March is Caffeine Awareness Month, meaning it’s the perfect time to talk about energy drinks and safety. In this live chat with the Food Safety Foundation, Caffeine Scientist GreenEyedGuide shares 3 ways to make energy drinks safer. This live chat is full of tips every caffeine drinker needs to know.
Ready? Let’s go!
Pretend you’re on a on vacation and you’re given $400 a day, every day, to cover your expenses. Would you spend that all at once or try to make it last the whole day? Now pretend that money allowance is actually your caffeine allowance, which brings us to our excerpt of the week:
The Background
Consuming up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day is considered safe for the healthy adult population. This limit was determined by the Bureau of Chemical Safety, Food Directorate of Health Canada. The FDA uses this limit because it’s based on a comprehensive review of published studies on the effects of caffeine on human health.
Essentially the authors of this review searched all published studies on human health and caffeine, then determined the overall consensus among the studies.
The consensus was consuming 400 milligrams of caffeine per day doesn’t pose a threat to the heart, the bones, or male fertility, and doesn’t cause general toxicity or increased incidents of cancer. Consuming caffeine safely means not exceeding this 400 milligrams per day limit.
The Lesson
Before consuming an energy drink, look at the number of milligrams of caffeine per serving and the number of servings per container. Careful not to blow your whole caffeine allowance in one shot.
Learn more about the ABCs of Caffeine Safety in “Are You a Monster or a Rock Star-A Guide to Energy Drinks: How They Work, Why They Work, How to Use Them Safely”.
Why is it a 15 year old in the US can only have 100 milligrams of caffeine a day, while a 15 year old in Canada can have 400 milligrams? For the book excerpt of the week, we consider the difference in caffeine limit recommendations from US and Canada.
You may need these guidelines if the US presidential race has prompted you to consider moving to Canada. Regardless, it’s interesting to consider Canada’s approach to caffeine safety for kids.
For more on caffeine regulations and the rest of the conversation on the ABCs of Caffeine Safety, get your copy of “Are You a Monster or a Rock Star-A Guide to Energy Drinks, How They Work, Why They Work, How to Use Them Safely”, available wherever books are sold.
Stay tuned for more book excerpts!
The American Medical Association has come out in support of a ban on energy drink sales to those under age 18. While it’s true minors and adolescents are more sensitive to caffeine than most adults, I, personally, wish the AMA would recommend the regulations Canada has put in place to address caffeine safety. As someone who’s studied caffeine and energy drinks for years, I see a large gap in AMA’s proposal which would fail to help keep minors safe from caffeine.