Many people rely on a morning cup of coffee to wake them up for the day is whirling Soon it's midnight He's still wide awake How many sodas and energy drinks did he have He can't even remember INSIDE THE BODY Caffeine is a drug It's the most widely used drug in the world Most people think of it as being in coffee But it's 6
also in tea chocolate and energy drinks And it's in unexpected places It may be affecting people in ways they don't know about Alex didn't know how caffeine works inside his body It began with the first sip Alex took of that first energy drink His body started absorbing the caffeine in the drink It traveled through the membranes lining his mouth throat and stomach His liver broke down the caffeine In just 45 minutes 99 percent of the caffeine reached Alex's bloodstream DISCOVERING COFFEE An Ethiopian legend tells how coffee was discovered A goatherder named Kaldi was watching his goats The goats ate red berries from a bush The bush was the coffee shrub The goats became energetic Kaldi tried the fruit He became more energetic too He shared his story with others Coffee became popular The caffeine will stay in his body for four to six hours The caffeine is coursing through 7
Alex's blood The BEFORE THE blood carries it through COFFEE DRINK the body and brain Coffee is made from coffee beans But they aren't actually This makes Alex feel beans They are the pits inside awake and happy It coffee shrub berries People did not start making coffee also keeps him from beans into a hot drink until sleeping Because of the 1200s CE Before then the caffeine his body some people mixed the ripe berries with animal fat This ignores the usual made a kind of protein bar signals that make Sometimes they made the berries into a drink like wine him sleepy Later they roasted coffee beans They did this to see if THE the beans would become less AFTERMATH bitter Then they boiled the beans to make them softer The chemicals that The result was something like caffeine releases today's coffee into the body don't stay forever They will eventually leave the body during urination Then Alex's brain can do what it was supposed to do hours ago It makes Alex sleepy The chemicals that flooded 8
Alex's body with energy have left Now he feels tired This tiredness is called withdrawal Alex's alarm wakes him up the next morning He is already tired So when he gets to school he grabs a cup of coffee from the cafeteria The caffeine soon enters his bloodstream The whole process starts again EXPLORE ONLINE Chapter One talks about the effects of caffeine in the body The website below also gives information about caffeine and its effects Does the article support the descriptions of what happens to Alex when he drinks too much caffeine What additional information does it have KIDSHEALTH CAFFEINE abdocorelibrary.com/caffeine 9
