Coffee: Decaffeinated

From its earliest history, there were health concerns regarding coffee and its effects. In 1511 the Arab governor of Mecca closed the coffeehouses, partly on medical advice that, like wine, coffee contained a harmful drug. In 1679 a French doctor asserted in a pamphlet that coffee produced “general exhaustion, paralysis, and impotence” (Pendergrast, 2010, p. 8).

Caffeine was first isolated from green coffee beans in 1820 and proved to consist of three methyl groups around a xanthine molecule; among other things, it mimics the neurotransmitter adenosine, which aids sleep. When a caffeine molecule gets to a receptor first, it prevents adenosine from doing its job, thus keeping people awake longer. Caffeine affects some people more than others, and excessive coffee consumption can lead to lack of sleep and irritability, which explains the appeal of decaffeinated coffee.