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The Facts About Caffeine
Describes the history of caffeine in society, the effects of the drug on the body, and the possible side effects of being "addicted" to it or the foodstuffs that contain it.
112 pages, Library Binding
First published September 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2014
In the book, “Drugs the Facts About; Caffeine” by Lorrie Klosterman, it talks mainly about the effects caffeine has on the human body, the origins of caffeine, and how we create it. In the beginning it states facts about how caffeine, through ancient civilizations to colonial empires, has worked its way into modern day’s society and culture as an icon. It later talks about how caffeine got discovered, through teas and chocolates, eventually evolving into coffees and soft drinks. With this information of the importance of caffeine, the author states the effects on the body, including the possible illnesses this drug links to. In the end the author gives alternatives to using this substance to stay awake.
In my opinion, the problem with caffeine is that it has, in a way, turned into a drug, and like any drug, it shouldn’t be abused. I think this because in the book, the author explains effects of caffeine on the human body and how it could link to fatal diseases. Caffeine also is very hard to get rid of. In the book, it states that caffeine doesn’t fully leave the adult body for up to 15 hours, for children and infants it can stay in the body for up to 20 times longer (page 53 and 54). This proves that caffeine can really leave its mark on a person. The author’s claim was similar to mine in that caffeine can be used, but there needs to be an extent on which a human should be aloud to use. The author’s solution to this problem is that people could just stop using caffeine as a whole or try to use it as little as possible. She said that alternatives are exercise, sugar, or taking short naps (page 92).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it gave me a new opinion of what caffeine really does to your body. I learned that caffeine seems harmless, in that, all it does is keeps you awake longer, but is actually, when overdosed, can be deadly. I also learned that caffeine is in a lot more than we think. It is in things from sodas to chocolates, originally I thought it was only in things like coffee and tea. I think that the author’s writing style really helped contribute to the seriousness of this issue, which is another thing I liked about this book. She never tried to crack any jokes or make it sound conversational it was exactly to the point and there was no extra fluff or detail. One thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was a little bit random. There were pages and sometimes even sentences that just randomly got cut off halfway through to put in a graph that sometimes didn’t even have anything to do with what the topic was of that page or sentence.
After reading this book, I would recommend it to almost everybody. At first I didn’t even think of caffeine as an issue, but now I realize it is. Adults might like this book to see what really goes on after drinking eight espressos in the morning, and for children the same goes for 19 cans of soda. They should read this book for the same reason I did, to realize what actually happens to your body and for you to think to yourself, “Is really this good for me?”
In my opinion, the problem with caffeine is that it has, in a way, turned into a drug, and like any drug, it shouldn’t be abused. I think this because in the book, the author explains effects of caffeine on the human body and how it could link to fatal diseases. Caffeine also is very hard to get rid of. In the book, it states that caffeine doesn’t fully leave the adult body for up to 15 hours, for children and infants it can stay in the body for up to 20 times longer (page 53 and 54). This proves that caffeine can really leave its mark on a person. The author’s claim was similar to mine in that caffeine can be used, but there needs to be an extent on which a human should be aloud to use. The author’s solution to this problem is that people could just stop using caffeine as a whole or try to use it as little as possible. She said that alternatives are exercise, sugar, or taking short naps (page 92).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it gave me a new opinion of what caffeine really does to your body. I learned that caffeine seems harmless, in that, all it does is keeps you awake longer, but is actually, when overdosed, can be deadly. I also learned that caffeine is in a lot more than we think. It is in things from sodas to chocolates, originally I thought it was only in things like coffee and tea. I think that the author’s writing style really helped contribute to the seriousness of this issue, which is another thing I liked about this book. She never tried to crack any jokes or make it sound conversational it was exactly to the point and there was no extra fluff or detail. One thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was a little bit random. There were pages and sometimes even sentences that just randomly got cut off halfway through to put in a graph that sometimes didn’t even have anything to do with what the topic was of that page or sentence.
After reading this book, I would recommend it to almost everybody. At first I didn’t even think of caffeine as an issue, but now I realize it is. Adults might like this book to see what really goes on after drinking eight espressos in the morning, and for children the same goes for 19 cans of soda. They should read this book for the same reason I did, to realize what actually happens to your body and for you to think to yourself, “Is really this good for me?”
November 18, 2011
What I took away from this was the history of caffeine and then the way caffeine is used and how it affects our bodies. On the history of caffeine in America, one of the reasons coffee took off so well here was because of the Boston Tea Party which I didn't even THINK of. It was considered unpatriotic to drink tea, so people drank coffee instead. Also, it's cool how they separated different parts of caffeine/drugs/etc but using paper and them coming out in different colors.
Anyway...
Frankly, most every nonfiction book about caffeine is going to have some bias. This one did it's best to be neutral. What I found is that there are pros and cons to drinking caffeine, which most everyone knew anyway, and there's caffeine in a lot of stuff we don't realize. Generally, the pros seem to outweigh the cons (just barely, I think) if only because - I don't know if this has changed, since this book was written in 07 - we don't know for sure all the side effects of caffeine, since we don't know every little thing in caffeine itself. It IS a drug, but it's the most harmless drug out there.
I don't know where I stand on caffeine still. *sigh*
Anyway...
Frankly, most every nonfiction book about caffeine is going to have some bias. This one did it's best to be neutral. What I found is that there are pros and cons to drinking caffeine, which most everyone knew anyway, and there's caffeine in a lot of stuff we don't realize. Generally, the pros seem to outweigh the cons (just barely, I think) if only because - I don't know if this has changed, since this book was written in 07 - we don't know for sure all the side effects of caffeine, since we don't know every little thing in caffeine itself. It IS a drug, but it's the most harmless drug out there.
I don't know where I stand on caffeine still. *sigh*
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews