A cup of black decaf coffee has more caffeine in it than a 7-Up™, a Fanta™ or a Sprite™. The average cup of decaf drip coffee has anywhere from 2 to 12 milligrams of caffeine in it, and 7-Up™, Fanta™ and Sprite™ have none. These sodas still pack a punch because of their sugar content, though — the non-diet versions of both 7-Up™ and Sprite™ have about 1.5 ounces (about 40 g) of sugar, and a Fanta™ has almost 2 ounces (about 50 g) of sugar. To put that in perspective, that's almost twice as much sugar as you get from a Hershey's™ bar.
More on caffeine:
- Caffeine takes about 15 minutes to get into your blood stream, and the effects last for as long as four hours.
- The use of caffeine by Olympic athletes was banned until 2003, and caffeine usage was checked by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the same agency that checks for steroid and drug use.
- Caffeine is considered a mind-altering drug, because it affects the nervous system. By that standard, it is by far the most frequent drug addiction in the world.