The caffeine It is one of the most consumed substances in the world. HE esteem that about 80% of the world’s population consumes caffeine daily and, although Coffee is an important sourceit is also present in tea, coffee, matte grass, cocoa pods or in Kola’s nut -Coca-Cola noticel-. However, it can also be produced synthetically to add it to soft drinks, energy drinks or supplements.
And in this graph prepared by Visual Capitalistwe can see how much caffeine the drinks we constantly consume.


The graph. Prepared with data from EFSA (The European Food Security Authority, in Spanish) After surveying To more than 66,500 people from 22 European countries, the graph is quite self -explanatory. In some publications of this type the brand is usually obvious, but the really useful thing about this graph is that, directly, the amount of caffeine in commercial drinks is indicated as Monster, Red Bull either Prime (A brand created by The controversial Logan Paul).
It is also useful that both the milligrams of caffeine of drinks and the amount of liquid we consume are offered, since we can calculate more effectively “how many Red Bull I can take to have a safe dose.” A Monster It is what has the most caffeine, but also because the sample is half a liter. Prime, with less quantity (330 ml), is close to the caffeine of a monster with its 140 mg. And it is curious that the drink that gives us wings has on a boat the same amount as a double espresso: 80 mg.
Not only caffeine. What happens with energy drinks is that, like EFSA itself detailsthe stimulant they contain is not limited to caffeine. Apart from that compound, they have other ingredients such as bullfighting or D-Gucorone-y-lactona. Bullfighting is an amino acid that participates in the control of cell calcium and cardiac function, associated with the improvement of sports resistance by allowing high efforts for longer, reducing fatigue.
The D-Glucurono-Y-Lactona is a metabolite of the glucuronic that helps in the synthesis of vitamin C, and both are safe for their rapid metabolization, although they can have secondary effects such as some digestive discomfort in high consumption. And if caffeine, bullfighting and D-Glucurono-γ-lactone were little, something more harmful must be added to the cocktail: huge amounts of sugar in these energy drinks.
Consumption by age. EFSA has created a table that indicates how many mg of caffeine we consume daily depending on our age:
age range |
Daily consumption |
---|---|
From 75 years |
22-417 mg |
Between 65 and 75 years |
23-362 mg |
between 18 and 65 years |
37-319 mg |
between 10 and 18 years |
0.4-1.4 mg/kg |
between 3 and 10 years |
0.2-2.0 mg/kg |
between 12 and 36 months |
0-2.1 mg/kg |
Among adults, the coffee It is the most important source of caffeine, representing between 40% and 94% of total daily intake. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, the thing changes, and that main source is tea, representing between 59% and 57% of the intake, respectively. Among teenagers, the main source of caffeine is chocolate (both in bar and cocoa drinks), followed by coffee, tail drinks and tea. And from 10 years down, coffee disappears and chocolate continues to reign, followed by tea and tail drinks.
Safe consumption, but with asterisks. One of the issues that continues to worry who seeks to take care is how much caffeine is a lot of caffeine. The 400 mg a day have been taken as the universal measure to say that it is the “safe” amount, but it is something that depends on several factors. For example, unique doses of caffeine of up to 200 mg do not present security problems for the healthy adult population.
But if you are a woman and you are pregnant, that safe figure goes down to 200 mg per day, distributed throughout the day. In addition, if unique doses of 100 mg are consumed before going to sleep, the sleep quality pattern can be altered, but it is something that does not happen in all adults.
But of course, everything depends on a key term: healthy population, since there are studies that relate caffeine to negative effects on chronic sleep restriction phases and, although it is used as a stimulant in sports, Its effects will be more or less beneficial depending on the sport we practice or the decisions we should make.
In Xataka | In 1985 Coca-Cola changed her formula when Pepsi was about to defeat her. It went wrong
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