Caffeine, the worlds most popular drug [Chin 2008]. Listening to some nosy scientists in the morning, one could think that the whole world would slip into the vial embrace of anarchy if caffeine seized to exist.
Over 2 billion daily consumed cups of coffee seem to agree and I know one or another (fresh) parent who would go so far to inject it directly into their blood stream if they could [Ingraham 2015]. But there is merit behind that frivolous endulgence.
Oh, yes. Give me the good stuff.
Everyone knows about the usual effects of the stimulant that jump starts our central nervous system with the strength of thousand suns:
- improved memory [Smith 2013, Sherman 2016]
- improved learning [Smith 2013, Sherman 2016]
- improved working memory [Committee on Military Nutrition Research 2001]
- improved focus [Repantis 2021]
- it makes us feel awake. [Snel 2011]
- reduced anxiete [Liebermann 2002, Haskell 2005]
These effects are all great and doozy, as long as we stick to the healthy limits, but caffeine has more up its sleeve.
Because the way to overcome the early morning hunger-pangs might be shorter than you think. Only a cup of coffee could be enough to alleviate hunger and overcome the critical moment of feeding our habits ingrained in us [Greenberg 2012, Schubert 2017, and why not take a look at link to previous article].
So take in the aroma and try a sip of that tea or coffee with all the greater enjoyment while you join our exploration into the…
Effects of caffeine on hunger
How does Coffeine influnce appetite
After we drink coffee, or tea, or even soda, and our digestive system gets grumpily to work, caffeine appears to affect our hunger in 2 ways:
- Through stress
- Through countering hunger
Utilizing the adrenaline-axis
“Stress?”, you might ask. “Quite so”, we would answer.
It appears that caffeine increases the release of adrenaline by the adrenal glands and / or other adrenaline pumps, evolutionary prospectors set up in our bodies [al’Absi 2004].
Being a stress hormone, the release of adrenaline is a 911-call of any warm blooded organism.
You can imagine it running through the veins and other bodily corridors, screaming with all strength: “Danger is coming! Danger is coming! Mobilize the glucose and ship it to the brain. Our thinking apparatus needs all the energy it can get.”
“But what about us?”, the common muscle- and fat-cells wonder.
“You will receive fat and other carbohydrate reserves.”
[Russek 1980]
One of the ways adrenaline and perhaps also caffeine achieve this feat is by stimulating a process artfully named lipolysis, which has a glycogen (think blood-sugar) sparing effect [Ryu 2001]. The subsequent reduced consumption of glucose by fat- and muscle-cells, might stabilize the blood glucose level.
As ghrelin and thereby hunger is partly triggered by just these blood-glucose-levels falling, this action might pull the carpet from under hunger’s feet as it tries to establish a foothold in our psychy [Tschop 2000].
Additionally, adrenaline doing all its stressful things up and down the stress-axis, and caffeine might also disrupt the habitual release of ghrelin.
Disrupting the hunger-axis
And then there is caffeine’s more dirext approach against the forces of hunger.
Along the length of the gut caffeine appears to cause some restlessness in so called L cells. Voicing their concern about the current state of being, the cells start to release the peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY) [Murphy 2006, Greenberg 2012]. The peptide counters the effects of ghrelin and thereby reduces hunger directly [Batterham 2002].
Outro
While caffeine might not be the strongest way to deal with hunger, it does activates a number of pathways that make dealing with it easier.
Also drinking a cup of our favorite beverage with the knowledge that it also eases the time to our feeding window makes its taste oh so much better.
The article wouldn’t be complete with a note of caution:
Be aware that like any drug caffeine can have negative effects [Winston 2005]. As someone who suffered through the effects of caffeinism let me share with you, that it is no joke.
Nervousness, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, headaches, disrupted sleep cycles and palpitations are only short term effects of too much caffeine [Iancu 2006, Snel 2011]. The long term effects might be way more severe so…
Consume responsibly
Sources
| Key | Citation |
|---|---|
| al’Absi 2004 | al’Absi, M., & Lovallo, W. R. (2004). Caffeine’s effects on the human stress axis. Coffee, tea, chocolate, and the brain, 2, 113-131. |
| Batterham 2002 | Batterham, R. L., Cowley, M. A., Small, C. J., Herzog, H., Cohen, M. A., Dakin, C. L., … & Bloom, S. R. (2002). Gut hormone PYY3-36 physiologically inhibits food intake. Nature, 418(6898), 650-654. |
| Chin 2008 | Chin, J. M., Merves, M. L., Goldberger, B. A., Sampson-Cone, A., & Cone, E. J. (2008). Caffeine content of brewed teas. Journal of analytical toxicology, 32(8), 702-704. |
| Committee on Military Nutrition Research 2001 | Committee on Military Nutrition Research. (2001). Caffeine for the sustainment of mental task performance: formulations for military operations. National Academies Press. |
| Greenberg 2012 | Greenberg, J. A., & Geliebter, A. (2012). Coffee, hunger, and peptide YY. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 31(3), 160-166. |
| Haskell 2005 | Haskell, C. F., Kennedy, D. O., Wesnes, K. A., & Scholey, A. B. (2005). Cognitive and mood improvements of caffeine in habitual consumers and habitual non-consumers of caffeine. Psychopharmacology, 179, 813-825. |
| Iancu 2006 | Iancu, I., Olmer, A., & Strous, R. D. (2006). Caffeinism: history, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment. In Caffeine and Activation Theory (pp. 331-348). CRC Press. |
| Ingraham 2015 | Ingrahim, Christopher. Ferdman, Roberto. (2015). A coffee addict’s guide to the universe. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/17/19-maps-and-charts-that-explain-pretty-much-everything-about-coffee/ |
| Liebermann 2002 | Lieberman, H. R., Tharion, W. J., Shukitt-Hale, B., Speckman, K. L., & Tulley, R. (2002). Effects of caffeine, sleep loss, and stress on cognitive performance and mood during US Navy SEAL training. Psychopharmacology, 164, 250-261. |
| Murphy 2006 | Murphy, K. G., & Bloom, S. R. (2006). Gut hormones and the regulation of energy homeostasis. Nature, 444(7121), 854-859. |
| Repantis 2021 | Repantis, D., Bovy, L., Ohla, K., Kühn, S., & Dresler, M. (2021). Cognitive enhancement effects of stimulants: a randomized controlled trial testing methylphenidate, modafinil, and caffeine. Psychopharmacology, 238, 441-451. |
| Russek 1980 | Russek, M., & Racotta, R. (1980). A Possible Role of Adrenaline and Glucagon in the Control of Food Intake1. In Comparative Aspects of Neuroendocrine Control of Behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 120-137). Karger Publishers. |
| Ryu 2001 | Ryu, S., Choi, S. K., JoUNG, S. S., Suh, H., Cha, Y. S., Lee, S., & Lim, K. (2001). Caffeine as a lipolytic food component increases endurance performance in rats and athletes. Journal of nutritional science and vitaminology, 47(2), 139-146. |
| Schubert 2017 | Schubert, M. M., Irwin, C., Seay, R. F., Clarke, H. E., Allegro, D., & Desbrow, B. (2017). Caffeine, coffee, and appetite control: a review. International journal of food sciences and nutrition, 68(8), 901-912. |
| Sherman 2016 | Sherman, S. M., Buckley, T. P., Baena, E., & Ryan, L. (2016). Caffeine enhances memory performance in young adults during their non-optimal time of day. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 215446. |
| Smith 2013 | Smith, A. P. (2013). Caffeine, extraversion and working memory. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 27(1), 71-76. |
| Snel 2011 | Snel, J., & Lorist, M. M. (2011). Effects of caffeine on sleep and cognition. Progress in brain research, 190, 105-117. |
| Tschop 2000 | Tschop, M., Smiley, D. L., & Heiman, M. L. (2000). Ghrelin induces adiposity in rodents. Nature, 407(6806), 908-913. |
| Winston 2005 | Winston, A. P., Hardwick, E., & Jaberi, N. (2005). Neuropsychiatric effects of caffeine. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(6), 432-439. |
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