The student news site of Hawthorne High School.

The Clarion

The student news site of Hawthorne High School.

The Clarion

The student news site of Hawthorne High School.

The Clarion

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Hidden Caffeine Got You Jittery?

Where is your caffeine hiding? Sure, you know that caffeine is a substance found in the coffee you chug in the morning to wake up and in the cola that can make kids hyper. But these aren’t the only sources of caffeine; you may be surprised to find out where other sources are hidden.

Take, for example, decaf coffee. The whole point of drinking decaf is to not deal with caffeine’s effect on your body. And yet, Sarah Klein, a reporter for Health.com, reported that a study done by Consumer Reports shows decaf coffee still contains caffeine. Admittedly, the amount is not as much as regular coffee, but if you drink decaf frequently, say hello to midnight jitters.

Now, who here loves a quick beef jerky snack? You might not love it so much (or you might love it even more) once you know that versions of beef jerky actually have enough caffeine in them to rival a can of Red Bull, as Klein noted in her article.

On the topic of quick snack, all ye good old sunflower seed munchers beware. If you’re looking for a new brand to munch on, take care before selecting; otherwise, you might get an unexpected energy burst in the form of SumSeeds Sunflower Seeds. According to Klein, this company offers an alternative to energy drinks by infusing their seeds with caffeine. The amount of caffeine per serving? Almost the same as four cans of Coke!

Another way you might get caffeine unintentionally is in taking diet pills. Studies done by various labs, including Consumer Labs, have found that certain diet pills are overloaded with caffeine that isn’t advertised on the ingredients label. The caffeine in these pills is double, sometimes triple, the caffeine in a regular cup of coffee, as found by Rachael Rettner, reporter for MyHealthNewsDaily.com.

So, the lesson here is simple: if you can’t sleep at night, you shouldn’t blame really loud sounds in the next room. It might just be the caffeine in your diet that you didn’t even know was there.