Saturdays with Shal, Buzzing with Caffeine

Hey! It’s your pal Shal with Saturdays with Shal. Do you drink a lot of coffee or energy drinks? I can honestly say I personally don’t, but If you do I thought I would give you nutrition facts on caffeine. I think this topic is important because as University students and specifically as Art-itecture students we have a high demand to be alert and stimulated at all times. Most students then turn to coffee and caffeinated beverages as a way of keeping up. But sometimes they may not consider the negative effects this has on their body (I still can’t figure out how affect and effect work so don’t kill me if it’s wrong). According to our own U of T Nutritional Sciences Prof Ahmed El-Sohemy, caffeine is becoming increasingly popular for youth, but also a dangerous popularity (I suggest reading the article attached below). "The majority of users consumed energy drinks for insufficient sleep (67%), to increase energy (65%), and to drink with alcohol while partying (54%)” (El-Sohemy, 2007). Michele L. Pettit, a researcher with University of Wisconsin wrote a research paper on Perceived Stress, Energy Drink Consumption, and Academic Performance Among College Students. Pettit found that positive correlations existed between participants’ perceived stress and energy drink consumption, and energy drink consumption and academic performance were negatively correlated. This means that students who had perceived stress were more likely to be drinking energy drinks and people who drank energy drinks were more likely to have lower grades. The side effects of caffeine according to Government Health Canada includes anxiety, sleep difficulties, irritability, shakiness and headaches. 

Now, I certainly cannot tell you what to do. My job here is to provide you health information for topics such as this. I also look to encourage you to reflect upon your own caffeine drinking habits. Is drinking a cup of coffee a day going to kill you? No, but if you’re going above that limit I would be careful. Maybe it’s actually hurting you more than helping you. Try trading that coffee mug for a water bottle. U of T has a large number of water filling stations across campus (no comment on 665). That’s it today for SWS, have a good rest of your weekend. Stay classy!

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07448481.2010.510163

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/dangers-caffeine-drinks