The clinical evidence being scarce, it is advisable to keep consumption on the lower side of these recommendations. Scientific reviews differ on what constitutes a safe upper intake for pregnant or breastfeeding women: either 200 or 300 mg of caffeine per day. In other words, when you are pregnant, your body takes a lot longer to get rid of the caffeine you consume: some of the caffeine you ingest in the morning is added to the caffeine you ingest after lunch, and so you may end up with a much higher dose coursing your body than you ever thought possible. Randomized controlled trials in pregnant or breastfeeding women are scarce, so erring on the side of lower caffeine consumption may be prudent, especially since the half-life of caffeine increases from an average of 3 hours for non-pregnant women to 10.5 hours during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy. Other reviews have concluded that 300 mg/day is safe, but you may be cutting it close, since taking more increases the risk of nausea and, worse, of miscarriage. Healthy adults can safely consume up to 400 mg/day, but avoid caffeine near bedtime for optimal sleep quality.Ī review by the EFSA recommends that women who are breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to become pregnant limit their intake to 200 mg of caffeine per day. Keep in mind that the half-life of caffeine is 5 hours (on average it varies greatly between individuals), which means that you probably still have caffeine in your blood if you drank coffee within the last 10 hours. However, they caution that 100 mg of caffeine taken close to bedtime may affect sleep quality. While you can consume more, 400 mg is how much caffeine most healthy people can regularly consume in a day without undue negative side effects.įurther, the EFSA indicates that, for most people, up to 200 mg of caffeine at once doesn’t raise health concerns, even “when consumed less than two hours prior to intense physical exercise”.
The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), the US National Academies of Science (NAS), and Health Canada have concluded that, for healthy adults, caffeine intakes up to 400 mg/day don’t raise any general health concerns. In this article, we’ve broken down the recommendations on caffeine safety, but remember that these are guidelines - individual mileage may vary.
Interestingly, similar symptoms have been reported by people going through caffeine withdrawal, in addition to yawning, sleepiness/drowsiness, fatigue, lower motivation to work, impaired concentration, impaired cognitive performance, flu-like symptoms, and muscle stiffness. Some people display no unwanted symptoms from multiple cups of coffee per day, while others can’t drink one cup without experiencing abnormally high spikes in blood pressure, disrupted sleep, headaches, irritability, or nervousness (although some of the “jittery” effects may be alleviated with the co-ingestion of theanine). Ĭaffeine’s safety is relative - it depends on the dose, of course, but also on your health. The type of bean, harvest processing, storage, and extraction method (espresso, french press, filtered) will all affect the final caffeine content in your cup of coffee. Keep in mind that, while the caffeine content of a given energy drink or soda is usually consistent from bottle to bottle, the caffeine content of coffee or tea can vary greatly. The infographic below features some of the more popular caffeinated beverages, with their caffeine contents. Before we get into the evidence on safe caffeine dosage, let’s see where all this caffeine is coming from.
In 2016 alone, people ingested 7 million tonnes of coffee, and the energy drink market is consistently growing. Most of us consume some form of caffeinated beverage. Caffeine is naturally present in coffee, tea, cocoa, guarana, and yerba mate, but it is also frequently added to sodas, energy drinks, and weight-loss supplements.
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