posted
My wife and I spent a sleepless night, tossing and turning. We went to the hockey game last night and had fountain drinks; she had a Mug Rootbeer, and I had fruit punch. Who would have suspected that they'd be putting caffeine in anything but cola drinks?
The last time we had a sleepless night after the hockey game was when we had lemonade.
And then there was the chocolate lasagna at The Olive Garden last Friday that kept me up all night.
Have you ever read the label on flavored snow cone syrup? Yep, caffiene's in there.
And now they're putting caffeine in bottled water.
As a general rule my wife and I try to avoid caffeine, but it's becoming more difficult to do. I guess we'll have to avoid fountain drinks altogether and stick to bottled juices. And then we'll have to read the labels to be absolutely sure.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
There is no caffeine in Mug Root Beer. I think Barq's is the only root beer with any. The fruit juice and lemonade sound strange too. Chocolate has caffeine, theobromine, and phenethylamine at least. I support caffeinated water; it is better for the teeth than coffee or soda.
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Jay is right; OTC antihistamines work quite well. The exact same chemical is sold as an OTC sleep aid, but usually at a higher price.
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The only bad effect I've had from caffeine was when I took a caffeine pill to keep me awake on a long overnight drive. Holy crap. I couldn't stop shaking and I was having hallucinations. Never, never again.
Otherwise, I have the occasional Coke or Dr. Pepper, but I don't notice any buzz.
Dude, skillery, chocolate lasagna? Time to change your eating habits. Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I've been almost caffeine free for the last two weeks. (I have been drinking lemonade, though--what brand of lemonade has caffeine in it?) It's not hard at home, but it is in restaurants. Restaurant ice water tends to taste like garbage. So lemonade it has been--or alcohol!
After tonight, my reason for quitting caffeine will be past, and I have to make a decision: do I want to stay off now that I've gone through my horrible withdrawals, or do I want to throw it all away to enjoy chocolate and soda (not to mention Cuban coffee!)?
Danzig, I assumed Jay was joking. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you would recommend skillery take a second drug to counteract the effects of a first drug he doesn't want to take in the first place . . . but dang.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Trust me, afr, you get addicted and you don't know that you are. And you don't get any kind of buzz from caffeine once you are addicted. It doesn't really help you stay awake either. But then if you try to stop having any, you get sleepy ALL the time, and then you get the caffeine withdrawal headaches. Awful!
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I gave it up because it also dehydrates you slightly, which hurts your singing voice. I had a singing audition Monday, and a callback tonight, so I gave it up a couple of weeks ago to get it out of my system. Then I ended up with a strained voice anyway due to the performance schedule from Harvey. <_<
I've been doing everything I can this week to try to get my voice back. Tonight will tell if it did any good.
posted
I remember calling the consessionnaire at the E-Center after the last sleepless night, and they confirmed that the lemonade was caffeinated.
AFR: Chocolate Lasagna is a new desert at The Olive Garden. It consists of alternating thin layers of chocolate cake and cream cheese topped off with a layer of crumbled bittersweet chocolate.
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Yes! Those caffeine headaches are the worst. It’s like a total had hurt too. And pain killers don’t seem to touch it at all.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Oh, I doubt I'm addicted. I'll drink something I know is caffeinated maybe once every two weeks, if that. I had a Dr. Pepper a couple of Fridays ago, IIRC. I haven't had to experience caffeine withdrawal yet. But yeah, I can see how the buzz wouldn't be there once you were addicted.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I hate the idea of caffiene in everything. No offense Danzig, but water without caffiene is better for you than water with caffiene, and just the same for your teeth.
I avoid caffiene except in certain circumstances in which it is naturally occurring. (Chocolate, sometimes tea. But that stuff still keeps me up all night if I have too much.) I don't drink pop very often.... Water and milk, and sometimes juice.
My rationale is that if we didn't know about the dangers of nicotine et cetera in the fifties, what do we know about caffiene now?
But my personal reason for not drinking it is partly related to my asthma. My medication makes my heart beat faster, and caffiene makes that problem worse. Also, if at some point I am unable to take my medication, I can substitute caffiene for it, because it's a bronchodialator, but if I'm addicted, it will have no effect.
Just my slightly more than two cents.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If you want to avoid caffiene, then you have to check each time.
Posts: 1002 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I now have proof that my body is just as strange as my brain is. In the past, at all times, I've had enough caffeine in my body to kill a large horse. About 3 weeks ago I went off caffeine almost completely and had nary a withdrawl symptom - no headaches, fatigue, etc. But I'm just a weirdo.
posted
For pervasive additives, you can't beat high fructose corn syrup. It really IS in almost every processed food you buy. Might as well suck down straight sugar.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I just did a no-sugar diet for a month (no candy, cake, jelly, etc.) I've done that before (when I had cavities and couldn't afford to get to the dentist right away). This time I was trying it out for more general health reasons, but it didn't seem to help any, so I'm happily eating chocolate again. (What I missed the most!)
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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SO, it gets harder each time you quit. The first time, it was no big deal, and I became convinced that I was immune to caffeine addiction. The next time, I got slightly more tired, but only enough to notice in hindsight. The third time, I found myself falling asleep all day long every day for a good week. The last couple of times, I got the tiredness and the headaches. The headaches in the last two weeks have been particularly awful. At one point, two weeks ago to the day, I think, I had a headache for about 30 straight hours. It then went away for eight or ten hours but came back.
It's kind of like losing weight, I find. Easy the first time, but it gets harder the more times you try to do it.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Not true, mack. While caffiene does cause constriction, it's due to addiction. Caffiene ostensibly causes the blood vessels to widen, giving you more energy, brainpower, etc (in my case, more oxygen transferrence). When a person is addicted, their blood vessels adapt so that when on caffiene, their blood vessels are pretty much the same size as someone not on caffiene.
But take away that caffiene, and the blood vessels constrict, causing headaches and so on.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Icarus - I assumed the same. I would suggest refraining from regular caffeine use, because doing so will make it work better when you actually need it.
Ryuko - Regular water would be better, but if one wants a caffeinated beverage...
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
One thing we do know is that coffee drinkers have a 60% reduction in the rate of liver cancer.
Also that those who drink up to half a pot (one litre) of coffee per day have a longer lifespan on average than those who don't drink coffee. As well as later onset, slower development, and milder cases of senility, Alzheimers, and other geriatric neurological disorders.
quote: I'm taking advantage of Sakeriver's polling ability here . . .
Some of you know that I have been in the habit of quitting caffeine a couple of weeks before each time I have a vocal audition, because I feel that it dehydrates me and worsens my voice somewhat. (Longterm use, that is, not a drink right before singing.) As I mentioned in this Hatrack thread, though, it gets harder to quit each time I readdict myself. I went from no ill effects, to some general tiredness, to exhaustion and mild headaches, to exhaustion and severe headaches.
Most recently, I quit caffeine to audition for Man of La Mancha. It was excruciating at times, but now I'm pretty much off of it. I don't fall asleep without it, and I am not having headaches from it. Tonight is my call-back audition. After tonight I will have a role or not, and I can go back on caffeine if I want to. I mean, I want my voice to be in good shape by the time the show opens if I take a part, but that's a long way away, and they aren't likely to take it from me once they give it to me. And I need to have greater versatility for an audition than I might need for an actual role.
Reasons to stay off caffeine:
Lord knows how hard it will be to quit next time. I wouldn't want a headache like the 30-hour one I had last week--or worse!
Caffeine is physically addictive and it's good not to be addicted to stuff.
Caffeine seems to lose its efficacy when you consume it all the time. People who consume a lot of it can no longer function well without it, and no longer get an intense benefit from it.
My major source for caffeine is diet soda. Most diet soda contains aspartame. A lot of people think aspartame may be bad for you, and specifically--in a sick sort of irony--that it may increase your appetite.
Reasons to go back on caffeine:
Chocolate.
Caffeine-free cola is not always easy to get, and I loves me some.
Diet Pepsi will give me free iTunes. Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi will not.
It's freaking hard to avoid. Totally staying off is painless. So is total addiction. It's the withdrawal that's a bitch. So if I occasionally cosume some without realizing it, because it's freaking everywhere, will I have to go through some form of withdrawal again each time?
According to Aspectre:
quote: One thing we do know is that coffee drinkers have a 60% reduction in the rate of liver cancer. Also that those who drink up to half a pot (one litre) of coffee per day have a longer lifespan on average than those who don't drink coffee. As well as later onset, slower developement, and milder case of senility, Alzheimers, and other geriatric neurological disorders.
So what should I do? Any other reasons Pro and Con I should consider?
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