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Transcript of “Small caffeine doses for small people (kids)”
Elves, like human children are small containers. Pouring a cup of coffee or a can of coke, into a small container magnifies the effect, leaving BIG results
The rush is on at the North Pole, Santa and his team of elves are frantically putting the finishing touches to this year’s Christmas.
The final batch of toys has been assembled, but now each gift needs to be wrapped and labelled correctly, so it is delivered to the child for which it was intended.
The elves are exhausted
This year has been a particularly challenging year. Global warming has meant that the North Pole community has had to contend with several SERIOUS water leaks. Plus, funding is down, forcing Santa and the elves, to do more with less, MUCH MORE, with 7 billion plus people on the planet, the number of good boys and girls, has grown again this year. Even with outsourcing the job to factories in China and India, it is hard to produce sufficient toys for all the good boys and girls.
Both Father Christmas and the elves are also another year older, so keeping up with the pace is a challenge. The elves get up go, has got up and left.
They tired and grumpy….
The North Pole needs a lift
At regular intervals, the North Pole work force downs ribbons and scissors to enjoy a “caffeine break”. Most of the elves sip a steaming cup of coffee, although some have been known to energize on cola.
Santa Claus keeps an eye on the elves energy drink consumption, because he knows too much caffeine in such tiny bodies, can take his work force from being bored and tired, to freaked out zombies unable to sit still long enough to find the end of the sticky tape.
Caffeine and little bodies
Elves, like human children are small “containers”.
Pouring the entire cup of coffee or a can of coke, into a small container, can produce BIG results.
The best way understand what is happening, is to imagine you’re filling up two different sized containers. The big one is a 10 litre drum, the little one is a 1 litre drum.
You decide to put some green dye into the two containers.
You put the same amount of green dye in each container. The dye is not as green in the big container, because it has been diluted in 10 litres of water, in the 1 litre container the colour is stronger, because it has only mixed with 1 litre of water.
The small “container” effect
Now instead of using dye, we use caffeine, a cup of coffee or a can of coke.
When you give a cup of coffee to a smaller person, it mixes in a smaller volume, so the resulting concentration of caffeine is much higher, and when a very large person drinks exactly the same cup of coffee, the large person has a bigger volume of water in their body, so the caffeine is diluted.
Think of it as the “small” container effect…..
Elf sized doses of caffeine
This is the reason why the elves are never allowed to drink out of Santa’s coffee cup or wolf down a full can of coke, so that sanity prevails in Santa’s workshop. Santa restricts their caffeine intake to 60 – 80 mg of caffeine a day i.e. the equivalent of 1 cup of coffee or 1 can of coke, ALL DAY !
Santa also makes sure that his little helpers don’t drink caffeine towards the end of the day. Caffeine tends to stick around for a little longer in little people, so it is important that the elves don’t end up being wired when it is time for bed.
Moms protect your little helpers
A little caffeine is not the big health hazard that it is often proclaimed to be. It improves your mood, productivity and energizes your muscles, so you can go further for longer plus it protects you from diabetes.
BUT….you have to get the dose right, and the right dose depends on you, your age, your size, your biology.
Too much hypes you up and interferes with your sleep.
Shhhhhh
The sleigh is loaded and the elves are fast asleep – ready for the big day.
MERRY CHRISTMAS from the BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY team.
Further reading
Caffeine makes you genuinely smarter
Everyone knows caffeine keeps you going – which helps you focus for longer and thus makes you smarter, but caffeine is also helping you to remember
Java Junkies. The truth about caffeine addiction
The use of caffeine is self-regulating – when you start to swing from the ceiling, you’ve had one cup too many, so STOP !
How caffeine keeps you going and going
The accumulation of adenosine tells your brain it is time for a nap. Caffeine stops the adenosine message so your brain doesn’t realize you’re really tired.
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