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Caffeine may well be America's favorite and certainly it's most accepted drug. According to the World Resources Institute, we consume 4.2 Kilograms of coffee and .3 kg of tea per capita annually. That's just under 19 pounds of caffeine laden beverages for every man, woman, and child in this country. American's aren't even top of the list when it comes to coffee and tea consumption. We come in just under Portugal as the world's 22nd highest consumer of coffee and we consume only 4% of the planet's tea. Compared to India at 23% or China at 16%, you could say we haven't yet warmed up to the idea of boiled leaves. Behind oil, coffee is the number one traded commodity on the planet. There are over 60 countries now exporting the heady beans to a world hungry, or perhaps thirsty, for brewed caffeine. Retail sales of coffee worldwide are peaking says The gourmet Coffee Project. The retail equivalent of over $50 billion in coffee is being funneled through the London and New York stock exchanges each year.

Needless to say, caffeine isn't going anywhere any time soon. So what are we make of this metabolic stimulant? In large doses over extended periods of time, say, the entire two years of your graduate program, caffeine is known to cause serious adverse side effects such as irritability, anxiety, muscle twitching, respiratory alkalosis, headaches, and heart palpitations among others according to a 1983 article by James, JE and KP Stirling titled "Caffeine: A summary of some of the known and suspected deleterious effects of habitual use" in the British Journal of Addiction. The Esophageal center also reports that peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastrointestinal reflux diseases can be directly attributed to the prolonged consumption of large amounts of caffeine.

Okay you say. I am not a drinker of large amounts of caffeine. I am not slurping a pot of coffee on my way out the door in the morning, quadruple lattes at lunch or 64 ounce containers of cola from the local corner store with my supper. Where do I stand? Is one or two cups too much? Should I be worried? It turns out, no. You should not be too worried. While it is true that each individual has their own tolerances, it is safe to say that your morning cappuccino might be doing you more good than you realized. 100 milligrams of caffeine, the equivalent of one 6 ounce cup of coffee or a 24 ounce mug of black tea, was shown to increase brain activity in the frontal lobes, the part

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