Coffee is one of the greatest beverages ever made in history. Aside from water I cannot get through my day without one cup of this liquid greatness. However, the key component to coffee that makes it so amazing is called caffeine and this substance is categorized as a drug. Specifically, “A stimulant drug, which means it speeds up the messages traveling between the brain and the body” (Alcohol and Drug Foundation). It’s kind of a scary fact that we drink a beverage that contains a recognized drug in it. Also, this adds on to why coffee is the go to drink for starting your day or why Dunkin Donuts says, “America Runs on Dunkin.” It is such an innocent drink overall, but there are scary facts about this beverage that millions of people drink on a daily basis.
Caffeine is a categorized drug, so the question now is how much of this drug do you have to take to become dependent on it? The answer is, “A cup of 100 milligrams of caffeine” (Juntti) is all that needs to be in it to ensure dependence. That being said, “The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require beverage companies to label caffeine content” (Juntti). Getting into the habit of drinking this will strengthen how dependent someone will be to caffeine and make it tougher each time. It is also important to add that building a tolerance to the drink is not hard because we rely on it so much to complete the daily tasks of our lives (Juntti). What makes the addiction different than being addicted to alcohol, is that if you are sober for a few years it would only take one drink to get back to drinking as often as you used to. Coffee would not have the same effects and can be controlled easier than another type of drug (Juntti). All addiction may be different in their own ways, but they all share one common condition called withdrawal. Headache, irritability, and dizziness are few from a list of 15 symptoms to be exact (Caffeineinformer.com).
Looking at my own personal life I can say that I am hooked on coffee. I may have some control of it but I drink about a cup a day. If I forget I will blame my performance for the day on the lack of coffee I had. Coffee has been exposed to me literally my whole life. My parents are avid coffee drinkers, I have a Keurig in my dorm room, and various coffee brewers back home. My family along with a ton of New England families can agree, we all live on Dunkin Donunt’s coffee. I can think back to teachers in school as far back as elementary school using humor about their morning cup of coffee. Coffee is just that go to type of drink that will be around for a long time. The industry itself is worth “$48 billion and that in the U.S market alone” (Scca.org). This titan of the business world is a part of so many people’s lives and would do a lot damage if taken away. It is an incredibly lucrative business that will be here for as long as people are able to extract the resource. The scary part of it is overall, coffee really is such a great drink and has a ton of wonderful health benefits to it. However, “Too much of a good thing is never alright.” Now, I am going to go grab a cup of coffee and get ready for the day ahead of me.
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Click here to the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine
Click here to see the impact coffee has in the competitive market
