Caffeine Essay

Caffeine, everybody consumes it. It gives adults that proper jolt in their morning coffee to start their day. Eighty percent of the world’s population consumes it daily and adolescents contribute largely to that statistic. College and high school students misuse the power of caffeine by consuming large quantities in forms such as coffee, energy drinks, and alertness tablets to pull “all-nighters,” finish workloads assigned by professors. They are also using caffeine “chasers” with alcoholic beverages or even to improve athletic performance. The shift in caffeine use has vastly increased in the United States in the past 20 years. Caffeine is considered a known stimulant drug and has been for the past few years and the United States has fallen behind the rest of the world by failing to regulate its use. With known adverse health effects and addictive qualities, the FDA needs to regulate the use of caffeine in young adults aging from 10 to 21.

The history of caffeine illustrates how initially the drug was used medicinally and as beverages in limited quantities, which lessened the negative effects. Caffeine can be traced to the introduction of tealeaves, coffee beans, and cacao plants. Stories and myths have been shared for centuries upon when caffeine was discovered. Anthropologists speculate that the discovery of caffeine was as early as 700, 000 B.C. in Paleolithic times but do not have any evidence to confirm this theory (Weinberg et al. xii). The most widely known creation myth comes from Ethiopia, when a goat herder noticed his goats “danced” after consuming red berries off of a coffee bush. Coffee and tea had been around for a few hundred years before the discovery of caffeine was even made. The first scientific discovery of ca...

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...way since its discovery. It originally used for medicinal purposes that helped limit its intake. However, with increasing media portrayal shedding a positive light on caffeine, the consumption has dramatically increased in not only beverages but products as well. Although, not all the negative effects of caffeine have been proven various studies still demonstrate that there is an increase in anxiety, blood pressure, and heart murmurs. Protecting the youth from this drug’s addictive qualities and possible health effects should be America’s number one concern. The United States is suppose to be the globalized leader and yet is behind other countries such England who has already started limiting the consumption of caffeine. The FDA must use powers of responsibility to regulate the consumption of caffeine because its effects on all Americans, especially in adolescents.