There is good news for coffee drinkers. According to a recent story by Victoria Brett of the Associated Press, coffee drinking is on the rise among teenagers.
Naturally, this raises concerns about caffeine-addiction.
The story quotes caffeine-expert Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University:
[Caffeine] is not associated with life-threatening health risk, but that is not to say that it is entirely benign. Caffeine is likely the world’s most-used mood-altering drug and it does produce mood changes and physical dependence and withdrawal. It needs to be recognized as a drug.
Brett notes that “a 16-ounce Starbucks coffee has about 320 milligrams of caffeine. It would take more than nine 12-ounce Cokes to get that much caffeine from soda.”
Apparently, teens also go in for the heavily sugared coffee speciality drinks.
I say this is good news for coffee drinkers because it means coffee will stick around and be readily available whenever we need a fix. Admittedly, swilling buckets of hot java isn’t so good for the health of teens, but as Professor Griffiths suggests, there are worse addictions.
1 response so far ↓
1 scott russell // Apr 25, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Our whole culture is an addiction, so any reference to specific addictions is a ludicrous waste of time until we pave over Madison Ave. to Wall Street and put in a theme park called “Parking Lot World.” Cartoonish replicas of famous gasoline cars could be demonized to make us feel better about our roller skates and bicycles. I need a drink.
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