OK, cigarette and marijuana smoking causes lung cancer (both to users and to innocent bystanders). Alcohol can kill brain cells and can impair both judgment and motor skills. Hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin tend to induce paranoia and can lead to all sorts of socially destructive behavior.
Caffeine consumption, on the other hand, seems like a rather benign vice. The worst I’ve ever heard about caffeine was that it could lead to lower birth weight if a pregnant mother ingests too much of it, but even that was later disproved (I believe). Besides, I’m a guy, so I’m not too worried about giving birth to underweight children.
Are there any known dangers or risks associated with caffeine? I’m assuming that it’s possible to overdose on the stuff to deleterious effect, but I’m talking about moderate consumption here. I know that if you try to give up caffeine cold turkey you can suffer headaches for a short period of a week or so, but aside from the fact that this isn’t much danger, you can avoid this problem simply by continuing to ingest the caffeine.
In other words, are there any good arguments against caffeine in moderate doses?
Regards,
Barry
