Caffeine hidden in many foods

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Jun 2003 - 0:00 PDT

From:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/diet.fitness/06/27/otsc.gupta/index.html
The July issue of 'Consumer Reports' magazine reveals some of the foods and drinks that contain high levels of caffeine can be surprising.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about the findings with anchor Daryn Kagan.

GUPTA: ...People are a little surprised sometimes when they hear where caffeine is actually located. For example, half a cup of this coffee ice cream from Haagen-Dazs has actually more caffeine than a Coke. Most people are surprised by that.

Kids, in particular, are vulnerable to some of these effects. Too much caffeine certainly can leave them jittery and nervous and maybe with some tension.

They say about 100 milligrams of caffeine in a day is probably the limit for most kids. And to give you an example again, if you drink a Coke, you have a cup of caffeinated ice cream, and a half a cup of M&M's ... that's 128 milligrams of caffeine.

KAGAN: That it is.

GUPTA: And that's probably too much for most kids.

If you look at all of the other sources of caffeine out there, again, you'd be a little bit surprised -- like Sunkist orange soda, for example. People thought that was not a source of caffeine; in fact, it is. Chocolate or coffee-flavored ice cream. Vitamin waters, too, sort of surprising, but the vitamin waters also sometimes with significant amounts of caffeine, and energy drinks.

Now, one thing important to point out as well, Daryn, is that the U.S.D.A., which regulates this, does not require that specific products actually have caffeine listed on their product labels. So, if you really want to get the information, you've got to go to the Internet or somewhere or call the company to find out about the product information, specifically how much caffeine is in the particular products.

And, again, with kids, there are all sorts of symptoms that might result from too much caffeine, if you take a look at some of the symptoms. Again, we're talking about anxiety, insomnia, tension, and in extreme cases nausea and upset stomach. So, too much caffeine is obviously something to look out for. Be careful what you eat. Look at the product labels if you can find them.

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