About book The World Of Caffeine: The Science And Culture Of The World's Most Popular Drug (2002)
I really enjoyed this book, though it had far more history than science. They write well about the rise of the three great caffeinated beverages (coffee, tea, and chocolate) and their similar trajectories from secret beverage of religious men to the guilty pleasures they are now. She connects the popularity of the beverages to important social movements. I found it amusing that the arguments about coffee and tea that we have currently date back hundreds of years.I thought it dragged a bit in the middle, but by then I was tired of the history and longed to learn about the science. The science section is well done and understandable. I would have liked to read more on the science of caffeine, but what I learned was fascinating. I am particularly enamoured by the idea that caffeine's molecular structure is so similar to the constituents of the nucleotides that form RNA and DNA that it may introduce errors into cell reproduction and yet there is no evidence connecting caffeine with such harm. Also, the idea that caffeine is metabolized differently depending on gender, smoking status and other aspects of the caffeine consumer was also interesting. It did what good books always do, it made me look at my world a bit differently and left me with interesting questions.
I'm far from a connoisseur of coffee or tea, but I do drink a fair amount and thought it would be best to learn a little something about it. I've been skipping around sections of this book for the past month or so. It covers a variety of topics relating to caffeine and caffeine vehicles, primarily focusing on coffee, tea, and chocolate.Although the history of how these caffeine-imbued botanicals traveled from Arabia, Asia, and the Americas to Europe and the history of how they were popularized is fascinating, I was more interested in the details of how caffeine affects the body. I am pleased to say that caffeine in moderate doses is harmless, although you will get a withdrawal headache if you miss a day, and that the information in the book has led me to take some chocolate in the morning, as the methylxanthine theobromine (a cousin to caffeine) can slow the metabolism of caffeine.Also, energy drinks that say they contain no caffeine but contain guarana? Liars. It just means that it does not contain added caffeine--guarana naturally contains caffeine, as does yerba mate.
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