WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Institute for the Advancement of Food & Nutrition Sciences hosted a new webinar on March 4 to explore beverage consumption patterns and caffeine intakes in the US population. Caffeine is one of the most consumed food components because it is a stimulant. It can be found commonly in beverages, but it is also contained in cocoa or chocolate foods and medications.
The objectives focused on this session were mainly defining majour souces of caffeine in the diet and summarizing the human research on diet caffeine and identifyng the contribution of various beverage types to total caffeine intake and describe how these beverage patterns have evolved over time.
Marilyn Cornelius, PhD, Northwestern University, and Diane Mitchell, MS RD, Texas A&M University intervened.
The presentation was based on a recent paper IAFNS supported entitled “An update on beverage consumption patterns and caffeine intakes in a representative sample of the US Population”.
Marylin Cornelius: “The major contributor of caffeine in the American diet is coffee and tea. There are also other products with added caffeine such as coca-cola and energy drinks. These products are different from each other: generally coffee contains around twice as much caffeine as tea.
The best-detailed studies show that caffeine plays an important role in preventing diseases such as Parkinson’s, endometrial cancer, and skin cancer, not to mention mortality. It is important to note that caffeine has the best benefits against these diseases compared to just coffee or tea. However, when it comes to diseases such as type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, drinking coffee seems to have the best benefits in prevention”.
Cornelius adds: “Most data claimed that coffee is beneficial for health. In 2015 for the first time, the U.S Guidelines indicated that coffee might be part of a healthy diet. They suggested that 5 cups per day is safe. In 2020 it was suggested that very young individuals (from birth to 23 months) should avoid coffee completely. Also, pregnant women should avoid consuming less than 300 mg of caffeine in order not to affect the infant. Healthy adults could consume safely 400 mg of caffeine per day. When it comes to cola and energy drinks, the only danger discussed was in contact of sugar content only”.
The FDA also stated that caffeine can be part of a healthy diet for most people but to much caffeine can pose some danger to the health. The symptoms can be: increased heart rate, nausea, headache and high blood pressure. Generally, for most adults, 400 mg of caffeine is considered safe.
For the study, estimates of caffeine intake in the U.S. population were calculated thanks to a 2022 beverage survey, the Kantar Worldpanel Enhanced Beverage Service. A nationally representative sample of 49000 consumers (aged ≥2 years) completed a 1-day beverage intake survey which collected data on beverage type/category, amount, and brand.
Approximately 69% of the U.S. population consumed at least one caffeinated beverage per day. The mean (±SE) daily caffeine intake of caffeine consumers (age >2 years) from all beverages was 210 ± 1.5 mg. Caffeine intake was highest in consumers aged 50–64 years (246 ± 4.5 mg/day) and lowest in children aged 2–5 (42 ± 2.4 mg/day). At the 90th percentile intake was 520 mg/day for all ages combined. Coffee was the largest contributor (69%) to caffeine intake across all age groups followed by carbonated soft drinks (15.4%), tea (8.8%), and energy drinks (6.3%).
Diane Mitchell summarized the results of the study. There has been a decrease in the proportion of the population consuming caffeinated beverages but higher levels of intake. Furthermore, caffeine intake, particularly in younger children, are above the recommended intakes. Finally, for all age groups and all caffeinated beverages combined, intakes at the 90th percentile are above 400 mg/day which is not a dangerous level for health.
