Pregnant women need to be careful. Recent study has issued a warning that pregnant women should reduce their caffiene consumption to two cups of coffee a day if they are avid coffee drinkers. Otherwise they stand at risk of giving birth to under weight babies.
Current recommended caffeine limit of 300 mg a day to 200 mg, the equivalent of two average-sized mugs of instant or two ups of brewed coffee a day.
It has also identified other products containing caffeine that count towards the 200 mg total. The limit is equivalent to four cups of tea, five cans of cola, three energy drinks or five bars of chocolate.
Coffee shops have higher levels of caffeine in their drinks.
A small café latte in in a cofee shop like Starbucks contains 240 mg of caffeine, meaning a pregnant woman would exceed the recommended daily caffeine intake inn one drink. SOme of the new energy drinks contain even more.
The research was conducted in Leicester and Leeds universities and the researchers monitored the daily caffeine intake of 2,500 pregnant women using questionnaires. They compared this with the birth weight of the baby, taking into account the weight and ethnic background of the mother.
The research has been published in the British Medial Journal recently.
Source: TOI
