Non-Fiction/Self Help Review

The Truth About Caffeine: How Companies That Promote It Deceive Us And What We Can Do About It
by Marina Kushner
ASIN: B000OLKEE2
Review by Heather Froeschl

That caffeine fix you have every morning is doing more to you than opening your eyes. But, you need to open those eyes a bit wider and face the reality of caffeine and coffee. Get ready, because it is a bitter dose indeed.

Marina Kushner tells "The Truth About Caffeine" and how companies that promote it deceive us. Explore the history of the coffee bean, right up to the current amount of garbage that is allowed to be slipped into the mix. Find out what coffee, regular and decaffeinated, is doing to your body. Look at the facts about caffeine. And, come to understand the epidemic of health impacts that are affecting millions of people.

Caffeine affects the central nervous system, is linked to heart disease and causes stomach problems. The idea that caffeine causes a multitude of cancers is still undecided but studies are showing the probability is high. Is it caffeine or the coffee bean that is the culprit? It could be either, or both. What about kids and the consumption of sodas? Even those un-colas contain caffeine. It is added as a supposed "flavor enhancer." Kushner explores all of these avenues and offers her findings to readers. What you read in her book is likely to change your life for the better.

Kicking the coffee habit is not easy. Many suffer effects of withdrawal. Caffeine is a drug, albeit a widely accepted one. Headaches, fatigue, and loss of concentration all wreak havoc on the quitter's attitude. But on the other hand, caffeine intoxication can occur with as little as 200 milligrams (that's just one Grande from a popular coffee chain, or four cans of Mountain Dew), and includes symptoms of heart palpitations, anxiety, increased blood pressure, and more. What to do?

First, be informed. Food manufacturers are not required to list the exact amount of caffeine in their products, schools gain monetary incentives to promote and sell soda to their students and staff, caffeine is put into foods that you are consuming when you least suspect it. Read "The Truth About Caffeine" and become a savvy consumer. Take control of your intake and you will undoubtedly feel a good deal better.

The book reads easily with the exception of technical medical jargon in the foreword by Navleen Kaur, M.D. It is a straight forward offering of information to help readers make better decisions. This information is not about to become headline news - too many dollars depend upon the daily consumption of coffee and caffeine laced products. Products that are as habitual as nicotine yet as accepted as peanut butter sandwiches. My only complaint was the lack of discussion of kids drinking chocolate milk and the availability of caffeine free soft drinks. Everything else is in there! If this book doesn't convince you to better your life by just saying no to a "cup o' joe" I don't know what will.

"The Truth About Caffeine" is a must read.