Who gets through their day caffeine free?

Here's some research:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2010/7051.html
The stimulatory effects of caffeine may be nothing more than an illusion according to new research, which shows there is no real benefit to be gained from the habitual morning cup of coffee.
Tests on 379 individuals who abstained from caffeine for 16 hours before being given either caffeine or a placebo and then tested for a range of responses showed little variance in levels of alertness.

The study, published online in the journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, reports that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal. And given the increased propensity to anxiety and raised blood pressure induced by caffeine consumption, there is no net benefit to be gained.

Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Experimental Psychology and one of the lead authors of the study, said: “Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine - although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible.”

Approximately half of the participants were non/low caffeine consumers and the other half were medium/high caffeine consumers. All were asked to rate their personal levels of anxiety, alertness and headache before and after being given either the caffeine or the placebo. They were also asked to carry out a series of computer tasks to test for their levels of memory, attentiveness and vigilance.

The medium/high caffeine consumers who received the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine. However, their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to 'normal'.

The authors also found that the genetic predisposition to anxiety did not deter coffee drinking. In fact, people with the gene variant associated with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without the variant, suggesting that a mild increase in anxiety may be a part of the pleasant buzz caused by caffeine.
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Me. Never drank coffee in my near 23 year existence, used to drink tea when I was a baby apparently, I can't remember but I don't like the taste of it now so never drank that either. I've obviously drank red bull, lucozade etc but never in the mind set of 'oh my god I need energy' or to 'wake me up' type thing.
 
I don't take any caffeine. This includes coffee, tea, energy drink or cola type drink. I have accidentally took some in painkillers once, didn't feel the extra energy, but did feel the come-down :eek:. Bad stuff.
 
I never drank coffee until I started my job here last year. During the days I don't get much sleep (or when I'm doing first line) I'll get coffee from the Costa just down the corridor, or a can of Red Bull/Relentless/Monster from one of the vending machines nearby. I make it through most days without any caffeine intake (managed about 18 years without it), but now I've started consuming a lot more.
 
yerp, very rarely have tea. I eat well, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep. I can be a bit lethargic getting going some days but aren't we all?
 
I very rarely consume much caffeine, although if I've had a particularly poor nights sleep I might have a cup of tea when I get into the office which definately perks me up, however that could be a result of the teaspoon of sugar I have with it :)
 
I'm not a energy drink drinker, I drink coffee and tea.

I never used to drink either and I do so now for the taste more than anything. I don't make them strong and I only have 1 sugar usually in the form of a sweetener tablet, I don't feel any different after drinking them.

I could stop and I'd feel the same, infact I'd feel better I think as I do get a bit irritable and restless at certain times of day.
 
I try not to drink coffee on a "regular" daily basis any more. If I do (and I have plenty of times in the past) then I feel that I simply develop a tolerance for it, and the desired effect goes away (a la the research linked by clv101 in post #41).

Instead I try to restrain coffee drinking to when I'm particularly tired; if I feel myself "sagging" particularly in an afternoon, or in those mornings where I've only managed around 2hrs sleep. Using caffeine in this way I always feel a strong boost from it. Using it on a regular daily basis it becomes little more than a crux, and doesn't have nearly the same effect on me.
 
I have a coffee nearly every working day.

Normal working day I can see 5+. :/

Trying to cut down, so its normally just the one first thing.
 
Never crosses my mind, dont think it works so well on me, energy drinks always made me more sleepy, hard as it is too believe. Back at uni 2 of my housemates would drink loads, stay up all night and go to exam. id have a few and just fall asleep!

Only drink water, fruit juice, milk
 
I think very little is actually known about the long term side effects to health of drinking energy drinks.

Imo in the near future more will be known (possibly kept under wraps to avoid panic and secret recipe changes) and we'll all be wondering how these drinks ever made it to market.
 
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