Coffee - Do we drink too much?

How much coffee do you drink on a daily basis? At the end of the day, do you ever think back and start counting how many cups you've had since you woke up. I do, and sometimes the number I get to is a little bit ridiculous.

Let's look at my schedule on an average day. I generally wake up bright and early (dark and early during winter) in the morning, to try to exercise for a bit or get some reading in before I start my day. I'd like to say that almost without exception, I put on a pot of coffee every single morning of the week, so by the time I've finished exercising I can have a nice warm cup to help pick me up in case my eyes haven't fully woken yet.

Now, we probably all know our coffee makers fairly well. I have a tiny red Kitchen Aid coffee maker that claims it can brew four cups, but with the size of my mugs it's much more like two and a bit. So, because I'm not one to waste good coffee, I tend to finish the pot every morning before leaving my apartment. By the time I hit the metro and then the bus, I'm usually wide awake and ready to roll.

However, my enjoyment of coffee doesn't end there. I always have a cup when I get in to the office, usually have one in the afternoon, just after lunch, and if I have a class that evening at the university, you can bet that I pick up a good cup of joe at the local Java U.

So, on an average day I consume anywhere from 4-6 cups of coffee. According to a caffeine chart that's around 600 milligrams of pure caffeine I consume everyday. Yikes!

Is this too much coffee? I think so. Health experts generally recommend that we do not pass the 300 milligrams a day mark, so it looks like I might be drinking twice as much caffeine as I should be.

So there you have it: I drink way too much coffee. But this isn't just about me needing to make a change; how about you? How much coffee do you consume on a daily basis? Are you like me; a bit of a coffee fiend? Or are you one of the lucky ones who knows better?