From an interview on Radio Boston, with Murray Carpenter, author of “Caffeinated — How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us.”
- A Starbucks “grande” (16 ounces) can contain as much caffeine as seven cans of Red Bull.
- Most of the caffeine in soda and energy drinks is chemically synthesized in overseas pharmaceutical labs.
- The FDA doesn’t require bottlers to label how much caffeine is in sodas and energy drinks.
- We now drink far less coffee than our grandparents did.
- One hundred years ago, the amount of caffeine in a Coke was equivalent to the caffeine levels in a Red Bull today.
- More than 10 million pounds of caffeine powder are put into sodas in the U.S. annually.
- Monsanto used to make caffeine for Coca-Cola by extracting it from waste tea leaves.
- Caffeine blocks a neurotransmitter that tells us we’re tired.
- Caffeine has performance-enhancing effects and it’s legal in nearly all athletic events.
- Caffeine decreases certain stages of sleep that make up 20 percent of our sleeping time.