Coffee drinking contest....how much is possible?

The people who died of this must be freaks or incredibly skinny, because the lethal dose of caffeine is about 80-100 cups in the space of 4 hours. You aren't going to die unless you have a pre-existing condition.

trollism wrote:

Caffeine is a diuretic.

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drunk runner wrote:

http://www.nescafe.com/NR/rdonlyres/7C4EF411-6953-41A0-9DA9-FE0785F1980A/86589/CoffeeOctober07Exercise1.pdf

You notice the word 'moderation'?

Not sure a coffee drinking competition is 'moderation'.

Have any of you ever talked to Brad Hudson in person? That's your answer.

potentially worried wrote:

Are there serious health risks of consuming this much caffeine?

this is a bad idea. your body may have induced tolerance to a certain level of caffiene (as is seen in alcoholics who can drink more beer than is considered the lethal dose). while coffee does contain water along with the caffeine, offsetting some of the diuretic effects, caffeine in the quantities you are preparing for may not be safe.

I think the worst part of this is the styrofoam cups. Invest in a reusable mug! For the purposes of the competition, I hope you at least reuse the styrofoam cups each time!

Death is highly unlikely, but I know a couple of guys who once had an espresso shot contest, and one of them started having nose bleeds after 20 shots.

Caffeine will one day be thought of along the same lines as nicotine. It's really not something to be played around with, but most people don't understand that yet. It's certainly less dangerous than cocaine, but it's highly addictive and bad for the mind.

A potential bad effect might be hyponatremia. Imagine drinking that much water without having anything to eat. The hyponatremia combined with the increased HR might be dangerous.

anEconomist wrote:

I'm pretty sure that the person you're thinking about was the writer Honore de Balzac--not an early 20th century guy, but a mid-19th century guy. I've heard that he composed his novel after drinking several dozen cups of coffee.

If it was early 20th C., then it was Proust(not "some guy"), who believed it warded off his asthmatic symptoms.

I liked your story ,very well said,,

OP, unless you are already accustomed to drinking large amounts of coffee, this is an incredibly ill-advised idea. No one can "easily" go 35-40 cups, unless it's severely diluted. One or all of you will likely suffer repercussions, possibly serious, if you push through.

According to wikipedia the mean lethal dose of caffeine is equivalent to around 80-100 cups of coffee. But I don't know what they assume about the strength of the coffee.

Sagarin wrote:

OP, unless you are already accustomed to drinking large amounts of coffee, this is an incredibly ill-advised idea. No one can "easily" go 35-40 cups, unless it's severely diluted. One or all of you will likely suffer repercussions, possibly serious, if you push through.

For someone that tries hard to sound smart, you look pretty dumb responding to a four year old post.

please dont squeeze the garmin wrote:

Those super dark French and Italian roasts are actually weaker in caffeine (as well as in the inherent flavor of the coffee bean) than lighter roasts.

I'm not saying they don't brew their coffee and/or espresso strong (as in a concentrated final product), just making the tangential point that the dark roasts people tend to think of as "strong", aren't, caffeine-wise, compared to beans less burnt.

I applaud you, for one of the rare truths in online caffeine discussions!

the BRObius strip wrote:

For someone that tries hard to sound smart, you look pretty dumb responding to a four year old post.

I don't try to "sound smart," but, alas, you are correct. Nonetheless, I wonder whatever happened to OP and his challengers?

Even as I got trolled, my advice is solid....

The coffee in early 20th century Paris probably wasn't half as strong as what you can order today in your local coffee shop. The preparation methods were different, and the quality was much worse.

This thread is really really old, but there's some shocking advice/bad use of science here.

A coffee drinking contest is a terrible idea.

People have said that the lethal dose of coffee is 80 cups. So therefore it's safe as long as you don't go beyond this, right? Well if we assume that to be true, then...

No! A 'lethal dose' is the dose that kills 50% of people. By 80 cups, 50% of people will be dead.

And it's not black and white. By 80 cups 50% of people have done so much damage to their bodies that they will die, despite medical intervention. Probably most of the rest of them will require a stay in intensive care.

And then there's the argument that it's safe as long as you don't have an undiagnosed heart condition.

Well, 25% of people have the most common one, an Atrial Septal Defect. This, admittedly, is unlikely to cause a problem with caffeine. But 'undiagnosed heart conditions' are actually much more common than most people think.