Reposted from Legal Insurrection. Get ready for that upcoming War on Coffee!
Legal Insurrection has been reporting on the leftist global war on food—especially food people want to eat—and food production.
For example, we have been covering the war against Dutch farmers who are responsible for a large percentage of Europe’s food production. We have noted the move to replace meat, poultry, and fish protein with insects. We also shared that climate change activists are going after rice, which is a staple food for billions of people.
Recently, a story by John McDermott in Esquire led to concerns that the war on coffee has begun. The article delves into the experience of Petty Officer Second Class Marcus Biven to assert that there are caffeine “addicts.” The piece also highlights the substance’s many physiological effects.
It hits all the cherished progressive activist highlights, including an attack on American culture by an “expert” endeavoring to make a movement out of whole cloth.
So ubiquitous is caffeine in our culture that it doesn’t even register to people as a drug. Step out of the office for a midafternoon cigarette and people might look at you askance. Get caught doing a bump of coke in the office bathroom as a midday pick-me-up and it’s grounds for immediate termination. But slam a Monster or a quad-shot Americano at work and people will think you’re a go-getter.
That perception is increasingly being challenged by a small but growing choir of laypeople and experts making a concerted effort to raise awareness about the potential downsides of caffeine dependence. “Caffeine is wildly misunderstood, especially with primarily anxiety-prone people,” says Mark Johnson, a thirty-four-year-old video producer in Greenville, South Carolina.
It also includes a manipulation of definitions to shoehorn caffeine into an addiction-inducing substance.
Caffeine might not meet the strict medical definition of addictive, but it does meet more general criteria, according to self-professed caffeine addicts: 1) Addicts continue using caffeine despite its negative effect on their lives, and 2) they want to quit but they have trouble doing so. “It’s one of the only things it’s acceptable to be addicted to,” Johnson says.
Perhaps no one has done more to bring attention to the physical and psychological effects of caffeine than Michael Pollan, arguably the most respected food-science writer in the world—ironic given that Pollan both openly identifies as an addict and ardently defends the positive effects of caffeine. “Yeah, I’m addicted to caffeine,” he admits to me. “So what?”
I am also a qualified caffeine expert . . . as it is one of the substances I use in my lectures on toxicology. If used improperly, all chemical substances have the potential to be harmful or fatal. Drinking 30-40 classes of water in quick succession can lead to a deadly case of water poisoning, for example.
In pure form, caffeine is a toxic solid. Coffee has about 95 mg of caffeine per cup, which is well below the 3000 grams required to be potentially lethal to humans.
Some have indicated that after a dose of around 1 g, toxic symptoms begin to manifest, a dose of 2 g requires hospitalization, while higher doses (e.g., typically 5 g or more) could be lethal. However, some have determined that as little as 3 g could be lethal under certain circumstances.
The trouble comes when caffeine pills are used for an energy boost or if too many caffeine-enhanced energy drinks are consumed in a short period of time. These acts make the toxic levels more readily achievable, especially among younger individuals.
A 16-year-old collapsed at his South Carolina high school after consuming too much caffeine in a short period of time. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Davis Allen Cripe was a student at Anderson, South Carolina’s Spring Hill High School. Sean Cripe, the boy’s father, and Gary Watts, the Richland County coroner held a news conference Monday, issuing a warning about the danger of young people drinking too much caffeine, especially the caffeine found in energy drinks.
They said Davis had no health problems and didn’t consume alcohol or drugs. The problem is that in a 2-hour period he consumed:
- a large Diet Mountain Dew
- a McDonald’s cafe latte
- an energy drink
Caffeine is like every other consumable substance: It has benefits, but the adverse effects must be made known. Once fully informed, people can take ownership for their own limits.
Coffee itself is rich in antioxidants, has vitamin B complexes, enhances the metabolism, and has some additional health protections as well.
Alzheimer’s disease is the world’s most common neurodegenerative disease and a leading cause of dementia.
Studies have shown that coffee drinkers have up to a 65% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and is caused by the death of dopamine-generating neurons in the brain.
Coffee drinkers have a 32–60% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. The more coffee people drink, the lower the risk.
But why has this article been published now? Perhaps to scope out a future target for climate crisis activism, in their apparent quest to extinguish all joy from the planet.
Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages and 80% of it is produced by 25 million smallholders. Around 125 million people worldwide depend on coffee for their livelihoods.
1 comment:
Something will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
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