Combining Caffeine with Sugar May Improve Concentration | Hacker News Reader

Combining Caffeine with Sugar May Improve Concentration

sciencedaily.com

24 pointsnotsosmart25 comments

anecdotally, i always struggled focusing with caffeine. look into green tea; it's not only very healthy but it's more of a calm and alert type of focused, no jitters or bursts of energy. 3-5 cups seem to work best for me.

I'm confused as green tea can have a similar caffeine content to coffee, especially at 3-5 cups.

Green tea contains caffeine... so I'm confused too.

I also notice a much lower effect from green tea. I wonder if it's the different methods of preparation? Consequently I notice a much smaller effect from every single drink with caffeine when compared with plain coffee.

And who said he compared 3-5 cups of tea with ONE cup of coffee?

Also (from the wild intertubes):

amount of caffeine in an 8oz cup of various teas and coffee:

Coffee: 100 mg Black Tea: 40 to 50 mg Oolong Tea: 25 to 35 mg Green Tea: 20 to 30 mg Decaffeinated Black Tea: 4 mg Decaffeinated Green Tea: 4 mg

My anecdotal contribution: Weaning myself completely off caffeine with a "descending dose" regiment of coffee to green tea to decaf tea to herbal tea has done wonders for my ability to focus.

I've been caffeine free for over 7 months and the health improvements make a good sized list:

• Better digestion due to the lack of caffeine induced peristalsis

• Insomnia completely gone

• No feeling "hung over" every morning prior to consuming caffeine

• No swings in energy level during the day except those traceable to hunger or physical fatigue

• Complete disappearance of mood swings, both hypo-manic and depressive

• Increased productivity due to a better ability to focus for long periods of time

The one complaint that I have is that my creativity has dramatically decreased during this same period. Gone are the racing thoughts and flights of invention that had me continually coming up with new ideas. Still working on a controlled, non-chemical way of getting back to that creative state...

Of course, YMMV, but if you suffer from depression or any form of bipolar or seasonal affective disorder I highly recommend getting off of everybody's favorite drug. It may be affecting your life far more than you realize.

If you don't mind, how much caffeine were you consuming prior to weaning yourself off and at what times?

It seems like those that drink caffeine when they wake up or to wake up have the worst symptoms, especially when going without it.

My highest dose was a large mug of dark roast made in a french press. One of these in the morning, one in the afternoon. I don't have any idea exactly how many milligrams of caffeine that was, but note that the darker the roast, the less caffeine there is.

So I don't think I was even actually consuming very much of the drug. Rather, I believe my body processes caffeine very slowly.

I'm in a similar boat, though I used caffeine mints to gently ease down that slope, reducing by one mint a day. Worked great. In terms of creativity, taking time off from tech helps a lot, and the occasional cup of coffee does as well, with a much larger mind-boost because it's no longer regular for my body.

Pretty cool.

If you want to replicate this, please remember that they consumed only glucose!! Fructose, which is present in equal amounts in table sugar, sucrose, is definitely not good for you (unless you eat fibre with it, like in fruits). It's processed solely in the liver and in a way analogous to ethanol. You can get fatty liver from too much HFCS.

If you're interested, check out this review by Dr. Robert Lustig: http://www.scribd.com/doc/36173697/Bariatrician-Fructose

Would eating fruit along with a cup of coffee be a good way to replicate? Or would the there not be enough of a spike in sugar to get the same result?

Interesting. But how am I to distinguish this comment from any number of other random dietary opinions which may be complete bullshit?

You study it further?

Crazy, I know.

Hasn't this been known for, like, a million years?

I thought there might be some value in knowing that a study confirms it.

I'd be incredibly surprised if this was actually the first study that bothered to confirm it. Aren't the effects of caffeine pretty well documented scientifically?

Yes, but this one was related to the effects of glucose combined with caffeine.

I smell an easy study generator: take well-established results from single factors, combine them, and then see the relationship of the results (are they additive, multiplicative, completely at odds with one another, etc.).

I personally skip nutrition related studies. It seems that for any given study, there is another one that says exactly the opposite.

Absolutely... have to say Michael Pollan is onto something with "nutritionism". Food isn't a linear combination of nutrients.

...and speed?

Of course, one might first want to consider the depreciated effectiveness—relatively speaking—of the sugar, and of the caffeine, were they to combine all three.

Related: Kumail Nanjiani on new drug called cheese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1cvKcGVy6k

Cocoa supposed to be good for the brain as well. Think I'll pound a few mocha's and see if I can increase my kill:death ratio on call of duty.

Medium double-double please. Hopefully the cream helps too.

Plus it has what plants need.

Another small victory for the ranks of corporate America.

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