Goodbye to Caffeine Awareness Month

If you didn’t notice, March was dubbed National Caffeine Awareness Month.  I didn’t note it here, and that omission was intentional.  I’m glad it’s April now.

Why?  When I first heard that March was National Caffeine Awareness Month, I was intrigued and interested, but I slowly became disillusioned.  Yes, caffeine can cause problems if it’s overdone, and from what I understand when you read news stories on the matter, lots of people overdo it.   And, yes, caffeine is a drug, and lots of people are overdosing on it daily instead of getting a good night’s sleep, and all of that can have negative effects on your body and your life.

But what I found was that when I visited the National Caffeine Awareness website, all they had to say was negative.  Very negative.  And they’ve convinced governors and mayors to declare the evils of caffeine publicly through official proclamations and to officially call their citizens to please step away from the caffeine.

But not everything about caffeine is negative.  Caffeine does have its advantages when used in moderation, and it has even been shown to have health benefits when used in moderation.  Even better, some of the delivery methods for caffeine — notably coffee and tea — have added health benefits, such as antioxidants, and those who study such things are finding out more and more good things.

So, why all the negativity?  Why not challenge people to use caffeine with moderation instead?  Why connect caffeine with hard drugs like cocaine and try to associate overuse of caffeine with alcoholism by coining the term “caffeineism”?

I found this blog post about the monthly event, and they found some interesting information on the Caffeine Awareness site.  When you ran through the caffeine awareness quiz on the site, the last page, after pages of quiz questions telling you the horrors of caffeine, encouraged you to try a soy-based “coffee” drink (effectively they roast soy beans to dark brown and call it “soy coffee”) at SoyCoffee.com.  What?!?!  It was the only outright plug on the whole site, so it at least appears that the reason they’re so down on caffeine is to convince you to buy soy coffee.  This makes me think this whole Caffeine Awareness Month is all a sham.  Another blog post a few years back leads me to the same conclusion, claiming that the caffeine awareness group is simply a front, and that the soy coffee product is actually owned by the head of the caffeine awareness group.

So, goodbye, National Coffee Awareness Month.  I would like to say this is the last we’ll see of you, but I’m guessing the sheep will keep following next year and for years to come without asking who’s really behind this profit-making scheme.