“Too Much Blood in Your Caffeine Stream” BU Coffee Habits
During the last few weeks of the semester, students consume coffee more frequently to complete end of the year assignments and study for final exams. Many students are unaware that there are several benefits as well as risks to drinking coffee.
While finals week is just days away at Bloomsburg University, the amount of work piled upon students isn’t the only thing that’s increasing. It’s never a coincidence to see teachers giving students multiple assignments, all scheduled to be due before finals end and summer break begins. Because the work increases so significantly, students need the time to complete everything on deadline. The last several weeks result to students seeking to find space in an over-crowded library as well as pulling all-nighters to ensure completion of their assignments given. More students are also consuming caffeinated beverages, coffee especially, more frequently this time of year than they have throughout the entire semester.
The campus here at Bloomsburg University alone has multiple vicinities to pick up a cup of coffee or other type of caffeinated beverage. There are two Java City locations, a Starbucks located next to the Andruss Library, and also a Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 11 . Among these places, students seem to distinguish Starbucks as the hot spot when looking for a caffeine fix.
Alexa Muller, a twenty-year old early childhood education junior at BU mentions how her coffee habits increase when the end of the semester emerges, “I don’t usually consider myself a frequent coffee drinker. I will get a latte from Starbucks every now and then, but during the last two weeks of school I see myself spending the rest of my flex dollars on caffeine to keep me up later to finish my work.”
Melanie Hall, a nineteen-year-old BU sophomore exercise science major diagnosed herself with a controllable coffee addiction, “I drink coffee regularly, so drinking coffee the last week or two of the semester doesn’t have an extreme change with my coffee habits. The people at Dunkin Donuts probably know my face because I’m there sometimes twice a day.”
“There definitely is an increase of students coming to Starbucks,” says Starbucks manager, Mark Shannon. “It’s so obvious you can tell more people come to get coffee towards the last weeks of the semester. During the semester there are peaks in between classes that get really busy, but this time of year, we’re constantly busy.”
Many BU students are also unaware of the several benefits and risks of consuming coffee on a recurrent basis, not just during those “hell weeks.”
According to NutritionNow, there are more benefits of consuming coffee than just increasing a person’s alertness and waking them up that are more apparent in the remote future.
Some of the long-term benefits are:
- a reduced risk of:
- Type II Diabetes
- Liver cancer
- Parkinson’s
- Depression (in women)
- A healthier lifestyle
Students drink coffee for the immediate benefits such as:
- Ability to proofread better
- Increased alertness and cognitive performance
- Antioxidants
Health risks of consuming coffee are:
- Caffeine dependency
- Dehydration
- Sleeplessness
- An increase risk of:
- Cholesterol
- Blood Pressure
There are several tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle when consuming coffee regularly.
Tip #1 Moderation is the key! Monitor when the coffee is consumed. consider drinking coffee in the morning because drinking it late at night can cause sleeplessness.
Tip #2 Drink a glass of water per cup of coffee consumed. Coffee is a mild diuretic therefore it causes dehydration.
There are many more tips about the risks and benefits of consuming coffee, just search the Internet.
