Guest Post: Coffee’s Place in the Workout Regimen...Yes, Has a Place!

Coffee drinkers in the US are averaging about 2 cups of coffee a day (~200 mg caffeine), with 10% of the population consuming more than 1000 mg of caffeine per day.

Coffee, and caffeine in general, has had a bad reputation in the past...but research shows that it can have many benefits during exercise, such as:  

•  Ability to train at a higher power output (train harder)
•  Increased speed
•  Ability to train for a longer period of time (more endurance)
• Ability to resist muscle fatigue

Common coffee-alternative forms of caffeine ingestion are pre-workout formulas or caffeine pills. Many of the ingredients in the pre-workout supplements are used to increase blood flow, heart rate, and focus, which is intended to help athletes feel energized before going into a workout. Unfortunately, the claims made on the supplement label are often times just a bunch of hype: 

• There are no direct energy sources coming from the B-vitamins packed into a pre-workout formula and the excess that is being consumed is excreted from the body. 
• All of the amino acids, vitamins, and minerals in these supplements can be obtained naturally through the diet and will prove to be an inexpensive way to get the same results. 
• If you are trying to supercharge your workout, the safest and best option is always to choose natural sources first!

Another downside to excessive caffeine intake is that it can cause gastrointestinal issues, nausea, tremors, and over-stimulation that affects sleep cycles, and can cause anxiety. Therefore, some things to carefully consider for optimal performance results are: timing, form, and amount of caffeine consumed.

In addition, for student athletes, it's important to know that caffeine is actually a banned substance by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and consuming it in great amounts (if amounts in urine exceed 15 micrograms/mL) can result in a positive drug test. Many of those pre-workout supplements contain the same amount of caffeine in 4 cups of coffee, so it's important to be aware of how much athletes use. 

Some nutrition supplements do not disclose the amount of caffeine in their product or may contain other illegal/detrimental stimulants that you are not aware of, so make sure to do you research on what you put into your body.

This is the general rule for ALL dietary supplements - there is no government regulation on supplemental facts like there are on a food product's nutritional facts, so it is important to do research on any dietary supplements.

If you choose to drink coffee/caffeine to impact performance, be smart and use these helpful hints:

·         Consume about 1-3 mg of caffeine per pound of body weight

·         Consume caffeine 1 hour before cardiovascular endurance training

·         Caffeine can be consumed up to 20 minutes before high-intensity training

·         Find natural caffeine sources first!

                     Photo by SCAN/CPSDA Registered Dietitians

Thank you!

Ashley Beaner

Dietetics Student at SDSU

Read More

New Book: Reading for Realism: The History of a U.S. literary institution 1850-1910 by Nancy Glazener

Reading for Realism presents a new approach to U.S. literary history that is based on the analysis of dominant reading practices rather than on the production of texts. Nancy Glazener's focus is the realist novel, the most influential literary form of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - a form she contends was only made possible by changes in the expectations of readers about pleasure and literary value. By tracing readers' collaborations in the production of literary forms, Reading for Realism turns nineteenth-century controversies about the realist, romance, and sentimental novels into episodes in the history of readership. It also shows how works of fiction by Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others participated in the debates about literary classification and reading that, in turn, created and shaped their audiences. Combining reception theory with a materialist analysis of the social formations in which realist reading practices circulated, Glazener's study reveals the elitist underpinnings of literary realism. At the book's center is the Atlantic group of magazines, whose influence was part of the cultural machinery of the Northeastern urban bourgeoisie and crucial to the development of literary realism in America. Glazener shows how the promotion of realism by this group of publications also meant a consolidation of privilege - primarily in terms of class, gender, race, and region - for the audience it served. Thus American realism, so often portrayed as a quintessentially populist form, actually served to enforce existing structures of class and power.

You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. 

Read More

New Book:The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective, Second Edition by Antonio Benitez- Rojo Translated by James E. Maraniss

In this second edition of The Repeating Island, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, a master of the historical novel, short story, and critical essay, continues to confront the legacy and myths of colonialism. This co-winner of the 1993 MLA Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize has been expanded to include three entirely new chapters that add a Lacanian perspective and a view of the carnivalesque to an already brilliant interpretive study of Caribbean culture. As he did in the first edition, Benítez-Rojo redefines the Caribbean by drawing on history, economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary theory, and nonlinear mathematics. His point of departure is chaos theory, which holds that order and disorder are not the antithesis of each other in nature but function as mutually generative phenomena. Benítez-Rojo argues that within the apparent disorder of the Caribbean—the area’s discontinuous landmasses, its different colonial histories, ethnic groups, languages, traditions, and politics—there emerges an “island” of paradoxes that repeats itself and gives shape to an unexpected and complex sociocultural archipelago. Benítez-Rojo illustrates this unique form of identity with powerful readings of texts by Las Casas, Guillén, Carpentier, García Márquez, Walcott, Harris, Buitrago, and Rodríguez Juliá.

You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. 

Read More

Young Children (May 2016)

The UNT Dallas Library has received the May 2016 copy of Young Children. The issue features several articles on how to use children's books to help students learn about resiliency, cultural awareness, and mathematics instruction. The issue also includes a review of research literature concerning children's learning and eBooks.

The issue also includes an article on how to evaluate and use books that include characters with disabilities.


Follow the link to view the complete archive of Young Children professional journal. The library provides full text access from 2007 to present!

Read More

New Book: Immigrant Acts by Lisa Lowe

Argues that understanding Asian immigration to the United States is fundamental to understanding the racialised economic and political foundations of the nation. This book examines the historical,political, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of immigration in relation to Asian Americans.


You can find this book and more at the UNT Dallas Library. 

Read More