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Summary: The improvement of exercise performance in sports not only involves the enhancement of physical strength, but also includes the development of psychological and cognitive functions. There is an increasing body of evidence to show that physical exercise is a powerful way to improve a number of aspects of cognition and brain function at the systemic and behavioral levels. Yet, several questions remain: What type of exercise program is optimal for improving cognitive functions? What are the real effects of certain innovative exercise protocols on the relationship between behavior and the brain? To what extent do ergogenic aids boost cognitive function? How efficient are neuromodulation techniques in relation to behavioral performance? The answers to these questions likely require multidisciplinary insights not only from physiologists and sports scientists, but also from neuroscientists and psychologists. The manuscripts published (16 research papers and one perspective article from various academic fields) in this Special Issue Book "Exercise: A Gate That Primes the Brain to Perform" bring together current knowledge and novel directions in human exercise-cognition research dealing with performance. This book showcases the various relationships between cognitive function, brain activity, and behavioral performance with applications in sports and exercise science.

The instant New York Times bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year“Expert storytelling... [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways.” —New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants—and the equally powerful taboos.Of all the things humans rely on plants for—sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber—surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a “drug”? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs—opium, caffeine, and mescaline—and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings? In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively—as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.

Caffeinated and Cocoa Based Beverages, Volume Eight in The Science of Beverages series, covers one of the hottest topics in the current beverage industry. This practical reference takes a broad and multidisciplinary approach on the production, processing, and engineering approaches to caffeinated drinks, highlighting their biological impact and health-related interference. The book presents evidence-based examples of the benefits of caffeinated and cocoa-based beverages and analyzes the latest trends in the industry that are essential for researchers in various fields of food and beverage development, including coverage of pharmaceuticals and the biomedical fields. Presents both functional and medicinal perspectives in beverage production Provides potential solutions for sustainable coffee and cocoa industry Includes novel research applications to foster research and product development

This book addresses research advances on caffeic acid, a naturally occurring hydroxycinnamic acid with various biological and pharmacological properties. Some of the topics discusses in this book include the derivatives of caffeic acid; the role it plays in winemaking; the comprehensive understanding of anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects of coffe intake via nutrigenomics; the antimicrobial properties; and other useful properties of caffeic acid.

Caffeine is a natural substance that is present in over 60 plant species. Alternative names include theine, guaranine and mateine. It is consumed by humans in the form of beverages such as coffee, tea, chocolate and soft drinks. Coffee was first discovered in Arabia during the 9th century was originally cultivated in Ethiopia. Tea was first drunk in China and cacao was discovered in South America. During the 15th century, coffee became popular all over the world. The most common species of coffee are Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee) and Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee), which respectively account for 80-90% and 10-20% of worldwide production. Coffee is the product which contains the highest and most variable quantity of caffeine in the human diet. This book discusses more about the consumption of caffeine, the side effects it may have on the human body, and its impact of an individual's performance and mood once consumed.

Caffeine is known to stimulate the central nervous system but what other functions does it have? This book covers the latest scientific knowledge in a uniquely structured format and is specifically designed to link chemistry with health and nutrition to provide a broad, appealing book. Coverage begins with caffeine in relation to nutrition focussing on beverages, then concentrates on chemistry, crystal structures of complexes in caffeine and biochemistry. In the analysis chapters, assays are conducted by LC-MS, capillary electrophoresis, automated flow methods and immunoassay methods. The effects of caffeine on the brain, cognitive performance, sleep, oxidative damage, exercise and pulmonary function are all considered in the closing section of the book. Delivering high quality information, this book will be of benefit to anyone researching this area of health and nutritional science. It will bridge scientific disciplines so that the information is more meaningful and applicable to health in general. Part of a series of books, it is specifically designed for chemists, analytical scientists, forensic scientists, food scientists, dieticians and health care workers, nutritionists, toxicologists and research academics. Due to its interdisciplinary nature it could also be suitable for lecturers and teachers in food and nutritional sciences and as a college or university library reference guide.

VERY SHORT LIST chose A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola for the #1 Spot on their November 16 Food E-mailA Brain Pickings Favorite Food Book of 2012 and one of their Best Graphic Novels & Graphic Nonfiction of 2012Featured in Columbia College Today's Bookshelf section'A straight forward and accessible text…Cortés'highly detailed paintings call up concomitant issues and famous faces as well…In dense passages describing political payments between corporate interests and federal narcotics officials, the reproduction–in Cortés'deft watercolors–of memos, official letters, and newspaper articles serves as an indictment of the rule of law with loopholes for the profit minded. This is an excellent introduction to the complexities of'American interests,'the realities of corrupt rationale invoked in the pursuit of world health, and the need to take a longer view than the immediate to see how substance and substance abuse both share space and operate on different planes. Right and wrong are not black and white but form a gray of varying shades.'--Library Journal“If you hate the War on Drugs, Ricardo Cortés should be one of your favorite illustrators.”--Vice“Astonishingly addictive and intoxicatingly revelatory,...Coffee, Coca & Cola offers an impressively open-minded history lesson and an incredible look at the dark underbelly of American Capitalism... A stunning, hard cover coffee-table book for concerned adults, this captivating chronicle is a true treasure.”--Comics Review (UK)“This fascinating and beautifully illustrated piece of visual journalism... is as thoroughly researched and absorbingly narrated as it is charmingly illustrated.”--Brain Pickings'Any food and culinary history holding will find this a lively survey!'--The Midwest Book ReviewA Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola is an illustrated book disclosing new research in the coca leaf trade conducted by The Coca-Cola Company. 2011 marked the 125th anniversary of its iconic beverage, and the fiftieth anniversary of the international drug control treaty that allows Coca-Cola exclusive access to the coca plant. Most people are familiar with tales of cocaine being an early ingredient of'Coke'tonic; it's an era the company makes every effort to bury. Yet coca leaf, the source of cocaine which has been banned in the U.S. since 1914, has been part of Coca-Cola's secret formula for over one hundred years.This is a history that spans from cocaine factories in Peru, to secret experiments at the University of Hawaii, to the personal files of U.S. Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger (infamous for his'Reefer Madness'campaign against marijuana, lesser known as a long-time collaborator of The Coca-Cola Company).A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola tells how one of the biggest companies in the world bypasses an international ban on coca. The book also explores histories of three of the most consumed substances on earth, revealing connections between seemingly disparate icons of modern culture: caffeine, cocaine, and Coca-Cola.Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink on earth, and soft drinks are the number one food consumed in the American diet. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance. Cocaine... well, people seem to like reading about cocaine. An illustrated chronicle that will appeal to fans of food and drink histories (e.g., Mark Kurlansky's Salt and Cod; Mark Pendergrast's For God, Country & Coca-Cola), graphic novel enthusiasts, and people interested in drug prohibition and international narcopolitics, the book follows in the footsteps of successful pop-history books such as Michael Polla

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Caffeine is the world's most popular drug! Almost all of us start our day with a jolt of caffeine from coffee, tea or cola. And many of us crave chocolate when we're stressed or depressed. Without it we're lethargic, head-achy and miserable. Why? Why do we crave caffeine? How much do we really know about our number one drug of choice? Here is the first natural, cultural, and artistic history of our favorite mood enhancer--how it was discovered, its early uses, and the unexpected parts it has played in medicine, religion, painting, poetry, learning, and love. Weinberg and Bealer tell an intriguing story of a remarkable substance that has figured prominently in the exchanges of trade and intelligence among nations and whose most common sources, coffee, tea, and chocolate, have been both promoted as productive of health and creativity and banned as corrupters of the body and mind or subverters of social order. Some Highlights From the World of Caffeine Balzac's addiction to caffeine drove him to eat coffee, as some schizophrenic patients are observed to do today, and may have killed him Mary Tuke breaks the male monopoly on tea in England in 1725 The ways caffeine functions as a smart pill Goethe's responsibility for the discovery of caffeine Did a mini Ice Age help bring coffee, tea and chocolate to popularity in Europe? What is the mystery of coffee's origin? As good as gold: the stories of how caffeine, in its various forms, was used as cash in China, Africa, Central America and Egypt What does the civet cat have to do with the most costly coffee on earth today? The World of Caffeine is a captivating tale of art and society -- from India to Balzac to cybercafes -- and the ultimate caffeine resource.

Caffeine-found in tea, coffee, mate, cola beverages, cocoa, and chocolate products-is an integral part of the diet of many people. Caffeine answers questions for a broad range of readers interested in the effects beverages and foods containing this dietary methylxanthine have on human health, nutrition, and physiological functioning. The composition, processing, consumption, health effects, and epidemiological correlations of caffeine are examined in detail. It is often said that too much caffeine is'bad for you.'How much is too much? Get the facts on consumption of caffeine-containing products with this authoritative text. Chapters 1 and 2 offer an introductory, concise overview of the chemistry and analysis of methylxanthines. In Chapters 3 through 8, each natural product-tea, coffee, mate, and cocoa and chocolate products-is described in terms of botany, cultivation, processing, composition, and consumption patterns. Consumption of caffeine is also examined in detail in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 provides an easy-to-read overview of the basic physiology and biochemistry of caffeine. The ergogenic, cognitive, and emotional effects of caffeine are discussed in Chapters 11 and 12. Chapters 13 through 16 deal with specific health effects-serum cholesterol, cancer and fibrocystic breast disease, calcium and bone health, and human reproduction. For physicians, nutritionists, other health professionals, food scientists, and everyone interested in the effects of caffeine on the human body, Caffeine is a convenient, single-source reference.

Often, people use nicotine, caffeine, and some level of alcohol in varying combinations at different times of the day in order to optimize their functioning and feelings of well-being, whether at work, in leisure time, or in a social context. However, until now, studies on the effects of this everyday practice have been diverse, widespread, and insufficiently summarized. Recently developed methods to study the effects in more detail have received little attention, especially among a nonscientific readership. Nicotine, Caffeine and Social Drinking focuses readers'attention on the effects of normal, socially accepted psychoactive substances on cognitive performance and on the brain. Divided into three sections, this book studies each substance individually before examining the effects of their combined usage.