Interesting Links for 12-06-2022

[andrewducker]

1. What horror movies can tell us about the things society fears

(tags:horror society fear )

2. Scotland and UK split over gene-edited food

(tags:UK Scotland genetics food farming regulation Europe )

3. Regular caffeine consumption affects brain structure

(tags:caffeine brain )

Comments

[anna_wing]

Tea contains caffeine too. Hmmm.

[bens_dad]

An ounce of tea contains a more caffeine than an ounce of coffee, but a cup of coffee contains more caffeine than a cup of tea.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-much-caffeine-tea says

Like for like, a cup of coffee has around double the amount of caffeine compared to black tea, with an average of 95mg per cup. Like tea, a lot of factors can influence the caffeine content of coffee including the type of coffee beans, the roasting process and the type of coffee.

For example, a shot of espresso contains about 63mg of caffeine and a cup of instant coffee between 30-90mg.

[anna_wing]

Thank you! Good to know.

Coffee

[agoodwinsmith]

Hah.

No, they measured caffeine tablets. Until they demonstrate that a caffeine tablet is identical to a cup of coffee, I will say "piffle".

I mean: a cup of coffee is not the same as a cup of tea, even if you twiddle with the amounts so you get the same hit of caffeine.

And: did they take into account the withdrawal for the placebo period? I think not.

Not convinced even a tiny little bit.

[channelpenguin]

3. What everyone else said. But you will never be able to double blind with coffee/tea as the taste difference is obvious.

Even if.... grey matter is not the only functional thing in the brain. And even if... maybe caffeine makes some process more efficient so you need less grey to do the job?

[andrewducker]

I dopn't see what coffee/tea have to do with it. It's caffeine they're studying. It's in both of those things, and will presumably have the same effect no matter what - along with other effects from other things in both, but I'm not aware of strong psychoactive effects from either.

As for functional things - my understanding is that caffeine isn't actually that functional once you've been on it for a few days. After that point you're mostly playing catchup for having lowered your natural levels.

[channelpenguin]

There are many many many compounds in tea and coffee that aren't caffeine. So this research is only really validly testing caffeine. Not coffee.

If I recall rightly,I recently read that coffee (but not caffeine on its own) has positive effects on heart arrhythmias (for example)

Synergistic effects of whole foods as opposed the the obvious "active" compounds are increasingly being found and studied.

I think we are agreeing about what the research is actually about - and deploring how it's being headlined. :-)

[andrewducker]

The headline is "Regular caffeine consumption affects brain structure".

I'm not sure where the confusion is!

[channelpenguin]

I think because the text described the subjects as coffee-drinkers? That and some of us somehow thinking it was about coffee. :-) Probably because (almost) nobody takes caffeine directly.

[channelpenguin]

But my points about grey matter stand. I'm not convinced "more = good, less = bad". That's not true in other things in the brain (selective neuron pruning and all that).

I wonder what's really going on. Maybe caffeine helps you to better decide what is worth remembering, or helps storage efficiency ("hyperlinks" vs "copy-n-paste",so it takes less space?).

Did they measure white matter as well, I wonder...