The binding of adenosine to its receptors slows down the activity of neural activity. Nehlig (1999) notes that adenosine controls the sleeping and waking cycle, when adenosine accumulates in the brain it attaches to basal forebrain cells and inhibits their activity, the interaction of caffeine and adenosine in the brain makes one feel more alert. Based on facts that caffeine and adenosine have almost the same chemical compound structure, when caffeine is ingested appears as adenosine to nerve cells in the brain, this enables caffeine to bind to adenosine receptors as a result of the brain more being able to detect adenosine. The consequences of this is an increase in body activity which makes you feel more …show more content…
Reissig et al., (2009) tries to explain that this could be the reason for the growth on dependence level on caffeine and a rise in the number of withdrawal symptoms being reported. Reports from North America and Europe indicate that 90% of adults in the region consume an average of 227 mg of caffeine daily ((Reissig et al., 2009). The South African Food-Based Dietary Guidelines came up with the recommendation that urges adults to consume only 4 cups of coffee every day to limit the intake of caffeine. Statistics obtained from Europe and North America indicate that major three sources of caffeine are coffee which is 70%, cold drinks have 16%, and tea is 12% which clearly shows that caffeine is a favourite content in the diet as shown in diagram below (Bagwath,