By Caroline Eichelberger, Reporter
Junior Mike Hammermeister has drank a cup or two of coffee every day since eighth grade, but has never considered the health effects.
“It just helps give me an extra boost in the morning. I can tell if I don’t have a cup of coffee,” Hammermeister said.
Even if it’s only one cup, Dr. Sara Doss, of Loyola Medical Center, said she would not recommend that teens drink coffee.
“Not only can the caffeine cause bad side effects, but [the flavored coffee drinks] are pretty high in calories, and, if drank in excess, can contribute to obesity,” Doss said.
The stimulant effects are what draw teens to coffee, but there are many negative effects as well, such as being very hyper, jittery and having a short attention span. The heart can also race, or palpitate, which can be a problem if there have been previous heart conditions, Doss said.
“You could even pass out from the drugs—we count caffeine as a drug,” she said.
English teacher April Rames only needs one cup of coffee per day.
“I know that caffeine withdrawal can be really bad. It can speed up your heart, too. However, there have been studies showing that there can be benefits as well, if you drink one cup a day, versus, say, 12,” Rames said.
“Caffeine addictions can be a problem. My whole family became addicted at the same time, which was rather unpleasant,” Rames said.
Senior Megan Mendoza said that the caffeine doesn’t affect her at all.
“I started drinking coffee when I was seven, because my grandma drank it,” Mendoza said.
For French teacher and softball coach Andre Carriere, it wasn’t until later in his life that he began drinking coffee.
“I started drinking coffee when I started teaching, so about seven years ago,” Carriere said.
He said he was not worried about caffeine addiction among KHS teens.
“I don’t see many kids drinking coffee,” he said. The age at which someone begins ingesting caffeine matters, Doss said.
“We are now having kids younger and younger experimenting with coffee and pop. Obviously, older kids can handle caffeine more like adults, but the younger a kid is, the worse the effects will be,” she said.
Rames agreed that coffee is not the greatest thing for students to drink. However, she said there are “much worse things they could put into their body.”