But it is good to know how much is to much.
12I have a Grind and Brew and delisious Dean and Deluca coffe. I limit myseld to two cups a day any more than that and I am jittery.
13I drink Yerba Mate sometimes and that also gets me going.
Caernarvan- YES! A lot of my classmates have this too. I have a theory that follows addiction theories for other drugs (since technically, caffeine is one!)
When you are addicted to a drug, when you get the drug cues (i.e. the smell of coffee!) your body will start doing the opposite effect of the drug to try to keep balanced. So maybe for people who are drinking tons of coffee, eventually their body starts trying to 'fight back' by making them sleepy to outweigh all that caffeine.
Maybe?!
14jessie- if you like it of course you should try some clove in with your coffee, i add a bit of clove and a bit of cinnamon and use a vanilla soy milk, its delicious, so comforting on cold winter mornings. clove just makes me melt with comfort.
i only drink one "cup" of coffee a day but technically my "cup" is at least 16 ounces so thats two cups but i only fill it 3/4 of the way or a bit more so there is room for my milk. but i also use a french press and wasn't there an article about different methods of brewing and caffeine levels or something a bit ago. its difficult to actual determine how much caffeine i am taking in. doesnt seem to affect my sleep and it gets me going in the morning.
15I like Starbucks decaf with a sugar-free flavour shot. I don't have caffeine very often, so when I do I talk a mile a minute and get soo jittery.
16it's sometimes so hard for me to tell how much caffeine i';m getting given that i don't always know what type of coffee i'm having. i typically have coffee only on the weekends w/ breakfast/brunch but i've found myself in need of coffee in the AM at work lately.
17I'm one of those people that isn't affected by caffeine either. I can have caffeine within 30 minutes of going to bed and I have no trouble falling asleep. My dad's the same way...he can drink 10+ cups of coffee a day and not be jittery or anything at all. Still, I try to limit my caffeine because it's not great for me. I drink 4 cups of coffee a day, but I use 1/2 caff coffee, so I'm not getting all the caffeine.
18Oh, about the whole caffeine affecting people thing...it has to do with how much cytochrome P450 your body makes. Some people make a lot of it and they are called "fast metabolizers" and they break down drugs very quickly (this includes caffeine). Other people don't have as much of it and they are called "slow metabolizers" and drugs stay in their systems longer. It's mostly a genetic thing, but I'm guessing that if you constantly expose yourself to a drug, your body may start to produce more cytochrome P450 to handle the load.
19Many people have no idea just how much caffeine they consume daily. That's because more and more beverage, food and pharmaceutical products have higher and higher concentrations of caffeine -- even chewing gum and candy bars! A cup of java from Starbucks has 50 percent more caffeine than home-brew. Caffeine is the world's most popular central nerous system stimulant. These days caffeine intoxication is becoming a problem and its symptoms mimic the symtoms of real psychosis. Doctors often can't tell the different and then over-diagnose prescription psychotropic meds. OUCH! Don't try and tell the folks in the Psych Ward; "It was just the coffee -- let me out.
The Ethic Soup blog has a really good Caffeine Facts article at:
20http://www.ethicsoup.com/abcs-of-caffeine.html
Switch to decaf and drink away.
But make the transition gradually, over 2 weeks or else you may get bad headaches like I did when I switched cold turkey. They only lasted4days though.
Keep in mind that even decaf has SOME caffeine in it -- it's not called UNcaf.
21I prefer having tea more since if I make my coffee stronger than what I prefer I feel anxious for hours for no reason (other than the caffeine). The last time that happened I could feel my heart racing and it freaked me out so it's been more than a yr. since I last had coffee.
22Don't forget that the values listed here are for Starbucks coffee, which I think has an insane amount of caffeine. I usually brew my own at home and it's decidedly weaker than Starbucks.
23I usually like my coffee strong, stronger than Sarbucks hehe. Some even say it's nauseating. Maybe I should dilute it now that I know there's a limit...
24Wow, I had no idea Starbuck's had that much caffeine, it has more then my homemade brew.
25Hey Fitsugar - what is the source of this information about caffeine?
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