Of course, the downside of using caffeine to stay awake is not being able to sleep.Īt moderate doses - a couple of cans of soda or cups of coffee - caffeine increases a person’s blood pressure and decreases the heart rate. “The primary effect of caffeine, and the reason why people consume it, is that it counteracts fatigue,” said Temple.

Some studies show that caffeine can increase alertness, mental energy, and concentration, especially in people who are tired. “The research that we’ve done in our lab, and the research that has been done in many other labs around the world, shows that in moderate doses, caffeine is probably not harmful,” said Temple. Even chocolate contains small amounts of caffeine.Ĭaffeine has many effects on the body, not all of them harmful. Read more: Facts about caffeine overdose »Īround 90 percent of adults in the world consume caffeine daily - in the form of coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, and other beverages. A teaspoon of the powder has 3,200 mg of caffeine. With caffeine powder or tablets, though, you can ingest a large amount at the same time. “So usually that’s sort of protective because you just get sick and you throw up the caffeine before it becomes too toxic.”

“Most of the time, if people have acute symptoms of caffeine toxicity, it starts with nausea and vomiting,” said Temple. So even with the most highly caffeinated energy drink, you would still have to drink around 30 of them in rapid succession to reach the 10 g range.Ĭhances are, if you tried to drink that much, your body would stop you before you reached toxic levels. A can of soda typically has less than 70 mg. An energy drink contains anywhere from 50 to 300 mg of caffeine. The lethal dose of caffeine for most people, says Temple, is about 10 grams, although this varies from person to person.Ī cup of coffee has around 100 to 200 milligrams of caffeine. “It’s very hard to get that much caffeine when you’re drinking beverages because of the time it takes to drink them,” Jennifer Temple, PhD, associate professor of exercise and nutrition sciences in the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions, told Healthline. It usually involves high doses of caffeine taken in powder or tablet form, not beverages.

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