If I Start Pulling My Shirt Up Over My Head and Shouting "I Am the Great Cornholio!," Then You Can Talk to Me About Cutting Back.

So, like I mentioned a while back, I've been reading this book called The World of Caffeine. I don't know that I can really recommend it, by the way... The subject matter's interesting (well, at least it is to me), but the style's kind of dry, and they spend way too much time nattering on about who drank what with whom in which 18th-century coffehouse for my taste. But, anyway, it's got me thinking about caffeine, and about my own intake, which I think has been steadily climbing over the past couple of years.

Today's caffeine consumption, as far as I can remember[*]:

3 good-sized mugs of moderately strong coffee. Probably something like 200 mg each.

Two cups of mint-flavored green tea, and three cups of black tea. Call it 50 mg each.

Two 12-oz cans of Cherry Pepsi. Assuming those are about the same as regular Pepsi, that's about 38 mg each.

One medium Coke from McDonald's. Probably about the same volume as a can, so 46 mg.

Totalling that all up, it comes out to 970 milligrams of caffeine. So far. On a fairly typical day.

Yikes. It's no wonder I've been feeling kind of wired lately. But I've been feeling wired in a good way, really, so, hey, go caffeine!


[*] Note most of these figures are really pretty wild estimates. Apparently the actual caffeine content of an average cup of coffee or tea can vary enormously.