jmg@houxk.UUCP (08/10/83)
I received the following inquiry in the mail concerning my "food and health followup": I am interrested in knowing what foods contain caffine. Especially foods that are not noted to have caffine in them. Is there a law that if caffine is added to the food it must be on the label? Does all chocolate have caffine even if the label doesn't say so? Does all coke have caffine? I am asking you because you sound like you know the answers having elliminated caffine from your diet. Lance Schmelz houti!lps 834-3155 As I understand it caffeine occurs naturally in coffee, tea and chocolate (all forms of chocolate). With tea you get the added benefit of tannic acid (used for tanning hides). These foods don't have to be labelled as containing caffeine because the caffeine occurs naturally. However, any drink, food or drug that has caffeine ADDED must be so labelled. Most colas have caffeine. Check the label and watch out for tricky wording of advertise- ments. Some products like Pepsi Free and decaffeinated coffee merely have LESS caffeine than other brands. Some popular drinks that have caffeine are: Mountain Dew Mellow Yellow Coke Pepsi various brands of orange soda There are probably some brands I've forgotten so check the label. I know that Seven Up, Sprite and Canada Dry Ginger Ale don't have caffeine so I stick with these. Also orange juice and apple juice or other fruit juices are an excellent substitute for coffee at break time. Some people on the net mentioned irregular heartbeat as a common problem with caffeine users. I neglected to mention that this was one of my principal symptoms while in the cardiac care unit. While lying in bed I could watch the heart rate monitor bounce from 50 to 70 and back again instantaneously. When I left the cardiac care unit and when into the regular hospital ward I was offered coffee or tea with meals because they didn't recognize this as a problem. Yet when I later brought the matter up with the company nurse she readily agreed that caffeine would affect heart rate. Another problem which I neglected to mention previously was calcium deposits. For a while I had a recurring stiff neck due to calcium deposits (called bone spurs) between the vertabrae of the neck (confirmed by x-ray). Before trying to eliminate caffeine, I tried to reduce calcium intake. This reduced the occurrance of bone spurs but didn't reduce joint pain. I usually removed the bone spurs by vigorously manipulating my head. This makes you look like a crazy man so I tried to do this in private. Its also a bit painful for a while. Since eliminating caffeine I can now tolerate a fairly normal amount of calcium without getting bone spurs. It may be that caffeine causes the body to absorb more calcium which in turn causes tendons to stiffen thus causing the joint pain by means of abrasion and pressure. One of the first clues that put me onto caffeine was the experience of stomach cramps and diarrhea after drinking coffee, tea or coke. So if you have these symptoms, watch out. Joe McGhee Bell Labs, Holmdel, N.J.