Features

Caffiene is considered to be a psycho stimulant.

It blocks adenosine — a chemical that helps people fall asleep — from adhering to its receptors in the brain.

Adenosine helps open up blood vessels. Blocking it constricts the brain’s blood vessels, which injects adrenaline into the system. This results in a ‘coffee boost’.

It increases the release of dopamine in the centre of the brain.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that activates pleasure centres in certain parts of the brain.

Caffeine has been the universal stimulant for hundreds of years — sometimes out of enjoyment, and sometimes out of necessity.

Europeans have been enjoying coffee since the 16th century, and people in the Middle East long before that, but the true “coffee culture” took a while to reach North America, according to Shannon Ripley of Equator Coffee, a company seeking to expand the use of fairly traded coffee in Canada.  

While some students have the need to speed up to get themselves through the day, others are exploring the option of slowing down.

A McDonald’s run at 3 a.m. can be tempting, says Sofia Timkovski, a law student at Carleton. Yet in order to stay healthy, she says she knows how to make the right decisions.

“Nutrition, to me, means making a conscious choice of eating right and staying healthy almost every waking moment,” Timkovski says.

Exercise and diet must work in unison, says Natalie Brown, a dietitian specializing in active living and competitive sports.

“If you’re serious about hitting the gym, you should be just as serious about your nutrition intake. Mutant Mass is in a class all by itself,” reads the product label.

1,060 calories, 16 grams of fat, 176 grams of carbohydrates and 52 grams of protein. This is what can be found in the recommended four scoops of the Mutant Mass branded protein formula.

Lesley Bowlby, a fitness coordinator and trainer at Carleton, has seen this kind of directed marketing for supplements before.