CREDIT: ERIKA FAUST
Sleepy students eagerly await their daily caffeine fix at a Tim Hortons on campus.

The new Tim Hortons extralarge coffee contains approximately 240 mg of caffeine; two of those in a day and you're well over Health Canada's recommended limit of 400 mg.

"I'll get two mediums a day or make it at home," said James Doyle, a student in Fanshawe's Interactive Specialist program.

"I drink a large and I probably have six or seven a day if I'm working," said Harrison Grave, who is also in the Interactive Media Specialist program.

How much is too much? Danielle Battram, assistant professor in the Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Brescia University College, said that staying under the recommended limit is important. "If we adhere to those (suggestions), then the risks are actually quite minimal for our health."

The difficulty lies in determining how much caffeine we are actually taking in. Registered dietitian Jennifer Broxterman said that the average cup of coffee has approximately 100 mg of caffeine in it, but the problem is that people often don't connect that the measurement for one cup of coffee (around 100 mg, or 250 ml) is now a Tim's extra small. "A current Tim Hortons medium is close to almost two cups of fluid, so you're getting double what you might perceive you're getting just because you're not aware of that portion distortion that's happened over time, where everything's gotten more supersized," said Broxterman.

There is so much debate as to whether or not coffee is good for you. "Certainly it can make us a little bit hyper, jittery if we consume to much in a small period of time, and it's been linked to things like increased risk of heart disease," said Battram, "but interestingly also a decrease risk of diabetes."

Broxterman suggested that caffeine does has some negative side effects, especially after hitting the 400 mg mark; "You start to see cardiac sensitivity, abnormalities in the heartbeat, increased anxiety and irritability, for some people it causes stomach or intestinal irritation, acid reflux ... insomnia's a huge problem and also things like withdrawal symptoms: fatigue, headaches, depression, where people become addicted to this drug and they need it every day."

Grave said he finds it difficult to go a day without coffee. "During the day, it's not bad, but I need to have it in the morning or I'm dying, I'll have a headache, I mean, if I don't have my seven, I'm fine, usually it's just the one or two in the morning is key."

It can often become a vicious cycle. "Experts explain it as a catch-22," Broxterman said. "We use coffee to promote wakefulness and to compensate for our lack of sleep, but we overuse caffeine to change our alertness and compensate for not sleeping well which then creates a sleeping deficit that night, that comes out of using caffeine."

When did coffee become such a necessity in our daily lives? A 2010 survey by Ipsos Reid found that 88 per cent of Canadians surveyed stated that they drink at least one cup of coffee every day, and those coffee drinkers consume an average of 3.2 cups of joe every day. Coffee's effect on students is obvious — just look at the Tim Hortons line-ups on campus. Maybe it's the nature of college: long nights, early mornings, and last-minute studying. But Broxterman suggested not relying on coffee to help out. "It becomes unhealthy when you're fuelling study sessions and all-nighters, cramming, not getting sleep and pushing yourself, going beyond what the body can handle. It becomes an unhealthy addiction when you feel like you can't go a day without it."

Battram suggested that for students it's all about being organized. "They definitely need to get a little bit more sleep, and really for students, it comes down to time management, not getting to the point where you have to cram all night."

There are ways to avoid having to rely on coffee or other caffeine sources. The dietitians recommended eating healthier, increasing physical activity and having a better bedtime routine.

For those of you thinking of cutting back on your caffeine intake, Broxterman suggested weaning off of it slowly. "Try to cut back gradually, because often going cold turkey those withdrawal symptoms are so difficult to cope with that they're right back to where they started because the headaches are so bad the person feels so terrible." She said for example to keep drinking the same number of cups per day but maybe buying a smaller size.

Doyle recalled a time when he quit coffee completely: "Nothing happened to me, I quit for a couple months and I was fine ... the first couple days I wanted a coffee, I didn't want caffeine, I wanted a coffee because I like the warm cup, the good smell, putting the cream in, making the concoction; the ritual of coffee is more addicting than the actual coffee."

Society doesn't make it easy for us to avoid the use of and sometimes dependency on coffee. Besides just being a part of our morning routine, coffee has become engrained in our social and corporate lives. "Especially when you're working, it's nice to have something to sip on, nurse it," Grave pointed out. "It's the experience too; it's not purely just the caffeine."

It's absolutely part of our corporate culture as well, said Broxterman. "You're at a business meeting, what do they serve? They're serving coffee as a beverage. It's often a way to show signs of welcoming: 'Can I grab you a cup of coffee?' Or a coffee break with a colleague ... it's a social beverage we're used to sharing with others."

So before you head to the Tim's drive-thru in the morning, you may want to think about the impact it has on your daily life and, at the very least, figure out how much caffeine you are actually consuming.