National Coffee Day: Do You Know What's in Your Joe?

Cute dogs in coffee cup. (istockphoto)

(CBS) It's National Coffee Day and Americans are scrambling to grab their free cup of coffee (more on that in a minute). But not all coffee is created equally and before you double down on a double latte, it's good to know the health effects, good and bad, of coffee's active ingredient - caffeine.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the amount of caffeine in different brands of coffee differs dramatically. For example, a 16-ounce Dunkin Donuts brewed coffee can have anywhere from two to four times as much caffeine as a Starbucks espresso. Clearly, the bigger cup makes a big difference.

Here's a short list of caffeine content:

• Dunkin' Donuts, brewed, 16 oz (480 mL) 143-206
• Generic brewed, 8 oz (240 mL) 95-200
• Generic brewed, decaffeinated, 8 oz (240 mL) 2-12
• Generic instant, 8 oz (240 mL) 27-173
• Generic instant, decaffeinated, 8 oz (240 mL) 2-12
• Starbucks Espresso, 1 oz (30 mL) 58-75
• Starbucks Vanilla Latte, 16 oz (480 mL) 150

Whether you go big or small, it's good to know what effect caffeine is having on your body.

For those with anxiety, insomnia and a bad belly, caffeine isn't going to help. In fact, the Mayo Clinic warns that heavy caffeine consumption - more than six cups a day - can cause all kinds of ugly symptoms such as irregular heartbeat, muscle tremors, headaches, and of course inability to sleep and irritability.

There are also certain medications that don't mix well with caffeine including common antibiotics like ciprofloxacin (Cipro) and norfloxacin (Noroxin). Theophylline, a drug that helps with bronchial problems, also doesn't mix well, neither does the banned herbal supplement ephedra. Ask your doctor for a full list.

But the news on caffeine isn't all bad. In fact, much of it is very good.

Researchers have debunked the long held belief that caffeine contributes to heart attacks and cancer. It doesn't.

And according to the Mayo Clinic, coffee may actually help a laundry list of disorders including type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, asthma and even gallstones.

So as long as your hands aren't shaking, drink up America. Enjoy your National Coffee Day. As for those free coffees? Here's a list.

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[Goodcoffeemachine]

Of course you also can ignore all of this and simply go for a great coffee machine and pretend... ;-) http://goodcoffeemachine.com/jura/jura-ena-9-one-touch-review/ A little bit off-topic,but worth it!

[ED_22brew]

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[swag]

Evergreen news pieces like this end up getting regurgitated every month.

[gbreadman]

Not meaning to sound psychedelic, but sometimes there are rainbows in the coffee...and it's not the "Gulf Oil Coffee" brand.

What I'd like to know is what chemicals these "rainbows" are made of. Pesticides banned in the US, but not in other countries? Herbicides? I can't believe that a normal component of coffee looks like crude oil floating on top. Different water, different machine, same brand coffee...same rainbow floating on the water. Disgusting.

[Nate650]

:) Which brand of coffee is this?

[Cattzen]

Iiiiiii cccccan qqqquit ccccoffffeeeee any time....

[chriscombs]

Are you sponsored by Starbucks? You're making them look like angels by comparing their espresso to Dunkin's drip.

All espresso shots have less caffeine than a drip coffee, and the latte you mention above contains espresso.

According to the NIH, a 16oz Starbucks drip has **372 MG** of caffeine:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2603066/

[Henri_Rochard]

Personally, I like my Starbucks as a 'shot in the dark', i.e., brewed coffee with a shot of espresso.

[displeased]

Hmmmm, 'shot in the dark' sounds interesting.

[drsammdphd]

Are you kidding me? Using the comparison of a 16 ounce, drip-brewed coffee to a 1 ounce espresso shot? Do you understand the basics of mathematics? Espresso has more caffeine per ounce than brewed coffee. The reason a 16 ounce Dunkin' Donuts coffee has more caffeine is because it's 16 OUNCES OF COFFEE. Multiply the 50 mg/ounce in a 1 ounce espresso times 16 and you get 800mg caffeine. That's about 4 times as much as the Dunkin' Donuts. Surprised? You shouldn't be. It's basic bath.

Good lord - - I knew that science reporting by the "mass media" was of poor quality, but this is absurd.

[rf35]

Jeez Clean, it takes a hardcore right wingnut to find a way to use an article on coffee to bash the POTUS. I'm thinking this is beyond simple obsession and may indicate a dangerous condition.

[anihiel1]

This claim is deceptive and misleading in that they use different quantities for the measurement of a dilution in liquid. You cannot compare the caffeine in a 16-ounce cup to the caffeine in a 1-ounce cup and say the 16-ounce cup has more... of course it does, its a bigger cup!!! You would need to compare 16 ounces of Dunkin Donuts to 16 ounces of Starbucks Expresso- the result is a no brainer, expresso has way more caffeine at 928-1200ml. Even 16-ounces of the Generic Brewed comes in higher at 190-200ml. I think the writer failed basic science class...

[thinkmoreoften]

What a crappy article. This must have taken at least...4 minutes to write.

[displeased]

I like coffee occasionally, but my addiction is Red Bull. In fact, I'm drinking one right now!

[ED_22brew]

I tried plenty energy drinks, but I heard that xowii was a healthy energy drink I would like to try it.