Caffeine Testing - How Much Caffeine is in My Drink?

Caffeine testing is something that many people have taken to doing with the food and beverages that they consume. While caffeine does have many good, long-term effects, you can only take in so much within a day. Or else, you will experience some long term effects as well, only bad this time.

The caffeine content in a particular type of food or drink varies. It can depend on the amount of caffeine that the food item contains naturally. It can also be affected by the way the food or drink is prepared. This is why caffeine testing is seen as important by many people - there is really no way of telling exactly how much caffeine there is in your food or drink without the caffeine test.

So How Much Caffeine is in My Drink?

Without caffeine testing, the least you could do to determine how much caffeine is in your food is to read the label. Most food manufacturers disclose how much caffeine there is in their products by putting it on the label. If you cannot see it on the label, then you can look it up online. There are many websites that list caffeine content in food.

Below is one such list of popular food items and beverages and their caffeine content.

• 6 oz drip-brewed Robusta coffee - 200mg
• 6 oz drip-brewed Arabica coffee - 130mg
• 1 oz shot espresso coffee - 50mg
• 6 oz instant coffee - 100mg
• 6 oz 97% decaf coffee - 6mg
• 6 oz Euro-standard decaf coffee - 16mg
• 6 oz hot cocoa - 15mg
• 6 oz soda drink (Coke, Pepsi and Mountain Dew) - 26mg
• 6 oz green tea - 30mg
• 6 oz black tea - 60mg
• 6 oz bar dark chocolate - 100mg
• 6 oz bar milk chocolate - 50mg

Too Much Caffeine is Bad

Medical experts recommend that we should not take in more than 300mg of caffeine each day. Consuming more than that can lead to health repercussions in the long run.

Maybe you have experienced how it feels like to have drunk too much coffee. You become sweaty, your hands feel cold and clammy, you cannot sit still, and you definitely cannot sleep no matter how tired you are. These are the short-term effects of caffeine.

Some health experts claim that caffeine causes heart problems and cancer. However, studies have found the link between caffeine and these diseases to be inconclusive. Nonetheless, if you have a heart problem, too much caffeine in your system can increase your heart rate and your blood pressure. If you have stomach ulcer, you should avoid caffeine because it causes the stomach to secrete more acid. Always consult your doctor regarding your recommended caffeine intake.

To be sure, you should get a device or a product that does caffeine testing. There are many such products such as instant caffeine test strips in the market today that are used to test for caffeine in food, and they are fairly inexpensive.

But if you think that caffeine testing is tedious for you, you can download a caffeine intake calculator. This software will help you compute how much caffeine you have consumed in a day simply by putting in how many cups of coffee you drank that day, what type of coffee did you drink, how many bars of chocolate did you eat, and other things like that.