USA TODAY International Edition
Audiobook offers insights about caffeine
Chances are you’re a drug addict. It’s OK – most of us are. In fact, about 90% of people in the U. S. ingest your likely drug of choice.
That drug, of course, is caffeine, the world’s most popular, most socially accepted psychoactive substance ( and the only one we routinely give to children). How did such an addictive stimulant come to be a routine part of so many people’s daily lives?
That’s the subject Michael Pollan explores in “Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World,” his new Audible audiobook. Like his popular books “The Botany of Desire” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “Caffeine” explores the scientific, social and political roots of what we consume and why – in this case, the world’s most- popular drug. Caffeine use is so thoughtless and habitual, many of us take for granted that we’re juicing ourselves with a psychoactive substance.
While researching the book, Pollan did what many of us would find intolerable: He gave up caffeine for three months. To really understand the substance’s “invisible, pervasive power,” he needed to kick the habit. Pollan charts his difficult journey of decaffeination as he breaks down how caffeine transformed the way we work and socialize, arguing that the introduction of caffeine consumption proved to be a transformative moment in human history.
“Caffeine” is free to Audible users through the month of February. At two hours, it’s a brisk, informative listen, ideal for a few weekday coffee breaks. Here are five fascinating facts we learned about everyone’s favorite drug.
Yes, caffeine really is that addictive
One proof of caffeine’s addictiveness? Bees. In the 1990s, German researchers discovered that several classes of plants produce caffeine in their nectar, the substance that attracts pollinating insects. Bees were found to remember, and reliably return, to flowers with caffeinated nectar, and up to four times as many bees would visit caffeinated flowers as noncaffeinated. It’s of no benefit to the bees – they keep visiting long after the plants have been depleted of nectar. “It’s an eerily familiar story,” Pollan says. “A credulous animal duped by a plant’s clever neurochemistry into acting against its interests.”
Caffeine improves performance
Studies suggest that caffeine improves mental and physical performance to some degree, heightening memory, focus, alertness and learning. Pollan cites an experiment from the 1930s that found chess players on caffeine performed significantly better. In a 2014 experiment, subjects given caffeine right after learning new material retained it better. In simulated driving exercises, caffeine has been shown to improve performance. Pollan recommends taking the findings with a pinch of salt, though – it’s hard to find good control groups to conduct such experiments when pretty much everyone is hooked on caffeine.
Caffeine changed the way we work
The improved alertness and industriousness that caffeine affords played a major role in transforming the nature of work and the workplace. Before the widespread adoption of coffee in the West, physical laborers habitually took beer breaks. But as the nature of work transformed from physical to mental labor, coffee became the preferred beverage, as it improved the sort of alertness, focus and clarity that sort of work requires. It also made night shifts possible, liberating workers from the cycles of the sun and their own circadian rhythms. “Caffeine helps us to cope with the world caffeine helped us to create,” Pollan says.
Caffeine can have positive health effects
Pollan cites research that finds health benefits to caffeine consumption, so long as it isn’t consumed in excess. Regular coffee consumption, Pollan says, is associated with a decreased risk of some cancers, including prostate, breast, endometrial and colorectal. Caffeine may also play a role in staving off cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
It can also have negative health effects
Pollan interviewed Dr. Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist and the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at Berkeley, as well as the author of “Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams.” Walker argues that lack of quality sleep is a hidden public health crisis, and one of the primary culprits of the epidemic is caffeine. Even having just a morning cup of coffee can wreck sleep: Caffeine ingested early in the day can still be in your system when your head hits the pillow.