I’m not making this up.
This list is from The Nutrition Journal.
Here are 17 reasons to love Coffee, Espresso and Caffeine
Their Conclusion
The consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine:
- increases energy availability
- increases daily energy expenditure
- decreases fatigue
- decreases the sense of effort associated with physical activity
- enhances physical performance
- enhances motor performance
- enhances cognitive performance
- increases alertness, wakefulness, and feelings of “energy,”
- decreases mental fatigue
- quickens reactions
- increases the accuracy of reactions
- increases the ability to concentrate and focus attention
- enhances short-term memory
- increases the ability to solve problems requiring reasoning
- increases the ability to make correct decisions
- enhances cognitive functioning capabilities and neuromuscular coordination, and
- in otherwise healthy non-pregnant adults is safe.
However, no good things comes with some bad. Some side effects are:
- insomnia
- upset stomach and/or diarrhea
- tremors
- anxiety
Note points number 10 and 11. This may be of interest to sprinters with respect to reaction times. For more information on reaction time and how to train for it, read the previous article titled Reaction Time, Usain Bolt and the Pareto 80-20 Rule from November 2008.
No wonder coffee (and caffeine) is an addiction. And I am guilty of it.
And this is why I find doping rules in sport so confusing, caffeine is clearly a performance enhancing drug, and yet it is not banned. Its hard to make a distinction between what we can find available in our food naturally and what requires our mental application to manufacture, coffee is one of those things along with steroids. It seems to me it should all be banned, or all made legal by the iaaf. As it is clearly going to be impossible to draw a line as to where something is natural and what isn’t, all performance enhancing substances should be legalised.
Isn’t caffeine considered a PED if the levels in the body are over a certain limit? I agree doping is very confusing. I physically cannot compete as a masters runner at any level near what I find satisfactory without 400-600 mg of ibuprofin. Clearly, the Advil I take prior / during a meet is a drug and it enhances my performance (although all the steriods in BALCO wouldn’t be enough to make me fast!!)
@Dan – only in the NCAA. But those levels have to be pretty high. There was a previous article on that:
http://speedendurance.com/2009/12/27/caffeine-limits-in-the-ncaa/