Doesn't "decaf" contained significant amounts caffeine?

I get a fairly serious buzz off decaf myself, as in jitters, staying awake late, and getting sweaty. I used to be baffled by this till I found out that most decafs in fact have some caffeine in them. I'm apparently pretty easily affected by caffeine.

Not "significant", more like trace amounts. According to Wikipedia, 2-4 mg compared to 115-175 mg of caffeine in a regular cup of coffee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee).

Anyways, the results were interesting because they show that people can be poor judges of their mood, in cases where placebos are used, and possibly without them. Just goes to show you how much of our behavior is under unconscious control.

It contains a little bit, in this case they say it contained 11mg, which is about 1/4 of a 12 oz Coke/Pepsi. So not very much.

It confirms Seinfeld?

Compare:

Elaine: No. And you should see him. Man, he gets all hyper, he doesn't even know why! He loves it. He walks around going, "God, I feel great!"

*****

and the volunteer's ratings of their alertness and mood didn't differ between the caffeine and placebo groups.

I know when I've had decaf by mistake. Especially in the morning.

"...about 1/4 of a 12 oz Coke/Pepsi. So not very much."

That would be enough to keep me awake all night, but I seem to hypersensitive to caffeine. Too much will give me a horrible migraine. Same for chocolate. I'm guessing that coffee would make my head explode, but I've never tried it. Wouldn't even think of trying cocaine.

Arosko: It's not exactly the same, but it does show that you can not notice whether you are drinking caffeine or not despite still being affected by it. Albeit in the experiment the effects were on cognitive performance rather than making them say "God, I feel great".

I think given the circumstances I worked the Seinfeld reference in quite smoothly :P

Erowid says Coca-Cola has 34 mg, so the 11 mg "placebo" is definitely in pharmacology territory.

Why do researchers so rarely measure a full dose-response curve? It would have cost nearly nothing to to use a series of doses (0, 11, 22, 44, 88, ...). The shape of the response curve would have told exactly what was going on.

Does coffee contain another ingredient besides caffeine that can alter mood?

Tea is a much mellower boost for me than coffee is, even when I've had more grams of caffeine via the tea. I save up coffee (and even decaf) for days when I want to be a super-dynamo, then pay the price in twitchiness, sweatiness, and headaches. It's an aggressive and harsh sensation. Tea -- never. Someone told me it's because of the theobromine in tea, which tends to relax the chest and lower the blood pressure.

You mean they secretly replaced the fine coffee they usually serve with Folgers Crystals? And no one could tell the difference? I think this study was done in the 1970s.

note: moved comment by "Observer" into open thread.

http://bit.ly/3K3Np7