Where Does Caffeine Come from ? – Everything You Should Need To Know!

Caffeine is a term that is kind of synonymous with Coffee. Most people tend to remember Coffee whenever they hear about Caffeine. And, as a coffee addict, you should know about Caffeine, its sources and impacts it has on consumers. It’s because Coffee is the prominent source of coffee, as far as the common people are concerned.

It does not matter whether you are using ground coffee or packaged ones like C-Cups or Nespresso capsules — you will spot the presence of caffeine, almost everywhere. In this article, we will discuss various aspects of caffeine, such as where it does come from, its impacts and several things you should know about that component.

What is Caffeine?

This is the basic question to be answered first. In spite of the fact that many of us consume coffee on a daily basis, majority don’t know what it is. More often than not, we are not conscious about the presence of this addictive component.

According to authentic sources, caffeine is considered a food additive and drug. Chemically, this can be made through the synthesized uric acid. However, in most cases, it is being extracted by natural sources — which are huge in number. To understand that, we can have a look at the usage stats of caffeine. According to one popular survey, 90% of US Adults are consuming caffeine on a regular basis.

If you are thinking caffeine is found only in coffee, you are wrong. To get to know the real thing, you should know where caffeine comes from.

Where Does Caffeine Come from?

We already told you that caffeine can be made artificially or extracted naturally. The second method is easy and healthier. And, you would find caffeine in the following natural products.

• Seed of Coffee Beans
• Tea Leaves and Bud
• Seed of Cacao Beans
• Yerba mate leaf
• Bark of Yoco
• Seed of Kola nuts

Out of these, two things are present in our daily life — Coffee Beans and Tea Leaves. So, naturally, you’ll find this element in coffee, tea, chocolate and many other popular drinks. In the current scenario, the same has been used in various food products as well. For instance, if you check the ingredients of your favorite syrups or gums, you can find caffeine listed there.

Let’s keep other drinks aside for now. As far as a common food consumer is concerned, he gets the majority amount of caffeine from different coffee drinks he may try. According to several kinds of research, coffees like the one you have from Starbucks have more amount of caffeine than other drinks in the list. So, with a small bit of generalization, we can equate caffeine to coffee.

How Does it Work — What Caffeine Does to Your Body?

We should answer this question before moving forward. Many people — especially heavy coffee consumers — are concerned about the duality of caffeine. If you are one of them, you too should doubt whether caffeine is good for your body, mental state and overall health.

We get most of caffeine from plants, right? There, function of caffeine is to paralyze the insects that try to absorb resources from the plan. In some way, it’s kind of a pesticide. But, don’t worry; there is more to talk.

In human body, when consumed, caffeine has access to your brain! Yes, it makes its way through blood and does something for the neural part of your blood. Cutting down the story short, caffeine can prevent natural impacts of adenosine. In case if you did not know, adenosine is a neural component that is supposed to take care of tiredness and all. It’s because of this neurotransmitter that you feel tired and suppressed. Because caffeine is blocking the particular neurotransmitter, you won’t feel the effects of tiredness. At the same time, the element increases the function of dopamine

So, after a few minutes of consumption, you start to feel a bit more active and less suppressed. Because the tiredness-causing part of your brain is inactive, you won’t feel tired, either. One more thing about caffeine is about the duration. Once it has made its way to bloodstream and brain, the effect can be there up to four or six hours. What’s more, caffeine may take up to 12 hours to be completely removed from your body.

This how caffeine works on your body. In short, it can make you more active and feel less tired. However, a few factors should be noted about its after-effects of caffeine consumption.

The Advantages of Caffeine in Your Body

If you take up caffeine on a regular basis, you may have the following benefits.

• Because caffeine can take care of the tiredness action, you will feel more active. Also, there is chance of advanced brain function as well.
• You can find increased sports performance, although short-term
• Caffeine can prevent diseases like Skin Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease etc
• Consumption of caffeine will increase the total brain functioning and alertness.

The next time you see someone quite active at the end of the day — even after a day of full work —, take a look at the desk. You’d surely find a cup of coffee, tea or some other caffeinated drinks.

A Note on After-Effects of Caffeine Consumption

It’s clear that caffeine consumption makes you feel good and active. However, there are some side-effects as well. We will have a quick-look on the not-so-good sides of caffeine — no matter what type of coffee you are consuming.

Note: These side-effects are applicable only if you are a heavy consumer of caffeine. In normal cases, a cup of Espresso Coffee may contain 240mg to 720mg of Caffeine. When it comes to common coffee, it goes low to 102mg to 200mg. Suppose you are taking more than 5 cups of coffee in a day; in that case, you will give up to 1000mg, which is higher than the okay-to-consume amount of 600mg. If you take these much of tea of coffee on a single day, you can expect the following side-effects.

• Insomnia is a problem faced by heavy coffee drinkers. It happens due to extra activeness and lack of tiredness.
• Sleeping Issues — lack of continuous sleeping
• Restless behavior — a result of the neural controls caffeine has on your body
• Addiction is a key-word for caffeine. You will have a tendency to consume more of the drink if that contains caffeine. That’s one of the reasons why most of soft drinks come with some caffeine in them.
• You may also face some health issues, regarding fertility, pregnancy, blood sugar and depression.

So, these are the common issues heavy caffeine-consumers face. Well, it’s up to you to decide whether you are scared by these side-effects. If you still haven’t got a coffee maker then you can read about the Best Keurig Coffee Maker on the market.

Summing Up

Just like everything else, caffeine has both advantages and disadvantages. It really depends upon your style and frequency of consumption if you ask about health or addictiveness. If you are taking more than 500-600 mg of caffeine a day, chances are that you’d get addicted and have some of the side-effects.

So, when you’re really concerned about your health and sleep, one thing you can do is to control. Make sure that you get the perfect cup of coffee — in lesser frequencies. It’s good if you can cut down the consumption to two cups of coffee a day. We hope that satisfies the common coffee-drinkers out there.