Caffeine

With coffee bars proliferating from Seattle to Baltimore, and the specialty coffees they feature promising to turn around a decades-long decline in American coffee consumption, the news about coffee's effects on health is surprisingly good.A substantial amount of research, including several large studies done in the last few years, has turned up little solid scientific evidence to indict a moderate intake of coffee or caffeine as a serious or even minor health threat."Some of the most serious hazards that were linked to caffeine in the past have not panned out," said Dr. James L. Mills, who studies caffeine's effects on pregnancy at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda.

Are energy drinks bad for you? They're not going to kill you. But many of these increasingly popular drinks contain significant amounts of caffeine, which can make you jittery and cause insomnia. They also contain loads of sugar, which nobody needs. Worse, these drinks are often marketed to kids and teenagers, many of whom already struggle with weight and don't need to add caffeine addiction to their troubles. "Energy drinks are rip-offs," said Bruce Silverglade, legal director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer watchdog group.

New York -- Over the hectic eight days that make up Fashion Week - which is wrapping up today in New York's Bryant Park - what you eat is almost as important as what you wear. After all, you'll need enough calories to get you from the Lacoste show at 10 a.m. to the Ralph Lauren show at 8:30 p.m., and back up again for the DKNY show the next morning. And yet, for the fashion-obsessed, there's always the worry about fitting into next season's slinky sarong. "Everybody's like `caffeine, caffeine,' " says Anastasia Wylie, 23, who was waiting under the tents with two friends one day last week to get into the Temperley London presentation.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Having worked late the night before and facing another long day at the Trinity Repertory Company, Oskar Eustis, the theater's artistic director, begins the day at the Coffee Exchange, where he orders something called an ambulance chaser.That's four shots of espresso in an oversize cup. Even the owner of the Coffee Exchange, Charlie Fishbein, considers it "going overboard."Eustis, who drinks this concentrated version of coffee with just a touch of cream, explains: "I'm really, really tired from working hard, and this will keep me going for the rest of the day."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Just in time for the end of summer parties, the U.S. government has informed millions of formerly healthy Americans that they are fatties.Its edict on obesity moved 30 million unsuspecting Americans into Lardville. It also succeeded in declaring wartime veterans who smoked government-issued cigarettes suddenly guilty of "willful misconduct," putting them in danger of losing health benefits.Fat on a bunThe most famous purveyor of hamburgers is now a merchant of death. "To me, there is no difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel," says Yale psychologist Kelly Brownell.

Want some coffee?Decaf or regular? Swiss Mocha or Columbia Narino Supremo? Cappuccino or frappuccino? Riboflavin or pantothenic acid?Huh?Coffee lingo and the array of flavors got confusing long ago. But now the Starbucks Coffee Company has complicated the decision even more with its Power Frappuccino. For an extra 50 cents, you can get the frosty drink in a fortified version filled with vitamins and other nutrients.Coffee and vitamins? Vitamins in coffee? Healthy coffee? Is this some sort of oxymoron?

Q. I was so glad to read your recommendation that a bed-wetter avoid caffeine. I had a serious problem with bed-wetting into my early 20s, which ended completely and immediately after I gave up caffeine!While I have never really researched the subject, I have never seen caffeine mentioned in other columns I have read on this topic. I am certain that avoiding caffeine can prevent a great deal of misery for many bed-wetters and only hope this receives more publicity.A. Thanks for your compelling story.

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS for anybody who would like to pay a lot of money for coffee that has passed all the way through an animal's digestive tract.And you just know there are plenty of people who would. Specialty coffees are popular these days, attracting millions of consumers, every single one of whom is standing in line ahead of me whenever I go to the coffee place at the airport to grab a quick cup on my way to catch a plane. These consumers are always ordering mutant beverages with names like "mocha almond honey-vinaigrette lattespressacino," beverages that must be made one at a time by a lengthy and complex process involving approximately one coffee bean, 3 quarts of dairy products and what appears to be a small nuclear reactor.

Cook's Table offers classes for amateursMary Fox wants to offer "fun, new, interesting and different" hands-on cooking classes for nonprofessionals, so she's just opened A Cook's Table at 717 Light St.Guest teachers will include local chefs. Classes start June 1. A Cook's Table also has a retail shop for what Fox calls "really wonderful cook's tools, not kitchen gadgets." Call 410-539-8600 for more information.Coffee prices are skyrocketing. But if you aren't a tea drinker, what are your alternatives?

The drug is consumed daily on elementary school campuses. It's hidden in candy bars and even in headache medicines.It's for sale -- cheap -- in all 50 states.And many manufacturers are rushing to lace their beverages with the stimulant."There's no question, Americans have come back to caffeine. It is a trend with a capital T," says Tom Pirko, president of the New York-based Bevmark, a consulting firm to the food-and-beverage industries.Once found primarily in coffee, caffeine is being pumped into everything from plain water to sweet ice-cream treats.

Putting out this week's sports media notes while wondering whether the president-elect has a spot in his administration called "Guy Who Sits on the Couch Watching TV While Eating Cheez-Its": * If you listen to much sports talk - not recommended unless you have ample caffeine - you probably have heard much of the same from callers offering only slight variation on the theme: The national media disrespect/ignore/downgrade the Ravens. I was glad to hear Bruce Cunningham tell a caller to his show on 105.7 The Fan this week that fans from around the country say much the same thing about their teams, too. However, along those lines, some people no doubt will see a slight by CBS' assignment of Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf to Sunday's Ravens-New York Giants game, which, by the way, is going out to 48 percent of the country.

They claim to "give you wings," "unleash the beast" and propel you to attack life at "full throttle," but the bevy of energy drinks on the market could provide more than a turbo-charged rush. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University say some of the wildly popular beverages contain potentially harmful levels of caffeine - as much as 14 cans of Coca-Cola. In a review article appearing in this month's issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the researchers say the drinks should carry warning labels displaying their caffeine content and possible health risks, such as nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, rapid heartbeat and tremors.

Recently, one of my colleagues, a pediatric gastroenterologist, told me about a teenage boy who had come to see him because of severe stomach pain he'd had for about two months. The boy had been referred by his primary care doctor, who had evaluated him for several possible causes, including infections and ulcers. That doctor had also recommended or prescribed a variety of medications to relieve the pain, but to no avail. The specialist performed an endoscopy, in which a camera is inserted into a patient's esophagus and down into the stomach and upper part of the small intestine.

The makers of GU Energy Gel have cooked up a formula geared toward ultra-endurance athletes called Roctane, which contains the same ingredients as the original GU plus several amino acids to aid in recovery and help prevent lactic acid buildup. In July, I took Roctane to the Wilderness 101, a 101-mile mountain bike race in the mountains around State College, Pa. Fifteen minutes before the start, I ate a packet of blueberry pomegranate flavor and topped off every 40 minutes as part of a refueling plan that included water, bananas and peanut butter sandwiches.

"They should put a surgeon general's warning on coffee," I once said in jest. But it's not a joke. Whether you're a writer like me, a businessman, a sales rep, a news anchor, an airline pilot, a cop, an orthopedic surgeon, a tax attorney, a pop star or the girl who gets propelled 20 feet in the air by a dolphin at SeaWorld - whoever you are, you're probably a member of the Coffee Club. And if you're not, you will be soon, because when Dunkin' Donuts first coined its motto, "America runs on Dunkin," it wasn't far off the mark.

The seeds for a green revolution in Annapolis are being planted in a city coffee shop. Linnea Boagades runs Raising Pickles, a company that can pick up recycled waste from businesses, a service the city doesn't provide. Stephanie Duncan of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau is launching an initiative to get its member hotels and businesses to conserve more water and energy. Helen Loughrey is trying to spread the word about Annapolis Community Food Gardens to encourage neighborhoods to use empty lots to grow their own vegetables.

Energy drinks charged into the U.S. market in 1997 with Red Bull and its claim: "Improves performance ... increased concentration ... stimulates the metabolism." At 66.7 milligrams of caffeine per 8.3-ounce can, that would be a mere blip in the bold new world of energy drinks. A cup of coffee, by contrast, has 107.5 milligrams. Today, provocative handles like Cocaine (since changed to No Name, owing to a 2007 Food and Drug Administration ruling against naming a product after an illegal drug)

Too much caffeine during pregnancy could increase the risk of miscarriage, a new study says, and the authors suggest that pregnant women might want to reduce their intake or cut it entirely. Many obstetricians advise women to limit caffeine, though the subject has long been contentious, with conflicting studies, fuzzy data and various recommendations given over the years. The new study, being published today in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds that pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day - the amount in 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea - may double their risk of miscarriage.

I sit in wonderment at the story of W. Lance Anderson, the president of NovaStar Financial in Kansas City, who while handing out subprime mortgages to any applicant wearing shoes and a shirt managed to sink the company's stock from $40 in June to $1.72. This is a man who earned $1.7 million in salary and bonuses last year, plus $711,386 in deferred compensation, plus more dough in various arrangements that dopes like me can't quite grasp. Meanwhile, all the little investors in NovaStar are cutting back on Christmas gifts and canceling their winter vacations in Daytona Beach.

When I was in college, a fellow student gave me this silly remedy for hiccups. Place a paper napkin over the top of a glass of water. Have the hiccupper take sips of water through the napkin. It works. Before the days of paper napkins, people used a clean cloth handkerchief in one variant of this hiccup remedy. We have no idea why this would work, but readers assure us that it does. I have a problem with bad breath though I brush my teeth three times a day and use mouthwash. My dentist said, "It's not your mouth, which is very clean."