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Trenta

Tired at night? Sleepy first thing in the morning?  Bid farewell to your woes, Trenta has arrived.

One small step for man, 1 Litre of coffee for mankind.

>600 mg caffeine = ~10mg/kg

Your nearest Trenta dealer

Bad news if you’re a spider…

Some observations about coffee

1)      Caffeine vs. placebo

Acute caffeine reduces glucose tolerance.  This would suggest adding sugar to coffee is a no-no.  Sweetener? Perhaps.  The jury is still out.  The caffeine dose used in the study below is 5 mg/kg; that is HALF of the Trenta.

Graham et al., 2001 Canadian Journal of Physiological Pharmacology

2)      Coffee vs. decaf

But wait!  coffee (5 mg/kg; red line) vs. decaf (blue line) consumed prior to eating a high glycemic index meal (Moisey L L et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;87:1254-1261).  Is caffeine the bad guy?

3)      Coffee vs. decaf vs. caffeine vs. placebo

A Ha!   Coffee was worse than decaf (Moisey et al. 2008; Battram et al., 2008)   Caffeine (open circles) was worse than placebo (closed circles) (Graham et al., 2001; Battram et al., 2008)   But caffeine is worse than coffee!?

Battram et al., Journal of Nutrition 2006

What does this mean?  Caffeine is toxic? Coffee inhibits caffeine?  Decaf was almost healthier than placebo.

Decaf + caffeine = coffee?  What else does decaffeination do to coffee?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

4)      Coffee vs. diabetes risk

BUT epidemiological data suggest the opposite; coffee is protective.

5)      Coffee vs. mortality

de Koning Gans  et al., Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2010

Coffee had no effect on mortality… or did it?  High coffee drinkers tend to be less healthy – eat more, weigh more, and smoke a lot more than low coffee drinkers.  Thus, uou’d expect their mortality to be higher due to lifestyle habits.  but it’s not.  Either coffee protects against the effects of a poor lifestyle, or we need to re-evaluate what defines a poor lifestyle.

 

calories proper

 

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US vs. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola

United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola

flashback 1916
Coca-Cola busted for being adulterated with an ingredient known to be harmful to health.  Caffeine!!!  lol

HFCS you’re next.

calories everywhere

You can find 100 of them in conveniently packaged snacks, our bodies burn them all the time, and yet they can be neither seen nor touched. That is because a calorie is technically a unit of heat. Just like how feet and meters are ways to quantify distance, calories quantify heat. More specifically, a calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water (~1 mL) from 14.5°C to 15.5°C. Another popular unit used to quantify heat is the joule, which is equal to approximately 0.239 calories. When expressed as a unit of mechanical energy, 1 calorie = 4.2 joules. Lastly, a British Thermal Unit (BTU), more famous for measuring the cooling capacity of air conditioners, is the amount of heat required to warm a gallon of water by 1°F. The important point to remember is simply that a calorie is, albeit somewhat abstract, a unit of heat. Knowing that calories are a measure of heat is important, although less useful than knowing about the calories in food, and how they are handled by the body. Calories, whether those in food or those expended by the human body, are measured by a procedure known as calorimetry.

intro

The idea of “calories” has become seriously misconstrued.  Whether or not this has contributed to the obesity epidemic, or more simply people’s inability to achieve successful weight management, I do not know.  Weight loss advice from almost any medical professional consists of “burn more calories than you eat.”    this is very misleading.

stay tuned.