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Just in Time For Finals Week, a New Study Explains How Much Coffee You Can Safely Have Per Day

A new ~scientific study~ just blessed us all with the news that 400mg—or about four eight-ounce cups—of caffeine per day won’t do anything harmful to healthy adults, BuzzFeed News reports. I personally try not to drink coffee, but it’s #FINALS!!!! and I’m currently sipping on an iced latte (can’t you tell?), so I’m happy to hear of this.

This was the first comprehensive study since 2003 to review all the extant other studies on the subject of caffeine’s health effects.

According to the study, consuming less than or equal to 400mg of caffeine shouldn’t lead to any negative health effects. These effects include problems relating to “cardiovascular effects, behavioral effects, reproductive and developmental effects, acute effects, or bone status.” Coffee to celebrate, anyone?

The study states that unhealthy persons or persons with preexisting conditions that might predispose them to bad caffeine reactions should not adhere to the 4-cups-a-day-is-fine recommendation. It does say, however, that pregnant women can feel comfortable having up to 300mg of caffeine a day!

BuzzFeed even did us all the wonderful service of providing caffeine info for a few common beverages, so that we can all measure out the maximum healthy amount we can consume! You can have several Lipton Black Teas (55mg each), a little less than two 5-Hour Energys (215mg each) and…one Starbucks venti Pike Place coffee (410mg). Okay…so maybe this isn’t the best news for finals season, but at least now we know! 

I once heard that an apple will give you the same amount of energy as a morning cup of coffee. This seems like a lie, but can I get a study on that? Anything to distract me from paper writing. 

Margeaux Biché

Columbia Barnard

Margeaux BichĂ© is a current senior at Barnard College living in New York City. During her freshman year, she studied at the George Washington University in D.C., where she wrote for The GW Hatchet. She is a Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies major and is passionate about social justice. While she does not know exactly where she'll take her degree, she hopes she can contribute to the advancement of marginalized peoples through legal and/or activist work. Chocolate covered pretzels are her favorite food, Rihanna is her favorite musician and her go-to talent is her ability to wiggle her ears. Margeaux loves dogs, hiking and her hometown basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, all of which are oft-featured on her Instagram account. Twitter | LinkedIn